genlux announces the genlux/britweek designer of the year

I'm thrilled to announce that this year we are honoring the brilliant British designer Julien MacDonald as our Genlux/Britweek Designer of the Year at our awards and Fashion Show. The date is May 5, 2016. For those who may not know, Julien was hired by Karl Lagerfeld to head up Chanel knitwear right out of college. He was then asked by Karl to head up his Lagerfeld collection. Not a bad start. But it gets better. He then went on to head up Givenchy as the successor to Alexander McQueen where Julien was in charge of both the haute couture and ready-to-wear divisions. Julien will be coming out from London where he just showed his FW16 collection to accept his award. Our past recipients have been Matthew Williamson, Todd Lynn, and Rupert Sanderson. More to come, so stay tuned!

Brilliant Brit Designer Julien MacDonald - Our Genlux BritWeek Designer of the Year

congrats hailey clauson! sports illustrated cover girl!

I'm so proud of Hailey Clauson and her meteoric rise in the modeling world. In 2008, her dad Larry Clauson brought Hailey to Genlux to see if we'd be interested in photographing her. As soon as she stepped in the door I knew she'd be a star. I immediately called Meg Day, who, at the time was over at Ford Models, and told her she had to see this girl. Meg signed her on the spot. On January 28, 2009, we photographed Hailey for Genlux, though, for whatever reason, the shots didn't turn out well, and we didn't run them. Even so, we've all remained friends through these years, so it's great to see Hailey leaping way past Genlux to make it on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week! She's also been in ads for Gucci and Dsquared2, Plein Sud, Topshop, and Mavi Jeans. Such a sweet girl who deserves all of the success. 

14-year-old Hailey Clauson at Genlux shoot on January 28, 2009. 

Hailey Clauson in hair and makeup for Genlux shoot

Hailey Clauson's first modeling book. 

Hailey Clauson at Genlux shoot on January 28, 2009

that hitchcock girl

I had the chance to interview Tippi Hedren today.

Hers is a tremendous story of three lives. Her first was as an actress whose debut role was starring in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Not a bad start—though it came with it's challenges. In an interview where she opened up about Hitchcock's obsessive controlling relationship with her, Tippi claimed Hitchcock not only ruined her career (he wouldn't let her out of her studio contract thus refusing to let her work on other films), but that he was "evil." 

Tippi Hedren with the Vietnamese women she taught to "fish"

Her second life came in 1975. After the war, Vietnamese were coming to the United States as refugees and she was the international relief coordinator for a charity called Food for the Hungry. In one of the refugee camps, she came in contact with Vietnamese women who loved her long beautiful nails. Like the Chinese proverb about teaching a man to fish, she is responsible for putting Vietnamese women on their career path as manicurists—a path that has led to an astounding 80 percent of California's current mani/pedi artists pool that are Vietnamese Americans. Recently, Bellacures nail salon in Brentwood and OPI products honored Tippi for her humanitarian efforts. They screened, "Happy Hands," a documentary directed by Honey Lauren that tells the story of why you see so many Vietnamese women in the nail art biz. 

OPI executive VP Suzi Weiss-Fischmann along with Bellacures founder Samira Far, Bellacures Brentwood owner Gerard Quiroga, and event producer Michael Habicht, presented Hedren with the Believe, Achieve, Empower Award for her selfless work

Tippi's third life is centered on her Roar Foundation that she founded in 1983 to support Shambala, the animal preserve outside of LA that cares for large wildlife like elephants, tigers, lions, cougars and more.  She lives on the preserve and hosts "safaris" for guests to help fund the foundation. shambala.org

My final question to Tippi today was, 'What animal would you like to come back as?' "A Liger!" she answered. A cross between a tiger and a lion, and yes, she once had a liger at Shambala named Patrick. 

Capturing the Moment

Some of the best photos are those taken when the model or actress is unaware that she's being photographed. They capture that "relaxed" state of mind—when the subject isn't "on." So why, I thought, don't we try to shoot the entire story that way. The challenge was, how do we make that happen. So I had an idea. I asked Darren Stone, our videographer, to shoot a fashion video of the models. He would direct them as he would any video while Robert Steinken (our hairstylist and very talented photographer) would be shooting stills—without the models knowing. My thought was that they would be relaxed most of the time and we'd be able to capture some cool images. It worked...well, sort of, Let me explain.

Our Jane Birkin and Francoise Hardy inspired shoot.

All of our glam team members were aware of our photoshoot behind the shoot. We had Cecilia Moreno on makeup. Robert was doing hair and then pulling out his camera to capture images. He was assisted by Jennifer Baker. The shoot was brilliantly styled by Hazel Pepper. Allison Burns was our manicurist for the day. 

A great 'moment' photo from our Genlux shoot by Robert Steinken

But as the day progressed, Robert started to forget that he was "behind" the scenes and started to emerge as the photographer. The cover was blown but the shots still worked. I added some effects to the shots to bring that "film" quality we all love so much. Things like "grain" and double exposure and film edges. 

One of my favorites from this shoot.