NYLON - March 2008 - (Page 138) GALAXY QUEST armani spa How far does a girl have to go to check herself into the very first Armani Spa? The answer is, as far as Tokyo––the fifth floor of the brand new Armani Ginza Tower, to be exact. Located in the heart of Ginza (the city’s equivalent of Fifth Avenue), the space offers a complete escape from reality––picture a place that looks like 2001: A Space Odyssey but with traditional Zen elements, all cast in soothing colors of beige and gold. Open the spa’s menu, and you’ll be faced with a number of options involving obsidian, a dark volcanic stone known for its regenerative powers. The lava stone, imported from various Italian islands, is crushed, cut, reduced to powder, or transformed for your personal Armani Ceremony. It begins with a welcoming green tea (you’re in Japan, after all) to get you into the mood. Next, your feet are soaked in hot liquefied obsidian, while your therapist and shiatsu master analyze your body to see what’s wrong with you and where she should focus your massage (to relieve, you know, all the stress from vacationing in Tokyo). Then you’re en route to the treatment room for some serious business: three hours of exfoliation, rehydration, and massages to release all the tension in your body. As you emerge glowy and relaxed, the prospect of facing the sardine-like city streets seems a little less daunting. ANAÏS LOMBARD Armani Spa, Ginza Tower 5F, 5-5-4 Ginza Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan, armaniginzatower.com. space invader: THIERRY MUGLER HAS NEVER BEEN INTERESTED IN CREATING BASICS. NOW HE BRINGS HIS OUTLANDISH SPIRIT TO THE WORLD OF MAKEUP— BARBARELLA, EAT YOUR HEART OUT! I have received many invitations in my life—to weddings, birthday parties, product launch events, costume balls. But few have felt as glamorous as the silver-mirrored invite to the presentation of Thierry Mugler’s first makeup collection in Paris! And not just anywhere in the city of lights, but at the famously glamorous nightclub Bobin’O (formerly Bobino) in Montparnasse. Opened in 1800, Bobino became the city’s most popular nightspot in the ’20s and ’30s, with everyone from Josephine Baker to Kiki de Montparnasse to Edith Piaf taking the stage—Baker actually performed her very last show there in 1975. It seemed the perfect location for the launch of the first makeup line from a man who has proved himself to be just as much of an innovator as those legendary women. Mugler has been designing since he moved to Paris from Strasbourg in the early ’70s, but the ’80s were when he experienced a major breakthrough. His angular silhouettes were the ideal uniform for the excess-driven decade. Mugler cinched waists to diminutive proportions, built shoulder pads that made the NFL’s look puny, and utilized materials like PVC that were far from wash-and-dry. While his fashion brand may have fizzled in the ’90s, his influence is still very much felt today—last year both Balenciaga’s and Dolce & Gabbana’s shows felt like homages to his space-age stylings. Mugler first brought his outrageous sensibility to the world of beauty via fragrance—he has since produced 17 scents, and Angel is one of the most famous gourmand perfumes of all time, consistently landing in the world top 10. So, given his impressive track record, it was exciting to think about what Mugler could do with makeup. The entire new collection is based on the idea of metamorphosis— much like with his fashion designs, Mugler is not interested in natural beauty, for him it is all about the power of transformation. And the materials he is using happen to be just as high-tech as the fabrics he once favored. The blue-tinted radiant makeup base and cooling effect concealer help to sculpt and illuminate the face, while the futuristic vinyl gloss for lashes and Plexi Gloss lip lacquer emphasize and exaggerate certain features. This is not makeup for wallflowers. And whether you happen to be, ahem, perched atop a banquette in a dazzling Parisian nightclub or simply crowded into a corner of your local sticky-floored pub, it will get you noticed. As much as if you were wearing, say, PVC… FIORELLA VALDESOLO PLEXI GLOSS LIP LACKER, $40, BLUSH & LIGHT FACE SCULPT, $65, VINYL GLOSS FOR LASHES, $49, HYPER TENSION TIGHTENING FACE CREAM, $90, ALL AVAILABLE AT BLOOMINGDALE’S. still lifes: jonathon kambouris. armani spa courtesy of armani. thierry mugler runway image courtesy of getty images. http://www.armaniginzatower.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.