GOLD STREAK

There’s something about gold. The Byzantines knew it. Klimt knew it. And today, somewhere, a well-traveled and perhaps slightly eccentric woman adorns herself with a gilded chakra beauty mark on her forehead, gold streaks in her hair, and everything that these illuminating, mystical metallic touches suggest.

She touches down in Northern Italy, where she visits the Basilica of San Vitale to draw inspiration from the heavenly opulence of the 6^th century church’s gold leaf-plated, blue glass-tiled mosaics, adding a touch of liquid gold to the line of her eyes and a warm sun-streaked bronze shadow to her lids. Deep brown mascara tones down an otherwise regal, almost divine look. Nico in Givenchy, haunting and static, meets a free-spirited M.I.A. in a shining custom made Versace chador. Eyes everywhere.

Further east, in the Grand Bijouterie in Marrakesh, our wandering heroine pairs gold Fatima earrings with fragrant amber oils for a dance in the medina after dark. Gold beauty for a luminous woman. She’ll slip into Yves Saint Laurent for a midnight walk through the palm covered, bamboo-filled Majorelle Gardens, an ode to Betty Cartoux.

She’s glowing, easily glamorous and comfortable with being less than subtle in her decadent self-presentation. A shimmering vision of old Hollywood, ‘70s French bohemia, and the ancient near east.

October 2012