Blog Kimora: The Face of KLS Cosmetics

She's Like a Rainbow

It is right before the Luca Luca fall fashion show at Bryant Park; the bright lights and TV cameras are swooping in as a diva makes her entrance in a sweeping fur coat, high high heels, a Luca Luca pale tweed jacket and lots of chains. Dangling from one chain is a square-cut mega gem. The celebrity brings it closer to the camera. "It looks real, doesn't it?" she says. "It's got lip gloss inside. I invented it." She has the height of a model, but her powerful shoulders and thighs come from a world apart from fashion. She's Serena Williams, the tennis phenomenon, taking a little time off the court to — shop for clothes? Not quite.

The diminutive figure beside her, who is nearly trampled by the camera crews straining to get to their quarry, is Jane Lauder, granddaughter of Estée, founder of the cosmetics empire. Williams is one of the first celebrities invited to collaborate on a line of cosmetics for Flirt!, a new Estée Lauder brand, and Lauder is vice president in charge of marketing. Ostensibly, the tennis star and the beauty heiress are taking in a few shows to gather inspiration for the fall makeup line.

In reality, Williams is also making the TV talk-show circuit — Martha Stewart, "Showbiz Tonight" and so on — letting her fans know that Exotic Jewels, her first collection for Flirt!, is making its debut in Kohl's department stores. (Her second collection, Gold Star Glamour, appears in August.) The $12 lip-gloss gem will be getting plenty of play.

Williams lets you know that she is more than just a pretty face for the in-store poster. Besides coming up with the gem, she thought up the names for the shades while she was on the pro tour. She tried out the products on herself and her friends. The vibrant colors are especially good for women with darker complexions, she says. Lauder chimes in that she wears them, too. Apparently they are good for everyone.

The 24-year-old Williams is carrying off her part on the promotional tour with the same grace with which she approaches her game. The only remarkable aspect of the scene is how completely normal this doubles team seems. When Estée Lauder first started her company in 1946, you never would have seen a face whose complexion wasn't lily white promoting makeup to the mainstream. And if you were a woman of color, you pretty much had to fend for yourself at the beauty counter. From the cosmetics perspective, a lot has changed in a relatively short time.

In 1900, one in eight Americans was of a race other than Caucasian; in 2000, that ratio is one in four, with significant growth in the Hispanic and Asian populations. The industry is responding with lighter, reflective makeup that is more wearable for everyone — and beauty icons who embody the new mix.

And who better than Kimora Lee Simmons, a flamboyant ex-model with the proud carriage of a Masai warrior and the flirtatious charm of a geisha? The week after fashion week, at Boudoir, a nightclub in Chelsea, Simmons, wife of Russell Simmons, a founder of Def Jam Records and Phat Fashions, is holding court. Although it is just past noon, lined up on the bar are flutes with just a drop of framboise in each, waiting for the Champagne. Glass tubs of orchids, tulips, lilies and lilacs dress up the barroom, as do pink satin pillows scattered on the banquettes and embroidered with the initials K.L.S. A copy of Simmons's new book, "Fabulosity," is on the bar along with the latest issue of Vibe Vixen, with Herself on the cover. She has her own fashion line,

Baby Phat, and now — ta-dah! — KLS, her cosmetics company, making its debut at Sephora. Broad of shoulder, narrow of hip, she is wearing a Cavalli silk shirt in shades of honey and brown and honey silk shantung pants from Baby Phat. And lots of diamonds: small ones on chains around her neck, and dripping in loops from her ears, big ones flashing from her fingers.

The idea for KLS Cosmetics, she says, grew out of the introduction in August of her fragrance, Baby Phat Goddess, at Sephora. "We were so strong with our numbers," she begins — revealing the calculating mind beneath the glam exterior — that both parties seized on the concept of a makeup line. What followed was lots of lip glosses, bold shadows plus a Chocolate Shimmer Powder with its own little brush in a satin pouch, for keeping the glow going all night. The powder even smells a little chocolatey. "Should you be licked, it's O.K.," she says but cautions that although her makeup has "hints and infusions of flavors," it is not to be taken internally. Noting that the new see-through textures have expanded the palette for everyone, she boasts of "sheer, fun colors" that will "let your own beauty shine through," in a spectrum of shades. "We're a multicultured society. That is what I embrace."

She says she remembers when finding makeup for darker skin was a challenge, and also when she discovered the Prescriptives counter, a place where "you could mix your own stuff." Now she has mixed up a whole makeup line. "I did this all myself," she says. "Created by me, for myself and for my girls."

The New York Times - July 2, 2006

Comments

KLS cosmetics are one of my favorite.I love to use it when I am going to a party or some official dinner.They're perfect for such ocassions.

Posted by: Cara Fletcher | August 06, 2007 at 12:05 PM

why is it when i see this shallow, greedy piece of crap that I think of the "me love u long time" hooker? She isnt even human...she is a cold hearted robot who is motivated by one thing and one thing only...cash....give her ten bucks for a @#$%job?

Posted by: Steve | August 23, 2007 at 11:07 PM