FASHION Magazine

Lise Watier has some exciting news to share. Not only does the Montreal-based cosmetics company have a delicious new scent on the market, they’ve gone against the model-as-spokesperson trend and chosen a young Canadian woman as its ambassador. A nationwide contest was launched to find the new ambassador for the scent, appropriately titled Something Sweet. After rounds of online voting and in-person judging, the position was claimed by Jessica Kruger of Coquitlam, B.C. She dazzles in the Something Sweet ad campaign, which is set to launch this fall in magazines, Shoppers Drug Mart stores and online.

“I’m a big fan of playing with makeup, I love to be a girlie girl” Kruger says, describing the campaign as a “good fit.” A fourth-year student at Simon Fraser University, Kruger plays rugby and volunteers for various charitable causes. Oh, and did we mention she is the very first person with quadriplegia to act as a beauty ambassador for a cosmetic brand?

We caught up with Jessica Kruger, who we’ll certainly be seeing a lot of soon, to talk about how she landed this pretty sweet gig and what it’s like becoming the face of a national campaign:

Nicki Minaj and photographer David LaChapelle are working together once again. The duo—who first caught our eye with a colourful collaboration for M.A.C Viva Glam—are now at work on Minaj’s newest fragrance campaign. While few details about the upcoming scent are available, Minaj’s sneak peek via Instagram has our imaginations running.

In one photo, Minaj is in her trailer, dressed in an oversized pink ball gown (which looks like a Barbie version of Carrie Bradshaw’s wedding dress) and decked out in lots of diamond jewellery. The only thing that’s as over-the-top as her wardrobe is her facial expression—is she bored, tired or just being dramatic?

From the floral headdress Katy Perry wore to The Great Gatsby NYC premiere to the embellished crown she paired with her Dolce and Gabbana frock at this year’s Met Gala, the Queen of pop clearly has a penchant for regal accessories. Perched atop a golden throne, Perry flaunted her latest royalty-approved ensemble, a Thom Browne ball gown and crown-clad nails, at the recent launch of her newest fragrance Killer Queen.

Due out in August, Killer Queen marks Perry’s third venture into the world of fragrances, and one that seems to be a complete departure from her cutesy aesthetic.

Having already launched three perfumes (Reb’l Fleur, Rebelle and Nude) over the past few years, Rihanna is no stranger to the world of fragrance.

In the campaign for her latest scent, Rogue, the Barbadian popstar stuns with her natural beauty once again, in little more than a simple black nightie and a signature seductive glance as photographed by Italian photographer Mario Sorrenti.

Known for her cool characters and demure smiles on the red carpet, Rooney Mara can now add fragrance film star to her resume. The highly anticipated Downtown Calvin Klein campaign video came out today and Mara’s performance justifies a repeat viewing.

Directed by David Fincher, the cinematic clip follows the Academy Award nominated actress’s hectic lifestyle in New York City. From shooting scenes on a movie set to appearing at press conferences, the short film captures a side of Mara we rarely see. In that, she’s actually smiling. A lot.

Luxury fashion and fragrance have long gone hand in hand—after all, perfume bottles do make for the ultimate collectible item! And speaking of bottles that are sure to stand out, WWD announced this morning that Alexander McQueen will be launching a men and women’s fragrance line. The deal was made by P&G’s Prestige division, who also just announced a fragrance deal with Stella McCartney.

With Justin Bieber’s Girlfriend perfume being such a hit amongst the young set, it comes as no surprise when super cute British-Irish boy band, One Direction decided to debut their first women’s fragrance. First hearing about the news back in November, One Moment, named after their song “Moments” from their first album, Up All Night officially launched today at one of London’s most famous buildings, The Gherkin.

In collaboration with the fragrance company Firmenich, the perfume is said to have top notes of pink grapefruit, wild berries and red currants. It also boasts floral notes of jasmine, freesia and frangipani with a base that consists of a creamy musk, sheer woods and white patchouli. According to Harry Styles’s tweet, “The 1D fragrance…smells like a summers day.”

See the our classic summer fragrance picks »

Booster Juice
Perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux didn’t know much about the mystery fragrance he was concocting in the mid-’90s. Told only that the outer packaging would be orange and that he should “think happy,” he relied on his muse to help him fill in the rest: “My sister, Marielle, the happiest person in my life.” Flores-Roux gravitated toward citrus and tropical blooms and kept the feeling of “walking barefoot in the garden” in mind. The red grapefruit, orchid and Hawaiian wedding flower-infused scent became 1997’s Clinique Happy ($59, thebay.com). It was an instant hit and still is, especially with his muse: Marielle wore it on her wedding day.

Rooney Mara has once again teamed up with David Fincher, but this time it’s for a campaign for Calvin Klein’s newest women’s fragrance, Downtown Calvin Klein. Described as a perfume for “women that live by their own rules,” Mara’s no-nonsense persona and demure, moody looks make her a natural choice for the face of the brand.

The perfume—which is described as a balance of feminine woodsy scents with soft floral notes—hits counters in July, just as the Fincher-directed campaign will debut on television screens across the country. Mara and Fincher have worked together on both The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network and the short film for Downtown Calvin Klein will have a similar cinematic appeal. The black and white campaign (which is set to Yeah Yeah Yeahs song “Runaway”) shows Mara traversing through New York City and “living in her own world, breaking away from the ‘expected.’”

At the launch of the Just Cavalli fragrance in New York, FASHION Magazine’s beauty editor, Sarah Daniel, sat down with the face of the campaign, Georgia May Jagger. Jagger discussed the influence her mother, Jerry Hall, has had on everything from modelling to fragrance choices and revealed that, just like the rest of us, she’s obsessed with Karlie Kloss. Watch the video above to go behind the scenes of the shoot for Just Cavalli and read on for the full interview.

I just saw the TV ad campaign for the fragrance. It looks like it was a fun shoot.
“It’s very saucy.”

Your mom, Jerry Hall, has been the face of several advertising campaigns; did she give you any advice?
“She always says try to have fun, be yourself. All that kind of stuff.”

Mom stuff.
“Yeah, mom stuff. Then she’s always telling me I need to take a break, and stuff like that.”

Your mom was on the U.K. version of Dancing with the Stars, right?
“She showed me [her dance] the other day in the kitchen, and I was really impressed. I have actually never seen her dance before; she’s not a big dancer so it was very impressive to see that. Her body looks amazing, she has been working out, she’s lost a lot of weight.”

Every year, Escada launches a new spring/summer fragrance inspired by a different fruity or floral element. This year, the fashion house has taken their annual scent in a new, more succulent direction with Cherry in the Air (from $25, sephora.com).

To induct the new edition into Escada’s fragrance range, the brand kicked off the launch of Cherry in the Air last week in Washington, D.C. Why Washington, you might ask? Well as it turns out, the capitol city and the perfume have quite a bit in common. In 1912, the mayor of Tokyo gifted more than 3,000 cherry trees to the United States capitol city, a symbolic gesture to mark the growing relationship between the two countries. When the cherry blossoms bloom in Washington it signifies the beginning of spring—and the arrival of the blossoms has become such an iconic event in the city that they host an annual Cherry Blossom Festival to celebrate.

Following in the footsteps of Issey Miyake, Jean Paul Gaultier, Narciso Rodriguez and Elie Saab, Azzedine Alaïa has signed a fragrance and cosmetics license with Beauté Prestige International, reports WWD.

Alaïa has been designing fashion for more than 50 years, but this is his first foray into cosmetics and fragrance. “Beauté Prestige International corresponds perfectly to the spirit of the Alaïa house,” said Alaïa. “I am delighted to work with them in launching this new project. I have total confidence in Beauté Prestige International to accompany me in creating a perfume that interprets my work and my world.”

Alaïa is notorious for his continued success while remaining outside the mainstream fashion fray, opting to present collections on his own schedule and within the privacy of his own studio space. However, we suspect that BPI won’t let the launch of Alaïa’s forthcoming fragrance be an off-the-grid affair.