People

Bare Escentuals Founder Leslie Blodgett

Leslie Blodgett, left, the chief executive of Bare Escentuals. Right, Estée Lauder in 1961.Peter DaSilva for The New York Times; Getty ImagesFor openers, the NYTimes writes:

Not since Estée Lauder dabbed Youth-Dew behind the ears of thousands has a lone woman so influenced the beauty industry.

We didn’t know that Shiseido bought Bare Escentuals for $1.7 billion last year, making it one of the biggest cosmetic industry takeovers in history. A key term of the deal was that the founder continue, not only as chairman, but as ‘face’ of the brand.

Meet Leslie Blodgett, whose mother warned her often that she would never amount to anything if she didn’t get serious about her future.

Design

Serious Business in Hot Weather

Short Suits for the Office and Beyond WSJ.com

Left to right, summer suits from Akris, Bottega Veneta, Jason Wu, Wes Gordon, Erin Fetherson

Sassy, crisply tailored Smart Sensuality suits proliferated the Spring Summer 2011 runways.

‘I particularly love putting super dressy details on shorts to allow them to be worn in the evening,’ said Jason Wu earlier this week. The designer will offer a cropped tuxedo look, including a bow tie, in his upcoming resort collection. Black tie affairs may take on an entirely new look.

Bottega Veneta designer Tomas Maier says that ’20s tennis player Suzanne Lenglen was the inspiration for his collection.

Nicknamed “the goddess of tennis,” the six-time Wimbledon champ sipped brandy between sets and challenged constricting tournament dress codes with shorter clothing that allowed her to move more freely on the court. “I like how the larger shorts have the feeling of a short full skirt but with a sporty, contemporary feel,” said Mr. Maier. “The use of woven piqués in various degrees of openness create a breezy summer feel.”

Images of Suzanne Lenglen:

Suzanne Lenglen was an early Smart Sensuality woman. To be clear, we don’t know about the ‘heart’ part but she combined sensuality and smarts, in a tennis career that peaked along with the women’s suffrage movement.

Lenglen turned women’s tennis from a game to a sport, and she did it in with great style. And sipping brandy between sits was positively scandalous!

Tongue in Chic blog writes that the tennis star provoked ‘perverse outrage’ by rolling her shiny white stockings to the knee.

TCB shares designs from the SS2010 Hermes resort collection, also inspired by Lenglen.

Bloom Magazine & Gallery

Anne remembers buying the first issue of Li Edelkoort’s Bloom magazine, a total Smart Sensuality feast for the senses, a vision born from an intellectual exploration of important, evolving ideas.

Few magazines are more beautiful and treasured than Bloom. The visuals from Bloom have been online now for sometime. Explore them at your leisure but not too quickly. Let the beauty and meaning behind the messages sink into your digital world consciousness.

One must settle in and be open to receive when reading Bloom.