🖤GRACE JONES 🖤 BEAUTY iCON. MODEL. SiNGER. ACTRESS...born May 19, 1948...
GRACE JONES may be one of the most fabulous & controversial female personalities that the 70’s & 80’s had ever seen. After coming to NY in the 60’s from her homeland of Jamaica, she embraced the decadence of the NY nightclub scene & #Studio54 where she was discovered by fashion illustrator #AntonioLopez. By 18 she was signed by #WilhelminaModels which brought her to Paris . There she shared an apartment with fellow models, #JerryHall & #JessicaLange & frequented the hippest nightspots. Her androgynous looks, lithe figure & bon viveur attitude propelled her into the fashion elite crowd & booked her jobs with designers such as #YvesSaintLaurent #Kenzo & photographers like #HelmetNewton, #GuyBourdin & #HansFeurer.
Grace solidified her reputation as an extremist when she attended a dinner party for a French politician wearing only a necklace made from strung bones...
After a few years in Paris she moved back to NY & by 77’ she became the #DiscoQueen she was born to be & signed a record contact with Island Records, launching her career into the world of music, singing, songwriting & performance ART.
During this time Graces fearlessness for bold and colorful looks set her aside from everyone else, often doing her own makeup, painting her face with bright colors and sculpting her incredible cheekbones with blush that should have made her famous alone, paired with shaved brows it gave her a look of a brilliant, exotic, alien-like being.
FUN FACT...
Graces signature Flat Top can be credited to renowned hair stylist #Christiaan; in the middle of the night Grace yelled out her window to her then neighbor that she needed a haircut, he inviting her over & due to the absence of clippers in his kit, he ended up cutting the whole thing by hand before finishing the lines with a Gillette Razor.
In 1978’ #JeanPaulGoude; creative director at #EsquireMagazine met Grace after one of her performances, it was this creative & intimate relationship that helped transition her from Disco Queen to New Wave Diva. Goude had found his muse; he recalls their relationship as an obsession, consulting on her image, live performances, directing her music videos & shooting her album covers & numerous editorials. The images were often provocative, pushing the boundaries of sexuality, race & gender. Using retouching before digital manipulation his images of Grace were always enhanced & exaggerated...only Graces persona could live up to the ART they created together.
Graces image was an important part of the #NYArtWorldthroughout the 70/80’s #AndyWarhol& #RichardBernsteinoften collaborated & used Grace as their Muse *inBernstein’s work he often painted Graces Skin & #Makeup in bold & vibrant swatches on top of a barefaced image of her.
Leading into the 80/90’s Grace the actress appeared in films such as "Conan The Destroyer", "A View To KiLL" & "Vamp"....in this 1986 film Grace paired up with Artist & Activist #KeithHaring for the very famous scene when Graces character #Katrina; a Vampire Stripper is performing on stage. He painted her entire body with his signature tribal looking white paint, Makeup Legend #JoanneGair created her Kabuki inspired face; painted stark white, her cheeks sculpted & her feline features brought out with a bold winged liner, her lips an exaggerated glossed RED complimented by a beauty mark and a shocking RED Widows Peaked Bobbed Wig.
The 92’ film #Boomerang, Grace played a parody of herself #Strangé, a character written specifically for her. Every scene her Look changes, all of them fierce and fabulous, just like Grace.
Graces vast career and legacy continues well into her 70’s, she most recently strutted the catwalk in 2019 for #TommyHilfiger colab with #Zendaya 70’s inspired collection. Still the clear source of inspiration for numerous PopStars of the decade including #LadyGaga, #Rihanna & #MileyCyrus to name a few; Grace Jones is undeniably one of the most unique & inspiring Beauty iCONs Pop Culture has ever seen.
Critic Barry Walters said it best when describing this iconic woman...“her image celebrated blackness & subverted gender norms; she presented something we had never seen before in pop performance; GraceJones is a question mark followed by an exclamation point.”
