Beauty and Accessories
You are cordially invited to … NY: Cartier, 2017.
So confident in their brand name, there is minimal text on this heavy promotional pop-up invitation to their haute joaillerie [fine jewelry] exhibit. Although not a Cartier customer, I received this invitation in the mail and suspected something movable by its weight. Perhaps the invitees were selected by zip codes.
Stéphane Foenkinos. Hermès Pop-up. Paris: Sud/Hermès, 2018.
Each of twelve Hermès scarves have their designs made dimensional with several different page-activated mechanicals, including pop-ups, a volvelle, transformation, and diorama. Translated from the French, the book is an homage to its famous scarves and is paper engineered by Bernard Duisit.
Parfumerie théatrale Poudre grasse: blanche [Theatrical make-up, Grease Paint: white]. Berlin, Germany: L. Leichner, [ca. 1890].
The L. Leichner company, started by a former opera singer, produced, and sold theatrical makeup, including this grease paint for performers. The chromolithographed advertisement, resembling a compact, opens to the pop-up likeness of Adelina Patti (1843–1919), a renowned Italian opera singer. Using celebrities in advertisements might assure the advertiser that the ad will be kept and maybe treasured.
The Old Way, The Sunlight Way. UK: Lever Brothers, [ca. 1890].
The Old Way shows a sweating bent-over woman scrubbing clothes by candlelight in the evening. Pull the tab and she’s sitting reading a book at 11 AM with the wash already on the clothesline—The Sunlight Way. The pull-tab lists the tasks a woman no longer must do: “No Boiling, Toiling, Rubbing, Scrubbing.” The effective dimensional graphics clearly communicate the message, “Sunlight Soap…did away with the toil which shattered the life of the housewife.”
Le Pétrole Hahn au Cinéma [Hahn Oil in the Movies]. France: Le Pétrole Hahn, [ca. 1920s].
One of the more ambitious DIY advertisements that asks the consumer to create a cinematic viewer by cutting out the parts and affixing the wheel precisely so that it turns in the window. The instructions suggest using a matchstick as the fulcrum. The volvelle itself shows a woman’s face go from sad to happy after applying Hahn Oil. Product testimonials are on the reverse.
S.28 Véritable lait de beauté [Real beauty milk]. Paris, [ca. 1920s].
Attached to one side of the box for the French soap S.28 is a pop-up illustration of children bathing. An unusual survival, given the product’s handling and use. Here the manufacturer has chosen unique packaging to entice the consumer to buy the product.
Symbol of Beauty: The Power of Beauty—The Art of Make-up. NY: DuBarry, [ca. 1930].
The fan is a perfectly fitting device to promote beauty products. In this case, the double-sided eight-panel fan has each blade showing the correct makeup to use for each woman’s hair color. Using these suggestions, women may aspire to the spectacular beauty of Lady DuBarry (1743–1793) but hopefully won’t be guillotined as she was. This is another example of using a celebrity for aspirational purposes.
Urban Decay: Disney Alice in Wonderland. Newport Beach, CA: Urban Decay Cosmetics, 2010.
This is over-the-top packaging with a media tie-in to Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland movie. The multi-layer box, with a ribbon-pulled drawer, houses all the make-up one could possibly use. The mirror in the lid creates a vanity table effect. The movie will be remembered with each use of the make-up, a goal of advertising.
Lancôme Show by Albert Elbaz. Paris: Lancôme, 2013.
This elaborate pop-up book, paper engineered by Kyle Olmon, serves as a press release incorporating several different mechanicals that highlight the collaboration between cosmetics company Lancôme and Lanvin designer Albert Elbaz. There is a DVD on the endpaper. The pop-up centerfold was also included as an insert in Vogue magazine’s July 2013 Fall Fashion issue.