February 12-18, 2004

mixpicks

Dianne Brill

by A.D. Amorosi

Life after '80s clubdom has flourished for Dianne Brill, who turned her towering bouffant, ample figure and long legs (accented by designer corsets and sexy fishnets) into sarcastic symbols of high style throughout hedonism's hardiest decade. Along with becoming Parisian designer Gaultier's muse upon arrival in Manhattan (way before Madonna), Brill was the toast of the club life, gorgeously pictured in Patrick McMullan's recent So 80s showing off a lip-lined face, shapely frame and an attitude that would forever define (ahem, Paris Hilton) what a disco doyenne should be. Beyond thrills and frills, Brill, too, proudly redefined the big body as a beautiful totem amongst the waifs: "The Hollywood-inspired uniform look -- the Starbucks of beauty -- is part of a cycle," says Brill. "It has passed. We are more diverse and better than that." Brill's been a runway model, an author (Boobs, Boys, and High Heels: Or How to Get Dressed in Just Under Six Hours) and now, a makeup maven with her Lip Lingerie, a line of sassy glosses, sticks and shine as snazzily packaged as they are scintillating to the touch. So we get glosses wrapped like bonbons and Red Seam lip liquid sticks filling out their Bullet Bra casings. Sure, they're naughty. But they're filled with antioxidant-rich formulations of grapeseed oil, "fluffy milk agents," chamomile and real sterling silver shimmeries. As Brill, who'll be in town this week demonstrating her wares, puts it, "Lip Lingerie is a negligee of color for your lips. It's all about what women love and how they feel when they slip on the guise required to play a seductress."

Dianne Brill, Sat., Feb. 14, noon-5 p.m., A Beautiful Life, 9 West Bridge St., New Hope, 866-862-8838.

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