ALBINO CHIC
Shaved and bleached eyebrows rule over the fashion world
by Maria Raposo
The no-eyebrow trend is not new. Just look at the Mona Lisa, who sports the popular Renaissance fashion statement of shaving eyebrows clean off. Millions of words have been written about Leonardo da Vinci’s best-known work, but is it her smirk or her gaze or rather her asexual lack of eyebrows that really captures our attention?
Attention seeking celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga, want us to believe that this look, “Albino Chic”, is something original. But generations earlier, Jane Forth, the Warhol actress and Factory receptionist, was the chic no-browed poster girl of the 70’s. Supermodel Kristen McMenamy’s career took off after she shaved her eyebrows for a 1992 Vogue "grunge" shoot, making this a worldwide trend.
Whether they are bleached or shaved, eyebrow-less images of Queen Elizabeth I and David Bowie keep cropping up across the fashion world, leaving beauty devotees excited and bewildered. Maybe it’s our need be mysterious, to remove a degree of expression, that keeps this look from not fading away.
Leonardo Da Vinci, ‘Mona Lisa’, 1503-1506
Miley Cyrus with Lily Allen in LA, 2014
Cathee Dahmen, New York, 1967
Make-up artist Pierre La Roche prepares David Bowie for a performance as Aladdin Sane, 1973
Kristen McMenamy for Vogue US, 1992
Antonio Lopez, Corey Grant Tippin and Donna Jordan in St Tropez, 1970
Kate Moss’s 1920’s inspired gyspy look for Biba, 1990’s
Andy Warhol and company at The Factory, NYC, 1960’s
Chloe Sevigny in 'Gummo', directed by Harmony Korine,1997
The stars of Andy Warhol's 'Trash' Holly Woodlawn, 1970
Right Lara Stone, 2009, Left: Donna Jordan, 1970
Kristen McMenamy in The Origin of Monsters by Tim Walker for Love Magazine, 2012
Kristen McMenamy for Saint Laurent by Dancian, 2012
Artist Terence Koh with Lady Gaga by Terry Richardson, 2011
