Backstage With Bobbi Brown at the Tibi s/s2011 show

TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY

There are some people that it's love at first sight with. Such was the case with MAKEUP MOGUL, BOBBI BROWN. I first met Bobbi when she'd just started her namesake company and there weren't a whole lot of colors, but she had this great color called "brown", which everyone agreed looked good on anyone and everyone. She wore a lot of black, very little makeup and smiled a lot. The models loved her for her chilled-out attitude, and as the harried PR for Michael Kors, so did I.

Fast-forward 15 years later, and Bobbi's still Bobbi. It was great to get to catch-up a bit with her backstage, at the Tibi s/s2011 show. There she was, adeptly fielding questions fired at her by eager editors and film crews waving mikes in her face, all the while showing the special palette she'd created for the show. Bobbi turned to the crowd of faces and jokingly asked, "You're all from websites? Doesn't anyone work for magazines anymore?" She, like everyone this season who's in the fashion business is marveling at the sheer number of bloggers and tweeters who now cover fashion week.
For Tibi, Bobbi did her signature fresh and clean makeup, which went nicely with the side parted ponytail, accessorized with two clips. The Tibi girl is historically fresh faced but she has some fun too. This season, Bobbi provided that with a thicker eyeliner with her long-wear gel eyeliner to create the winged eye that was the focus for this show. The look was pretty, but not TOO perfect.

Meanwhile, over in the hair area, Aveda stylists Kevin Ryan and Frank Rizziari dealt with hair drama. One of the models arrived on the latish side rushing from her previous show with her long blonde hair crimped to the max and loaded down with product. Frank walked over to take a closer look and warned, "Honey, you have to use water and wash it all out or you're going to cry when we work on your hair".
He turned back to us and explained, "When a model comes with tons of stuff in her hair, dry shampoo will only make the hair grittier and will only serve to mask it. The only thing that works is water." Good to know, as I'd always assumed dry shampoo was the quickie solution to getting product out of one's hair.

I caught my few minutes of face time with Bobbi, and she answered the questions I lobbed over to her.
As to what she wants the makeup to achieve for this [or any show she does] "is for women to look and say, 'I want to look like THAT', wearing those clothes and THAT makeup."
We discussed how she's able to address her ever-exapanding global customer base. When she creates a palette, she thinks about how it has to work for women in England, Japan, and the USA. In short, she wants them ALL to love it.
Bobbi's Best-selling product after all these years is the original BROWN which started it all.
How many sku#'s does she have? "Hmm, I don't know, but I'm really excited about this one"[pointing at the sleek silver croco "TIBI" palette of silvery shadows." I left not knowing how many lipsticks are on the line, but I know I'm getting in line for one of the Tibi palettes when they're out this spring.