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| LIP SERVICE:The Fashionistas team up with Lancôme. photography by Allison V. Smith |
Last september, the premier issue of D Fashion landed on the desk of Lancôme’s PR director Vanessa Dabich in New York. One piece featured the Fashionistas, a charity devoted to living fabulously while raising funds for Fashion on Main, Dallas’ first fashion museum. Dabich was impressed with the Fashionistas, in particular the Balenciaga-clad blonde who founded it, Heidi Dillon. Dabich sent an e-mail to Dillon, requesting a phone interview to discuss teaming with Dillon’s group. She was floored. “It’s like your kid grows up to be a movie star,” Dillon says.
After talking with Dillon, Dabich and Bridget Johns, Lancôme’s director of retail operations, decided to create a Fashionistas lip collection. A portion of the Lancôme sales would go to the Fashionistas’ charity. Plus, the collection was the Fashionistas’ to create. Dabich sent Dillon the entire Color Design line.
Dillon took this very seriously. “I formed a secret committee,” she says. “We put it on our hands, our lips. We went through tubes of ChapStick. It was tough, but someone had to do it.” After days of secret deliberation, the collection of five shades was born. Dillon and crew picked colors that could last from day to night and could be worn by any skin type and hair color.
The launch party for the line is March 6, in conjunction with NorthPark’s “Fashion at the Park” (see right). At the event, Lancôme will also present Dillon a check for Fashion on Main. For Dillon, this is validation that her tiny group can compete, from Dallas, on fashion’s international platform. “Everyone thinks about Dallas as women with big hair, big jewels, big everything. It’s just not the same Dallas anymore. We are fabulous, creative, and sophisticated,” she says. The Fashionistas Color Design lip collection ($21) will be available at the Lancôme Boutique at NorthPark Center.
