Sophia Loren

[sanja]

Lou Doillon and Sophia Loren at Pirelli launch party video

Fashion Tv = 36 MB = 3:27






http://rapidshare.com/files/68771959/Sofia_Loren_and_Lou_Doillon.mpg

 

[Emilee]

Posted? (celeb-city)

 

[scriptgirl]

Her wardrobe in Arabesque is the business.

 

[Mirik]

Mini Rus July 2007



my scans

 

[bismarck]

Sophia's beauty and fashion advice from her book, Living and Loving

The actor and the musician have much in common. The musician improves his performance by using a fine instrument, but the finest instrument cannot improve his talent. The actor’s instrument is himself—his voice, his body, his looks, the cut of his jib. Without talent, this instrument is worthless, or else the most beautiful woman and the most handsome man would be our greatest performers. But a talented actor certainly enhances his performance when he has made the most of his physical possibilities.

From the beginning of my career, I had a natural instinct for what suited me best in makeup, hairstyle, clothes, and body care. I imitated no one. I did not slavishly follow the dictates of fashion. I wanted only to look like myself, uniquely me, which I realized could not be achieved by grotesque or faddish distortion, but only by enhancing what nature gave me, which is an ensemble of irregularities—pronounced nose, large mouth, weak chin, and protruding cheekbones. At first I tried using a lot of heavy makeup. I changed my eyebrows, and varied the color of my hair from one week to the next, from blond to red-tinted to coal black. All of this indicated that I was not sure of myself, that I didn’t know how I wanted to look or indeed what my natural looks really were. Many women use heavy makeup as a mask to hide behind. Especially young women. I have learned, however, that too much makeup makes a woman look older and can destroy all expression in her face.

After studying how I looked on the screen, and in still photographs, I began to realize that I looked contrived, and that I would be much better off, and my acting more effective, if I kept my face as natural-looking as possible. So I stopped experimenting with hair colors and began to use as little makeup as possible. I use even less makeup on the screen than I do in real life, because the more natural I look on the screen, the better I reach an audience. But even my offscreen makeup is kept to a minimum. I emphasize my eyes, which I consider to be my best feature, by penciling the upper lid and then meeting it with a hair-fine line drawn along the lower lid. I wish I did not have to wear lipstick but I am forced to because my lips are so dark that if a photograph is taken of me without lipstick it looks as if I painted my lips very dark. Also I have found a way to use lipstick that de-emphasizes the size of my mouth. The only cream I use is baby oil—nothing else.

I’m convinced that outward beauty is directly connected with inward beauty. Eyes are not simply beautiful because they are big and wide set, but also because they express something that radiates form the inner woman. My eyes are a precise mirror of my soul. If you know me well, you can tell from the look in my eyes whether I’m happy or unhappy, worried or tranquil, bored or interested. Carlo can read my eyes like a stock market ticker. He rarely has to ask me how I am or how I feel—he knows.

I staunchly believe that anything that can help a woman psychologically to overcome the trauma of aging is well worth the effort. Of course, chronological age has very little to do with one’s mental, physical, or spiritual age. Age is how you feel about yourself. I particularly like what a Frenchman once said to me on the subject: “from thirty-five to forty-five women are old. Then the devil takes over certain women at forty-five and they become beautiful, mature, warm—in a word, splendid. The acidities are gone, and in their place reigns calm. Such women are worth going out to find because the men who find them never grow old.”

When I say women should stay natural, I don’t mean they shouldn’t use makeup or do whatever they can to present themselves in the best possible light. But makeup and all other beauty preparations should not go against the natural grain of one’s features but with it. For instance, a small mouth should be made to look pretty but it shouldn’t be smeared with lipstick just to make it look larger. Small can be beautiful. So, too, a pale, fair complexion shouldn’t be disturbed with browns or reds. Violent makeup is never attractive. I would even go so far as to say a woman should love her physical imperfections, and not try to erase them but rather to transform them, to make them appear as pleasant and personal characteristics.

I never go to beauty parlors. I hate their gossipy climate and the amount of time they waste. Whatever they can do for me, I can do better. Of course some women are lazy, and some have time they want to kill, but most hairdressers and beauticians do you up in a style they are familiar with rather than in a manner designed especially for you. I admit that as a professional actress I have been in a position to learn things about beauty care that would not be available to the average woman, but I honestly think that if someone really wants to fend for herself, and if she studies her possibilities, and experiments, as I did, she will have much better results than she will at the local beauty parlor. If you have ever watched one of those makeup artists at work in a department store’s beauty section, giving demonstrations on the faces of customers, you must have observed that he is making up everyone’s face exactly alike. He would have you think that this is the latest style, but believe me, style must be adapted to the woman and not vice versa.

The same can be said of clothes. I don’t think you should adopt a fashion because Yves Saint Laurent or Dior tells you to. If it really suits you, fine, but preserve your critical eye and reject it if you have any doubts. It’s all right to dress in the wave of fashion, but don’t make waves. You can often adapt a fashion trend to suit your particular needs: the important thing is to feel good and to look good in the dress you are wearing. If I don’t feel right in the dress I put on, I have a miserable evening. I don’t enjoy myself. I don’t feel attractive. So, once you find your own style, what really suits you best, make it the foundation of everything you wear. Dress for yourself.

Another word of warning: don’t rush out and buy a dress because it looks terrific in a fashion magazine. The model wearing that dress is five foot ten, breastless, and hasn’t eaten anything but curds and soy beans for months. Your clothes bespeak the kind of person you are. They represent your personality. On meeting you, a person, consciously or subconsciously, forms an opinion of you that reflects what you are wearing. It isn’t a matter of whether your clothes are expensive or not; their pattern, color, and the way that they are worn—that’s what counts. Depending on the person, a modest print frock can be much more chic than a robe from a great couturier. Naturally, when money is not problem you have a wider choice of models and materials, but anyone can be smart about her own needs: it’s just a question of taste, which is acquired in much the same way a foreign language is learned. Good taste in dressing reflects sound insight into oneself, plus the ability to take from fashion only what suits one best. Styles go in and out of fashion, fads appear and disappear, gowns are short, then long, and then short again. There is nothing solid on which one can rely. The only really concrete things on which you can depend, although they may seem abstract, are your relationship with your surroundings, your estimation of yourself, and the feeling you have of what kind of person you want to be.

When the new fashions come on, I make very cautious use of them. I like to have today’s look—I certainly wouldn’t go out in a severe schoolgirl-like frock when the fashion features bright, billowy dresses—but over the years the basic style of my dresses has changed very little. I am as true to my clothes as I am to myself.

Of course, the shape of your body has much to do with the shape of your clothes, but I do not enjoy a set regime of exercise. The only activity I really enjoy is swimming. And I love to walk for long distances. But calisthenics and related workouts bore me, although I do go through periods when I force myself to do a few exercises in the morning. But I am active physically, and I control how much I eat, which I think is as good a program for the care and maintenance of a svelte body as any.

 

[Platinum Blonde]

Thank you so much Bismarck for taking time to tap that down. I though what she wrote was very interesting and fun to read.

 

[bismarck]

I'm so glad you like it Platinum Blonde! I think Sophia's advice is timeless

 

[aadina]

Great advice.

 

[ParadEyes]

interesting read ! karma

 

[Platinum Blonde]

I want to tip about this great Sophia Loren site. It has a lot of pictures. http://groups.msn.com/SOPHIALOREN

 

[Mirik]

Vogue Rus August 2006 by me

 

[Mirik]

ELLE Rus March 2006 by me

 

[susa31]

archive.xusenet

 

[nmyngan]

she ages so gracefully

ebay

 

[Mirik]

Arbat Prestige Rus June-July 2007 by me

 

[Mirik]

same mag my scan

 

[Mirik]

Arbat Prestige Rus July 2006 by me

 

[lady stardust]

hothothot!!! Bheart:
ebay

 

[Esperanza]

she is the most beautiful woman!!!!

 

[Romy B]

bellazon