WONDER WOMAN
Caitlyn’s got transition covered with stunning and stylish debut
Caitlyn Jenner threw some curves — and, man, does she look great! Completing her transition from Wheaties box to cover girl, Jenner’s Vanity Fair spread sends one powerful, brave message: Kiss Bruce goodbye. The 65-year-old poses like chestnut-maned Cindy Crawford donning a custom, 36B corset on the cover of the magazine. Inside, the former Olympian channels other feminine icons and chooses stunning dresses.
“She looks amazing,” says celebrity stylist Robert Verdi. “If Jessica Lange, Brooke Shields, Cindy Crawford and Jaclyn Smith were combined in a blender and poured out, this is who you would get. She’s very sexy and seductive and youthful.”
Tai Beauchamp
from the new Discovery series “Dare to Wear” was also floored.
“This is unbelievable. Wow! She looks really great,” she raves. “She looks a lot more refined than I thought she would.”
The frumpy striped maxi dress that Jenner wore in April is long gone. But it wasn’t replaced with some of Kim Kardashian’s exhibitionism. Even though Jenner’s stepdaughter has helped curate her new closet, the look is all class.
The 22-page Vanity Fair spread shot by Annie Leibovitz showcases Jenner in glamorous ensembles, including a dramatic offthe-shoulder Zac Posen evening gown, a figure-hugging red Donna Karan power dress and a sexy Agent Provocateur bustier. Only the cover, which has Jenner in a $200 Edy corset by Trashy Lingerie, was released Monday. The rest will hit newsstands June 9.
“Doing this shoot was about my life, and who I am as a person. It’s not about the fanfare,” Jenner says in a Vanity Fair video.
The style world was taken by surprise, too. A well-placed insider tells the Daily News that the magazine acquired the garments without saying who would be wearing them. The source said the shocked designers were “having a very good day” after seeing Jenner wearing their pieces in such a watershed moment for fashion and the transgender movement. And they were proud, too. Jeweler Monica Rich Kosan immediately updated her website to read “as worn by Caitlyn Jenner in Vanity Fair” under the description for her $1,295 bezel-set rock crystal earrings.
“They are very classic and elegant and beautiful. And by the way, she looks amazing,” Kosan says.
Jenner strips down to the one-ofa-kind ivory satin Edy Corset to show off her curves — and bare her soul.
“Bruce always had to tell a lie. He was always living that lie, every day. He always had a secret, from morning til night,” she says in her interview. “Caitlyn doesn’t have any secrets. (Now) I’m free.”
In that sense, the corset was the perfect cover image.
“It’s very purposeful, and it’s all about being revealed,” says Gretta Monahan, style expert on the upcoming makeover series “Brides Gone Styled” on TLC.
“When you showcase that skin, the instant message is, ‘I’m ready to show myself,’” she adds. “It’s feminine with the sweetheart neckline. It’s sexy. It’s saying, ‘Hey world: It’s my turn to shine.’”
Tom Fitzgerald, co-founder of the Tom + Lorenzo style blog, agrees. “This woman is making a serious point about her body, and about the ownership of her body,” he says. “How many 65-year-old women are wearing corset swimsuits on the cover of ‘Vanity Fair?’”
Trashy Lingerie owner Randy Shrier says the corset is poised to fly off the shelves. “We’ve gotten a lot of phone calls from customers and fans. We still have some in stock, but they’re made to order,” he says, adding that it takes three hours to craft each custommade garment.
The other fashion statements in the Vanity Fair spread are as exciting, including a red $2,195 long-sleeve boatneck dress with mesh panels from Donna Karan’s 2015 Resort collection. Karan has also dressed transgender icon and “Orange Is the New Black” star Laverne Cox.
“Donna Karan is a power brand,” says Monahan, who adds that the show-stopping crimson hue transmits power and passion. “Her entire brand is about embracing your strong and sexy self, and confidence at every stage and age, confidence at every size and shape.”
There’s also a $1,190 leather and lace Agent Provocateur bustier, a $620 sequined Badgley Mischka cap-sleeve gown with open back, and a stunning off-the-shoulder floor-length evening gown from Zac Posen available at Bergdorf Goodman for $6,990.
“I’m very proud to be included in the roster of chosen designers for such a historic moment captured by the iconic Annie Leibovitz,” Posen tells The News. “I think the most important message that comes from this is to be who you are and feel beautiful in your skin.”
Badgley Mischka designers Mark Badgley and James Mischka were also proud to be part of Caitlyn’s comingout couture. “Her story is as courageous as it is inspirational for so many, and her beauty shines through in Annie’s photographs,” the designers tell The News in a statement.
The layered ruffled fishtail hem and bow details on the Posen gown make this elegant look especially sophisticated — as does the gilded Badgley Mischka number.
“(The Posen dress) is showing off the shoulders as an incredibly sexy part of this beautiful frame of hers,” says Monahan. “And the long sequin dress absolutely sends a message of her being the ultimate, feminine woman.”
The bustier flaunts Jenner’s newly added feminine assets.
“This is really showing that Caitlyn is not going to have shame or secrets,” says Monahan.
But the thread running through
If Jessica Lange, Brooke Shields, Cindy Crawford and Jaclyn Smith were combined in a blender and poured out, this is who you would get. She’s very sexy and seductive and youthful.
ROBERT VERDI
every luxe look is elegance.
“It feels more elevated and demure than you would expect, based on the family she comes from,” says Verdi. “You realize this is coming from a lifetime of hiding these things, and you know, she’s probably been subscribing to Vogue forever.”
Jenner’s beauty looks are kept as classic as the clothes.
“Her hair and makeup follow a more youthful, natural idea. It feels very Playboy in the ’70s, very sexy and seductive,” says Verdi. “It’s not classic Kardashian, with tarantula eyelashes and too much hair.”
Celebrity makeup artist Elena Miglino, who works with “Orange Is the New Black” star Taryn Manning, Charli XCX and ASTR, also approves of the less-is-more look.
“She’s a woman, not a drag queen,” Miglino says. “It’s really pretty how they kept her skin looking feminine and soft. Her skin looks really supple young and fresh.”
Miglino notices a few individual lash extensions and some makeup contouring to sculpt the cheeks and airbrushing to smooth her skin, but otherwise, the makeup artists used a deft touch.
“It’s not too heavy or caked on,” she says. “They pulled out her natural beauty.”
The cosmetics accentuate the facial-feminization surgery, electrolysis, nose job and tracheal shave that Jenner confirms in the Vanity Fair interview.
Dr. Douglas Steinbrech, who specializes in male plastic surgery, speculated on the precedures that Jenner probably underwent to soften her face.
“(Men) have a very strong frontal forehead bone. Women have a softer one, more of a curve,” he explains. “One of the options is a reduction of that frontal bone (called) frontal bone contouring. The second (option is making) the bones underneath the eyebrow softer to make sure the eyebrow doesn’t pop.”
Steinbrech also accentuates cheekbones with implants or injectables, and softens noses by tapering the tip.
Jenner’s mane, styled by Oribe, is polished and deeply feminine, complete with soft waves. Her manicure is bold red, most likely “Lady Is a Tramp” by Deborah Lippmann.
But Caitlyn is all lady, no tramp. And certainly no Bruce.