At Prada, You're Never Fully Dressed Without Smile #151

Uniform. The word does not ususally inspire…well, much of anything. But what if the uniform was dictated to you by Miuccia Prada? Then it wouldn't be so bad, would it? But this brilliant arbiter of style - or at least her company - didn't stop at clothes for this particular uniform. She went all the way to the sexy red lips. 

I discovered this quite by accident while browsing the Prada boutique for Things I Cannot Afford in the Temple of Happiness (Bloomingdale’s), where I was chatting with a lovely young woman (Danielle, pictured) with fantastic red lips and asked her if she happened to know what color it was she was wearing. I do this all the time with total strangers, but her answer surprised me. “Lancome #151,”’ she said definitively. I couldn’t believe she knew the number so I probed further. You know the number?? “Yes," she said. "It’s the same one we all wear,” at which point I glanced around the boutique and noticed that everyone, irrespective of age, haircolor or ethnicity, had the same red lips. All the salesgirls are handed a tube when they are hired along with their Prada patent bow belts. 


I had never heard of such a thing! I had heard of wearing uniforms to work, of course, but never of dictating the makeup of one's employees, particularly something that is such a statement as red lipstick. What if it didn't look good on everyone? But this one did! Here was a diverse group of women, and yet #151 (Avant Garde Red, by the way) looked great on all of them. How could there be a universal red I had not yet stumbled upon? 

After asking Danielle if I could take her photo and write about her, I immediately searched online to try and find something about this fascinating phenomenon of making lipstick part of a uniform - or about Prada doing it first - and found virtually nothing. Why not, I wondered? Red lipstick is strong, powerful and makes a statement. Why not make something like that part of the image you are projecting for women's clothing, accessories and fragrance? 


Anyone who reads this blog (or who even knows me, for that matter) knows that I think red lipstick is appropriate for everything from a night on the town to taking out the trash, so it should absolutely be part of a day at work at a fashion house. And to make it a required part of the uniform? Well, that just ensures that everyone looks equally fabulous.