Timeless Body, Timeless Beauty
By Dave Gordon | Photos Gian Andrea di Stefano | Stylist Eryka Clayton | Make up Artist Sandy Linter | Hair Mitch Barry
“Stunning” and “Christie Brinkley” have been synonymous for decades. After appearing on hundreds of magazine covers since the 1970s, supermodel Christie Brinkley still remains an ageless blonde beauty with an attitude of gratitude.
In 2017, sixty-three-year-old Brinkley posed beachfront for Sports Illustrated, with daughters Sailor (18) and Alexa Ray (31), all in alluring swimwear. Her eternal appeal, undoubtedly, is among the reasons Allure and Men’s Health named Brinkley one of the most attractive women of all time. As told to Haute Living, her flair for blending chic, elegance and everyday style means enjoying Gianvito Rossi footwear, Saint Laurent apparel, and still being a “jean girl”, loving labels like Rag & Bone or J Brand. She’s a model entrepreneur.
Focused mainly on health and wellness, her ventures have included Christie Brinkley Authentic Skincare, her own line of hair extensions and wigs called Hair 2 Wear, a partnership with Total Gym, and her own line of eyewear.
No surprise from a woman with age-defying looks, in Feb. 2018, the fashion icon launched a cosmetic line, Christie Brinkley Authentic Beauty – which she dubbed “Brinkley basics”. She says the products are cruelty-free, and foolproof to use.
If that weren’t enough for the powerhouse entrepreneur, Brinkley’s also busied herself with her branded line of Organic Prosecco called Bellissima, that includes a brut, a rosé and a zero-sugar prosecco.
According to Brinkley, the vineyard in Italy has been untouched by chemicals for over forty years, and the beverage contains no animal by-product clarifiers, so common among wines.
“We really care about our environmental footprint.”
Perfectly supporting her lifelong ethos of good living, she published Timeless Beauty: Over 100 Tips, Secrets, and Shortcuts to Looking Great. In the New York Times bestseller, she shares secrets about diet, fashion and makeup.
Pie asks the Uptown Girl about business sense, how to look great, and what’s in store for the future…
Pie: What are things people can do to look as youthful as you?
Christie: One: Gratitude. I think that when you approach everything – find a way to be grateful. No matter where you are, no matter what is going on in your life, especially in hard times – and we all have them – if you can still reach for that thing that you have to be grateful for. Mine always starts with the top three: Alexa, Jack, Sailor (her children).
If I know they are happy and healthy, I just can’t feel sorry for myself anymore.
When you approach life with that spirit, everything else falls into place, including the look on your face, the energy you project.
That’s the number one thing that people notice about you – the energy you bring with you when you come into a room. You can have everything else perfect, the perfect wardrobe, the perfect hair, the perfect skin and make up and all of that, but you come in with a dark cloud around you, it’s not going to help.
Two: You’ve got to feel good. The way to feel good is to have a healthy diet. I can’t emphasize this enough: you truly are what you eat.
Myself from about age 13, and my children, were fed a vegetarian diet.
I call it a ‘Rainbow Diet’. I try to put as many colours as I can in my diet, and in my children’s and my family’s diet. That way you are getting an abundance of antioxidants and vitamins and minerals. Organic, as well, is very important. I know that it can be costly, but if we all just say we’d rather pay for it now than pay for it with our health, it’s really important.
Third is exercise.
Fourth is skin care. I’m trying to get the word out now about oxybenzone. It’s one of the ingredients in a lot of sunblock.
It’s now in our oceans, and it is one of the major things destroying the coral reefs. The health of our oceans is directly related to the health of our air.
Oxybenzone is so strong that if you had a shot glass in a pool, it would kill a coral reef if you had a coral reef in the bottom of your pool. We all need to check for that ingredient.
pie: What advice could you impart to new entrepreneurs?
christie: I think it is really important to choose wisely. The way that I choose my projects are,
I ask myself, ‘If I do a TV commercial for this
product, could it be mistaken for a public service
announcement?’ In other words, will that product make someone happier, healthier, more satisfied in some way or more confident, will it improve their life in some way?
If I can answer ‘yes’ to my question, then I know I’m onto something. My Total Gym will make you healthier, stronger, better. My Bellissima will make you happier. My skin care will keep your skin healthy, and return it to good health. My eyewear will make you cuter, and you’ll see better. My Hair 2 Wear: if your hair is thinning or broken off, or if you want to feel more stylish – you want to go from short hair to long hair – you can have more flexibility to your life. You can get out the door in five minutes and get to what really matters, time with your family and your kids, or your work at the office.
I’ve associated myself with good products, and products that I believe in. So, I think I’ve created a trust, and a happy quality to the things that I do.
Pie: What is Christie’s best parenting advice?
Christie: I always tell them: Find your own way of making this world a better place. Try to make every encounter you have with somebody a smiling one, and leave them happy they came across you that day.
Totally, have an attitude of gratitude. I’m always saying to them that expression ‘bloom where you are planted’.
I just love that expression because I really believe it is the key to a happy life.
Pie: I am a role model to young women because:
Christie: My daughters always say to me that it is my positivity that they love. I hear them in interviews saying that they are grateful that I’ve taught them to always look at the bright side, the sunny side. But I think, maybe it’s just the fact that, I don’t know, that I just kind of keep on ticking.
Pie: What is something left on your bucket list?
Christie: Oh, quite a few things, actually. There’s still a lot of traveling I want to do. There’s still places I want to hike, places I want to go and do – sailing trips, hiking trips.
I still want to be fluent in Italian. I can speak fairly good Italian for food and shopping. I do speak French. I went to Le Lycée Francais in Los Angeles, and when I was in school one year, I took Italian in French – which is a great way to learn Italian because of the similarities. Sometimes I find myself in Italy speaking French and doing ‘et’ at the end of it.
I would love to be able to converse. Oh, and Portuguese too, because I love that language. I think it’s so beautiful.
Pie: Something you would have done differently?
Christie: I was asked to host Saturday Night Live. I love people who make it their goal in life to make you laugh.
The biggest privilege of my life ever was to get to be on Broadway and play Roxie Hart, and get people to laugh. I was told at the stage door that I was one of the funniest Roxies.
But anyway, it was during a moment at SNL – one of the rare, rare moments – when people were like, ‘I’m not sure about the writing right now. You don’t have enough experience, and if it’s not good writing, you won’t know how to deal with it.’
I don’t want to critique the show. Let’s just say I made the wrong choice to do something else. I look back at that every time and I think, how in the world did I not just grab that opportunity and do it? I guess I just secretly loved the show so much that it made me afraid. I just know that if I ever had the opportunity to do it again, that’s something that I would definitely jump at the chance. That’s a Bucket List come true.
Photography gadistefano.com
