Luxury: The March issue

Cleaning up the beauty industry

‘Do I want to be putting gasoline around my eye every day?’ The answer is no, skincare pioneer Tata Harper tells Selina Denman

Tata Harper had always been “a serious skincare customer”, but it was only after her stepfather was diagnosed with cancer, and she began taking him to various clinics and consultations, that she started thinking about the chemicals she was placing in, and on, her own body.

“I had always been part of the wellness movement, in a way, although the wellness movement today encompasses so many aspects of your life, from your spirituality to what you put on your skin. When I was growing up, the wellness movement was about exercising and diet. But I thought I knew a lot about it,” says the former industrial engineer and founder of the Tata Harper skincare brand.

“The doctors were recommending that my stepfather avoid all these chemicals that I had never read or heard about, and I felt so dumb. I was just mindlessly using things, thinking that someone was checking these things for me, and in reality, no one is. My health is my personal responsibility. So I started reducing my exposure to different chemicals.”

Beauty was the final frontier in her efforts to clean up her act, but when she started looking around for natural skincare solutions, she realised the options were limited, simplistic or “natural for the sake of being natural”, without yielding any real results.

“I’d go to department stores and they’d be like: ‘This is algae or this is orchid or this is honey.’ But then you’d look at the labels and yes, you’d see honey, or algae, or orchid, but mixed with 40 or 50 industrial chemicals. And industrial chemicals that are not pretty. Lots of petroleum, propylene glycol, which is antifreeze, things that belong in your car. Not on your skin or around your eyes every day. That was a big eye-opening moment for me. It’s not just about the health implications, but also the quality. Do I want to be putting gasoline around my eye every day, just because it’s a great emollient? There are natural things that are also amazing emollients.”

So she decided to develop her own line of clean beauty products. She spent the next five years creating the Tata Harper brand, working with natural scientists, green chemists and the handful of other people around at the time who knew how to harness the properties of natural raw ingredients.

“It was kind of like deconstructing a skincare formulation that was much more than the actives. You have the actives, because that’s the part of the formula that takes care of your skin, your wrinkles, your vitamins, your skin density, etc. But then there’s another piece of the formula, which is your functionals, your preservatives, your emulsifiers, your stabilisers. Much more goes into making creams than just the actives. So it was really about trying to deconstruct all of that and finding natural alternatives,” says Harper, who is from Colombia.

Early on, she decided that she did not want to outsource her production and formulation to third-party labs, which often work with ready-made bases. She wanted to be able to create her products from scratch, to control the quantities they were produced in, and to personally monitor the quality of the raw materials, which are currently brought in from 86 countries around the world.

Harper already owned a 485-hectare farm in Champlain Valley in Vermont, which she describes as “a mini Switzerland in the US”, so she based her operation there. “I decided I was going to have our factories there and produce exactly what we needed.

“That way, when it got to our clients, it would be super-fresh, because we don’t have inventorysitting around for eight months. When I launched, everybody was asking about the shelf life; how long do the products last? My products last a year and a half, and I remember feeling like I had to apologise for that. But why would a consumer want to add a product to their skin that is already three years old? Where’s the benefit in that?”

But how, exactly, do you classify clean beauty? Harper acknowledges that there is no real definition, and that companies and consumers will have their own parameters. But for her, the baseline for clean beauty is “the absence of some controversial chemicals and potentially toxic ingredients that could present long-terms health problems, and also ingredients that are banned in other countries”.

As a brand, Tata Harper takes this to its nth degree, so its products are free of all synthetic and controversial chemicals, and include only 100 per cent natural ingredients. “But we are also a high-tech brand. That’s why we consider ourselves to be more of a green beauty brand than a clean beauty brand,” says Harper. “Clean is a little too general.”

As terms such as clean, green and sustainable have become buzzwords across industries, companies are jumping on the bandwagon, often in an inauthentic way. But Harper is confident “that eventually, consumers will weed those companies out”. At the same time, they will not accept a product that is clean for clean’s sake. “If you’re buying skincare, the most important thing is that whatever product you are buying, it is meeting your skincare goals. It needs to make your skin better. Going green, or going clean, is just an attempt to reduce toxic loads and the amount of chemicals you are exposed to.”

She recommends checking labels, seals and third-party certifications. Tata Harper has eight seals from independent organisations, including Ecocert, an agency in France that has been regulating cosmetics for more than 30 years.

In the 10 years that Harper has been in the beauty business, the industry has evolved considerably, she says. On the one hand, it has become very trendy to launch a skincare company, especially if you are a celebrity looking to cash in on your fame and establish a tidy little retirement fund. “I think hundreds if not thousands of brands have launched in my 10 years as a beauty entrepreneur, and it’s concerning to me that people are getting into the industry because they think they can make money quickly.

“That has attracted a lot of people and a lot of noise and a lot or corner-cutting into the industry. As a result, when you look at the landscape and the product, there is so much that looks the same.”

This has also given rise to the “hero” product, a trend that is not always beneficial to the consumer. “I think there are so many brands and so many people want to try everything. So a lot of people are layering ‘heroes’ from brands. They are mixing them together, even though they aren’t necessarily compatible.

“There’s a reason why brands have different products and they will often also have different formulation policies. I think there is too much hero-ness, instead of people doing a complete programme from a specific brand. For us, all our products are meant to work together. Not that they won’t work on their own, but you definitely won’t get the same results.”

During her time in the industry, Harper has also had a front-row seat as wellness has emerged as a global phenomenon – reflected by her brand’s expansion over the years, including its recent entry into the Middle East market. “Many parts of the world are embracing the wellness movement, which is not a trend, it’s really a movement. It’s a movement that’s led by consumers – people who are looking to elevate their quality of life and just want better products, from all angles, whether it’s better ingredients, better packaging, more transparency or more responsibility. There’s a lot of cross-currents that are happening globally when it comes to consumer products and people are demanding better things.”

The pandemic has fuelled this mindset, she says. “I think it has been an awakening for a lot of people. And it’s been a time where a lot of people have been taking a closer look at what they buy and how it’s made. We all get excited by the $9.99 T-shirt, but then you think: ‘What does it take to make a $9.99 T-shirt?’”

Self-care is more important than ever, she says. “Because it’s been such an unprecedented time, with so many ups and downs, and so much stress and so many uncertainties, we have resorted to pampering ourselves and dedicating more time to ourselves. As a way of soothing ourselves.

“Now that many of us are not commuting, we are using those extra two hours in our day to cook for ourselves or to eat better, or to spend 45 minutes exercising or to be more thorough with our wellness practices. It’s one of the positive things to have come out of the pandemic. We have all reallocated that time and gone back to nurturing ourselves.”

A tall order

Seeing haute couture clothes modelled live was a crucial part of the buying process. Francesca Fearon explores how fashion ateliers have adapted

It has been more than a year since haute couture clients were last sitting on the gilded seats of the Paris salons watching beautiful models swish by in acres of silk and organza – and much has changed in that time.

Handcrafted to order by skilled artisans, haute couture is something that is tangible; it demands to be seen and touched. In the days after the couture shows, wealthy clients would flock to their preferred fashion houses to discuss, try on and order clothes from the vendeuses, or couture salespeople. This exclusive client experience is very specific and carries great emotional value.

That encounter, for the time being, is not possible. The pandemic continues to disrupt business and the couture houses have had to adapt. They are doing so quickly and adroitly.

The houses were already communicating successfully in the digital environment before the pandemic, but the haute couture collections showcased last July and filmed during strict lockdowns were a challenge. Last month, the spring/summer 2021 presentations were much more sophisticated, polished products. Runway shows were replaced by digital presentations that ranged from filmed, socially distanced catwalk performances (Valentino, Chanel, Fendi, Armani and Stéphane Rolland) shown without an audience, to film narratives (Dior, RVDK Ronald van der Kemp and Julie de Libran), and evocative atmospheric scenarios (the nightclub scenes of Azzaro Couture and Alexandre Vauthier).

Some were more successful than others and gave designers the opportunity to explore and experiment creatively with new mediums and other creatives, such as filmmakers (Matteo Garrone for the mystical Dior film), musicians (Robert del Naja of Massive Attack with Valentino) and photographer-film directors (Anton Corbijn, who filmed the catwalk wedding scenario for Chanel and shot a photo album). Others went back to source, notably Rahul Mishra, who celebrated the craft of his embroiderers in their ateliers stitching his lichen and fungi patterns.

As fashion historian and commentator Tony Glenville points out: “Whether it is a narrative or creating an atmosphere, the clothes still have to be at the heart of the presentation. The ones who aren’t letting you see the clothes have not learnt the lesson.”

However, it is a fine balance, he admits, between a filmed catwalk show and a film narrative. “Too much trickery, too much narrative and it swamps the collection; no narrative at all and we’re bored.”

Nevertheless, he highlights improvements, such as more close-ups of the models and some presentations, such as Valentino’s, displaying captions about colours and fabrics. “Houses realised they need to tell the viewer more and have got better at communicating.”

While Paris appointments continue for those clients able to travel, digital communication has become key for others. Chanel has developed a digital tool that enables clients all over the world to discover the collection and for them to organise appointments remotely. Teams have also been mobilised to take the collection to New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo in this new context.

“We have strengthened our partnerships with the local teams by digitising the experience, which remains co-ordinated by the Paris team and its atelier premieres,” says the couture house. “We have set up mirror teams in other countries, consisting of a dedicated haute couture client manager and a specially trained qualified seamstress.

“This duo receive the local client in a Chanel salon and liaise with the Paris-based teams and ateliers. Even when working remotely with clients, it is essential that the Paris haute couture team is at the heart of the experience and can guide every step of the process.” The garments ordered are made-to-measure entirely by hand in Chanel’s Rue Cambon ateliers.

Smaller houses have similarly managed to adapt to these changing times without compromising on the quality of their service. “It’s an essential value of our job,” says haute couturier Stéphane Rolland, who has a large clientele in the Middle East ordering his bridal and special occasion gowns, and has also introduced a series of kaftans and djellabas to his collection. “We work with video calls and are on the phone on a daily basis with all our clients.”

From the very beginning of the pandemic, Rolland was working on projects. “We have no other choice than to adapt to the situation and try to become even more creative and daring. We are lucky to be able to get permissions to travel since we dress the most important families of the region.”

He has an “ambassador” in Dubai who takes care of fittings and meetings in the region, and provides a link between the atelier in Paris and clients in the UAE. “We have worked on the most creative and fantastic productions there,” says Rolland. Weddings are the heart of his business and, “luckily,” he says, “we are working on one of the most exquisite and refined projects ever at the moment”.

Proof that working long-distance can be effective came from the house of Schiaparelli, which designed, produced and shipped in a record 10 days the fitted jacket and red silk faille ball skirt Lady Gaga wore to sing the national anthem at the US presidential inauguration. It was a huge coup for the house that Schiaparelli’s American creative director Daniel Roseberry was asked by the singer.

“The distance did not stop us. On the contrary, it made us more creative and more daring,” the house’s chief executive, Delphine Bellini, told trade journal Women’s Wear Daily. The house has rethought the way it does things and embraced digital for all aspects, from presenting the collection to fittings and an exclusive e-boutique for personalised services.

London haute couture house Ralph & Russo, like many of the Middle East’s couturiers, pulled out of the Paris haute couture online presentations last month. However, it has in 10 years of business established a personal digital communication system, starting with beautifully presented boxes filled with bespoke sketches and fabric swatches couriered to clients around the world, followed up by Zoom calls.

As clients cannot currently travel to London, a toile (mock-up) of their order is couriered to them for an “e-fitting”, along with a video, and then a Zoom call, demonstrating how the client should get dressed in the piece and what their seamstress should look out for in terms of fit and design. The process is repeated for the final fabric design.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on offering a very personalised and bespoke customer experience and even before the pandemic, we’ve always liked to liaise directly with our clients using digital touchpoints,” says co-founder and creative director Tamara Ralph. “Our customer approach has always been very proactive, as well as personal, and we’ve found, at the current time, that constant communication and the option to have items delivered to or fitted at a client’s personal home has really helped in keeping the experience alive.”

Although the pandemic has limited trips to Paris for clients for the time being, it has not limited the desire for haute couture. As Chanel says: “More than ever, haute couture represents an escapism, a space of eternal and reassuring beauty, especially in these uncertain times.”