Brooke Shields And Clare Vivier’s New Collab Celebrates Commence’s First Anniversary

5

It’s a summer of love for Commence and Clare V.! For her haircare brand’s first anniversary, Brooke Shields has teamed up with Clare Vivier’s accessories label to collaborate on a chic new T-shirt, inspired by joy and Commence’s tonal color palette. We caught up with the pair on their friendship and experience working together—plus their top haircare and beauty tips, plans Out East, and more.

How did the collaboration between Commence and Clare V. come about? Brooke: We’re friends via a mutual friend who Clare is on the board with, and we’ve just been hanging out, and that’s how it started. We’d been talking about doing something for a while, and this seemed like a natural fit. As a businesswoman, owner and, founder, I’m new. It was important for me to learn from someone I trust. She was helping me in the beginning, knowing what the lay of the land was and what it means to be a female entrepreneur and a female boss. Clare: We love working with female-owned brands. It’s important to us. Again, it was just a natural fit—and I’m just a fan! Brooke: What I’ve loved about Clare V. is that it’s beautiful. I went to a Yankee swap—do you remember how that started? I got an early number, and the gift I chose was her bag. Then I ran to the store the next day… Clare: Did somebody get it from you? Brooke: Kelly stole it from me. So I went back and went to the store the next day…no, I stole it from Kelly! I stole it from Kelly, so the next day, I went to the store, bought one, and gave it to Kelly. Clare: That’s cute. Brooke: This idea of female empowerment…we use that word a lot now. It’s become a “kumbaya” word. But it’s true, and especially within founders and business. Then, I saw “Beaux Cheveux” as as a message, and I thought, Oh, wait a minute this, actually is a good collaboration idea.

What was the development process like; how did you choose the T-shirt’s different elements? Like color, phrase, etc? Clare: We really wanted to fit within the color scheme of the brand, which has all these beautiful, earthy blush tones. Brooke: It’s sunrise and sunset.

Clare: That’s how we got this pretty pink color. The font style…my art director did it, and she’s very talented, so she always comes up with the best fonts! Brooke: I didn’t know this going into this—that’s what’s been so interesting is when you go into the psychological aspect of it—this font registers differently on the human brain. I didn’t know that, but I did research! I’m a bit of a geek!

Commence is celebrating its first anniversary this year. Brooke, how does it feel to be celebrating that milestone—and what are your hopes for the brand in the coming years/for the future? Brooke: I have not even a hope—it’s a knowledge. I know that we’re going to keep getting stronger and we’ll go into the future. It resonates with people on an emotional level, and for a woman in this era of their lives, it’s really important that you feel beautiful, and strong, and powerful, and you feel like you’re not at the end of the road. The world wants us to be counted out once we hit 40, and I just turned 60—and celebrated a year, our first birthday at Commence. It’s just about going forward and feeling your best. We keep growing, we’ll probably move into another different category. We’re in another fundraise, which is always an interesting place to be, but now people are starting to really pay attention, and now they want to give us money. So that’s good!

What are some of your haircare do’s and dont’s? Brooke: I don’t wash my hair every day, especially if I get a good blowout or I get a little glam squad situation. I don’t want to wash it every day. I use the [Commence] root serum every day, and I use the leave-in conditioner every day, and I use the instant shampoo probably three times a day. It volumizes and it’s rice powder, so it doesn’t leave your hair white. It has hyaluronic acid in it, so it doesn’t dry your scalp out. Almost all dry shampoos on the market are benzene or aerosol. They’re really bad for the environment, they’re bad for your lungs, and they dry your scalp out. Ours is the only one on market that has hyaluronic acid in it, so when you put it on your scalp, I always separate it. It recognizes on your scalp where you need moisture, and where it’s too oily, so it absorbs the oil, but it also delivers hyaluronic acid and moisture. I use all these products, every day.

Clare: I have frizzy, wild hair. I don’t spend a lot of time on it, so I appreciate it when products do all the work, because I’m not going to spend a bunch of time on my hair in the morning.

Brooke: Root serum-wise, you have to nourish your hair from the where the hair follicle is, in the root, and that will, in turn, feed the whole hair. I’ve been in the lab, and we’ve put the leave-in conditioner on one strand of hair, and you look at it under the microscope, and you can see it actually fills it up from the inside. It hydrates, and it doesn’t lay on top. These are things that are important to me.

What is some of the best beauty advice you’ve received over the years? Clare: You would have more beauty advice!

Brooke: My mom was from Newark, she didn’t really have…she said, soap and water and moisture. It doesn’t have to be extra complicated, but cleanliness and and basically feeding your body. The idea of nurturing yourself from the inside out was always something, because you’re never going to be able to deny that. She’s like, “Take care of yourself.” Beauty advice-wise was what you have, take care of what you have. Don’t try to be something you’re not. Don’t try to look like somebody else. That was important for me, especially as a model, which is a ridiculous industry. That was what went on to me.

Clare: I love it. I don’t know any good beauty advice that I’ve gotten. I think it’s all about natural beauty. Don’t cover your hair too much. Sometimes it’s fun to straighten your hair when you have curly hair—but don’t go wild making yourself into someone you’re not. The one thing I would say for your face is, never cover up your skin so you can’t see your skin anymore. That’s always the worst, when someone looks so covered that you can’t see their beautiful skin.

Brooke: I’ve noticed a lot of younger people doing that!

Clare: It’s so weird!

Brooke: It just breaks my heart.

Clare: I know! Because they have the most beautiful skin.

Brooke: They need nothing! My girls need nothing, and they [still do] a full face of makeup.

Clare: And they look the most beautiful when they wake up in the morning. Keep it like that! Keep it, keep it!

Brooke, how would you define your personal style? Do you have any style icons? Brooke: I have a very fraught relationship with style, because I grew up modeling other people’s clothes. I would wear jeans, [Sperry] top-siders, and usually a T-shirt. I didn’t cultivate my own style. It’s now starting to be at 60, which is ironic, I’m now starting to be able to say, “Oh, wait a minute, this is my style. This is what I like.” It’s a bit more bohemian. I dressed like an Upper East Side woman for a long time, because I lived on the Upper East Side I called it my Today Show outfits, because it was a character. I wore other people’s visions. And it’s just been now that I’ve started to find my own way in my own style, and there’s a bohemian quality to it. I’m loving the ’70s. That’s where I’m the most comfortable.

Clare: Cute! I love it. Cute jeans!

Brooke: They’re kind of ’70s, Nile Lotan jeans. They’re very ’70s inspired.

Who are your style icons? Brooke: I don’t really have any icons that I follow. I think the only people that I have tears of is probably Kate Moss. The most tears that I have in my inspiration book is Kate.

How does it feel to be considered a style icon yourself? Brooke: I feel a little an imposter, to be honest. I never cultivated it myself. I never had my own thing. Now I’m starting to, which is sort of a revelation, to be this age and then start to really feel like, “Oh, I like this.” My mom only went to thrift shops, so all of my clothes growing up were from the local church thrift shops. She would buy me things. She bought Pucci, because she was from Newark, and she wanted to be an Upper East Side lady. Everything was secondhand. I grew up with with that as my sensibility, because we couldn’t afford going to the real big shops.

Clare: I want to go to that church shop! I bet there’s some good stuff.

Brooke: Well now, they know what they have! They didn’t know what they had in the ’70s.

What are you looking forward to doing this summer—any fun plans? Brooke: We’re going to play dominos this summer!

Clare: I’m going to go Out East. I’m going to come back to New York, and I’m gonna go visit our store in Amagansett, and then I’m going to visit Brooke, and we’re going to play dominoes and maybe drink wine. We’ll drink some rosé, we’ll play dominos at her place.

Brooke: I have a sweet house. It’s a little house, and I have a little backyard and I have a little porch.

What are your favorite restaurants or activities to do in the Hamptons? Brooke: I love Greek food. We go to the Greek restaurant in Water Mill. It’s very good!

Clare: I usually don’t have a car when I’m out there, so I go right to my store in Amagansett. Then I eat at Il Buca, because it’s right next door.

Brooke: I get a kid to drive me, because she took my car. I’m actually driving my father-in-law’s car, which I don’t think he knows I have!

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on all the latest fashion news and juicy industry gossip.