The Coolest New Fashion Brand: Chance! (Enter for a Chance to Win a Lancôme Summer Set)

[This week, in honor of Lancôme's 75th anniversary, we're celebrating some of our favorite new entrepreneurs, artists and designers. Here's today's installment!]



Imagine that you have a beach house somewhere on the French Riviera. It's a chic, quiet little house filled with furniture that you can put your sandy feet on and kids or dogs can jump on. Friends stop by all the time. You make simple meals with food you bought from the farmers' market in town. During the day, you go to the beach or if it's too hot, you stay home to read or paint. If this was your life (and I wish it were mine!), what would you wear?



You'd wear something from the new fashion brand called Chance, founded by Julia Leach, the former creative director of Kate Spade. The inspiration for Chance was the perfect striped shirt, the kind that anyone from Picasso to Jane Birkin to Kate Moss would wear. "Design, simplicity, personal style, and adventure," writes Julia on the Chance website. "I've always know I'd build my business around these values. The striped T-shirt is the Chance icon and anchor, but it's also just the beginning. Ultimately, it's about endless possibility."



The Chance website is filled with lovely, practical, timeless clothes and accessories, like the aforementioned striped shirts, shirt dresses, espadrilles and the most fab beach towels we've seen in ages. If you love good design, you'll appreciate how beautifully designed and simple the website is. And if you prefer clothes that don't go in and out of fashion each season, you'll especially love Chance.



To celebrate the launch of this charming new brand, we're giving away a special Lancôme summer set. It includes the Chance SPF 10,000 towel above, our new Bienfait UV SPF 50+ sunscreen, a waterproof Definicils mascara in black and a Tropiques Minérale Pressed Bronzer in Natural Sunkiss. (I wish we could give away the house on the Riviera too. Maybe next year!) To enter, leave a comment by Sunday night telling us your fantasy summer vacation destination. We'll pick one name at random. Good luck!

Wow! Marie Claire Goes Makeup and Retouching Free with Jessica Simpson! And Who Won Our Bronzer & Book Mommy-to-Be Giveaway?

Congrats to Marie Claire on a very cool cover. If you haven't heard the news, Jessica Simpson agreed to be on the May cover (above) with NO makeup and NO retouching.

The Huffington Post is looking to drum up a little drama. They don't believe Jessica is completely makeup free so they're running an "is she or isn't she" poll. From the looks of it, there's a little concealer, a tiny bit of mascara and some cream blush going on (and they credit well-known celeb makeup artist Jeannia Robinette as part of the "grooming team"), but so what?

If you knew how much retouching goes into most magazine covers, you wouldn't believe it. So this is pretty brave of everyone involved. Congrats to editor in chief Joanna Coles and beauty director Ying Chu. A big part of magazines is getting lost in the fantasy of fashion, beauty, models and celebrities, but it's nice to have a dose of reality from time to time.

Tell us what you think.

And congrats to Natasha, who won our mommy-to-be giveaway! (Make sure to check out her blog, Fashionalities. It's a lot of fun.) Natasha gets a copy of Amy Tara Koch's "Bump It Up" pregnancy style manual and a Star Bronzer bronzing powder. Don't forget, if you're going to be anywhere near New York's Upper West Side tomorrow between 5 and 7 p.m., stop by the Lancome boutique on Columbus and 69th to say hi to us and Amy. We'd love to see you!

And Lancome's on HSN tonight, 4-5 p.m. and then 8-9 p.m. with our education vp Joan Poulton and makeup artist Robert Cook. You can check out some of our new products, including the amazing Genifique Repair night cream (wait until you see the before & after pictures) and our summer eyeshadow palette.

Happy viewing!