Last night marked a huge milestone in the career of George Clooney, who was honoured with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at Venice Film Festival. His wife Amal Clooney was, of course, a loving witness in the star-studded crowd.
The Clooneys long ago established a glamorous coordinating style: screen legend George with his silver crop and Amal with her undulating brunette waves. For Venice, the couple turned to their go-to, Dimitris Giannetos, for grooming.
Giannetos is the artist behind Amal’s covetable mane, and he crafted more boho brunette shades of caramel-brown and deft, light layers for the lawyer and humanitarian this summer. On Wednesday night, Giannetos tells , he created what he calls a “blurred brown” for autumn.
It’s a shade that lightly veils summer’s lighter tones, he says. “They’re still there, it’s the perfect kind of see-through highlights,” Giannetos explains. “But the colour is very rich, and not washed out.” To achieve the dappled shade of brunette, he used L’Oréal Paris products, and finished Amal’s hair with tousled, brushed through curls for texture and volume – ideal for catching the breeze when taking a water-taxi through the Venice canals.
For make-up, it was a signature Amal Clooney look: Giannetos drew a softly diffused, pink-brown lip using Charlotte Tilbury’s Lip Cheat Liner in Foxy Brown, and smudged it with a soft brush. A similar colour was also melted onto the cheeks, with a warm bronzer added to sculpt. Her make-up was set with Charlotte Tilbury’s Airbrush Loose Powder around her T-zone, and dusted delicately over her lipstick for more staying powder.
“I wanted to keep her glam soft and ethereal,” Giannetos shares, in keeping with Amal’s look: a body-contouring and razor pleated black Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann gown with silk taffeta and leather details, the brand’s Vertigo pumps, and matching clutch.
“I kept George’s hair tight on the sides [and] a bit long on the top,” says Giannetos of the actor’s classic look, “not far from the signature and charming George Clooney haircut.”
The Clooneys, who have been married now for almost 12 years and have two children, attended the opening ceremony followed by the premiere of Danny Boyle’s movie an explosive drama about the rise of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid empire. The Golden Lion award was introduced by George’s costar Laura Dern at the opening ceremony, with a special message from his franchise co-star, Brad Pitt.
“When they tell you that you’re gonna be getting a Lifetime Achievement Award, there are really only two things that come to mind,” George said when receiving his award. “The first is that, ‘What an incredible honour this is.’ Then the second is, ‘Do they know something that I don’t? You’ve been talking to my doctors, have you?’”
Hairstylist and make-up artist Dimitris Giannetos adds the finishing touches to Amal’s signature waves.
“I am at a loss for words to describe how much I love my wife. How proud I am of her,” he said. George also took the moment to emphasise the importance of free speech, art and the press.
At an earlier press conference, George shared that he and Amal have plans to celebrate his award after Venice. “We’re going to go find a fun place to have dinner, my wife and I,” he said. “she’s going to be wearing a very nice dress so we’ll have to be careful where we go.” Stay tuned.