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No I’m not in New York, I’m at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, my second home.
At the (very real) risk of dumbing down one of the world’s great landmarks, Heathrow Airport has created the ‘Statue of Liperty’ , a two-storey replica of the famous New York monument made of lipstick. It’s designed to celebrate the launch of the airport’s first International Lipstick Colours of the Year report, which showcases the most on-trend lipstick shades in 50 destinations around the world.
Goodness knows what Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the French sculptor who created the original (a gift to the USA from the people of France) would make of it but, hey, it’s not the first time airports have taken liberties with cultural heritage or paid lip service to it.
Actually, I quite like it. It’s a talking point for travellers (I watched several passengers taking selfies by it this morning) and a bit of fun. Liperty apparently took a team of sculptors, engineers and make-up artists over 240 hours to complete (the original took around 15 years), while Heathrow has also commissioned a range of regular-sized lipsticks which have iconic attractions hand-carved into them by one of the world’s leading micro-sculptors, the UK’s Hedley Wiggan.
