ENDLESS SUMMER
Mitzi Martin on California living, timeless style and making summer last all year
Photography by Troy Jensen
Exclusively for London Magazine
There is something about summer in California that never really ends.
The calendar may move on, but the light remains. Doors stay open to the garden, afternoons are spent outside, and a swimming pool can turn an ordinary day at home into something that feels like a holiday.
For model Mitzi Martin, that easy relationship with the outdoors is simply part of life.
At her California home, the pool is where family and friends gather, where her children bring friends on warm afternoons, and where entertaining can be as simple as opening the doors, putting out something cold to drink and letting everyone find their way to the water.
It was this very personal version of California living that photographer Troy Jensen wanted to capture exclusively for London Magazine.
Rather than creating the fantasy of a faraway summer escape, Jensen photographed Martin at home, where summer is already part of her everyday world.
The images are effortless and timeless. Martin wears classic solid-black one-piece swimsuits by Norma Kamali, punctuated with gold accessories. Her hair is slicked back from the water, her skin warm and sun-kissed, with a berry-stained lip providing the perfect touch of color.
A black swimsuit. Gold against warm skin. Wet hair. A strong lip. California sunlight.
Sometimes the simplest things are the most enduring.
THE CALIFORNIA WAY
California has always represented a certain idea of summer—swimming pools, palm trees, beaches and endless sunshine. But when you live here, summer becomes less of a season and more of a way of life.
You eat outside. You entertain outside. Children grow up around pools and beaches. Friends stay longer. A late afternoon can easily become dinner, and dinner can stretch into an evening under the stars.
Martin’s backyard embodies that spirit. It isn’t a resort created for a photograph. It’s a place where people actually swim, gather and spend time together.
Jensen photographed Martin moving through the water, swimming, relaxing poolside and soaking up the California sun. There is glamour, but it comes from ease rather than excess.
It is a particularly Californian kind of luxury: having somewhere beautiful to be and taking the time to enjoy it.
BEAUTY THAT DEFIES THE HEAT
Endless summer beauty should be able to survive an endless summer.
Heat, humidity, perspiration and water change the rules. The idea isn’t to wear more makeup—it’s to choose beautiful, high-performance formulas that stay where you put them. Makeup should move with you from a hot afternoon to a swim in the pool and still look effortless hours later.
For Martin’s beauty look, Jensen kept the skin luminous and sun-kissed while concentrating on products designed for longevity.
Protection comes first. CHANEL UV ESSENTIEL Complete UV Protection Sunscreen Antioxidant – Anti-Pollution Broad Spectrum SPF 50 provides the essential first layer before heading outside. To keep skin looking fresh and hydrated, CHANEL HYDRA BEAUTY MICRO SÉRUM Rebalancing Replenishing Hydration helps maintain that supple, healthy-looking quality associated with summer skin.
Rather than relying on the sun for color, Jensen created Martin’s endless-summer tan with CHANEL LES BEIGES Healthy Glow Bronzing Cream in 390 – Soleil Tan Bronze, warming the complexion and giving the skin a natural, just-back-from-the-beach glow.
Around the eyes, CHANEL STYLO OMBRE ET CONTOUR Eyeshadow – Liner – Khôl in 06 – Nude Éclat keeps the definition soft and understated, while CHANEL INIMITABLE WATERPROOF Mascara in 10 – Noir is an obvious summer essential: black, defined lashes that can stand up to water and heat.
The finishing touch is Martin’s stained berry-rose mouth, created with CHANEL LE ROUGE DUO ULTRA TENUE Ultrawear Liquid Lip Colour in 48 – Soft Rose.
Long-wearing color gives the face polish without requiring constant attention.
The result isn’t poolside makeup that you’re afraid to get wet. It’s beauty made to live in.
Hair deserves the same protection. Before swimming, Philip Kingsley Swimcap Water Resistant Mask helps defend the hair against the drying effects of chlorine, salt water and UV exposure. After swimming, restoring moisture with a nourishing treatment and leave-in conditioner helps keep hair soft and healthy.
For the photographs, Martin’s slicked-back hair became part of the beauty itself. Instead of fighting the water, Jensen embraced it.
That’s the idea behind endless summer beauty: protect the skin, protect the hair, waterproof what matters—and then get in the pool.
KEEPING SUMMER
Perhaps the real secret to an endless summer has very little to do with weather.
It’s about holding on to some of summer’s informality throughout the year.
Invite people over without making everything perfect first. Eat outside whenever you can. Swim. Stay in the water a little longer. Wear the black swimsuit you’ve had forever and the gold jewelry you love. Put the phone down. Let the children bring their friends over.
Make an ordinary afternoon feel like somewhere you might have traveled to on vacation.
California makes that philosophy easier, but it doesn’t own it.
For Martin, the pool at home is where family, friendship, beauty and the outdoors come together. And that was the woman Jensen wanted to photograph—not Mitzi Martin playing a character, but Mitzi at home in California, moving through the water with the confidence and ease of someone who understands that glamour doesn’t always require somewhere to go.
Sometimes paradise is already in the backyard.
And maybe endless summer isn’t a season at all.
It’s simply a state of mind.
BEAUTY CREDITS:
Model: Mitzi Marti
Produced: by Jarek Addison
Photography & Beauty: Troy Jensen
Model: Mitzi Martin
Swimwear: Norma Kamali
Beauty: CHANEL Beauty
SUN PROTECTION
CHANEL UV ESSENTIEL
Complete UV Protection Sunscreen Antioxidant – Anti-Pollution Broad Spectrum SPF 50
HYDRATION
CHANEL HYDRA BEAUTY MICRO SÉRUM
Rebalancing Replenishing Hydration
BRONZE
CHANEL LES BEIGES
Healthy Glow Bronzing Cream
390 – Soleil Tan Bronze
EYES
CHANEL STYLO OMBRE ET CONTOUR
Eyeshadow – Liner – Khôl
06 – Nude Éclat
CHANEL INIMITABLE WATERPROOF Mascara
10 – Noir
LIPS
CHANEL LE ROUGE DUO ULTRA TENUE
Ultrawear Liquid Lip Colour
48 – Soft Rose
HAIR PROTECTION
Philip Kingsley Swimcap Water Resistant Mask
Mitzi Martin photographed by Troy Jensen exclusively for London Magazine.
