Pink’s neutral manicure was designed to look like an exaggerated version of the natural nail. Luckily, the director was pleased. “He got so excited and he told me, Jeff, one day you should win an Oscar because you saved the industry so much money,” he says. “I’m still waiting for that.”
In 1976, after his on-screen invention, Pink’s company immediately started producing the style as a kit called the “Natural Nail Look,” et voilà, the French manicure. Although, it would be a few years until it was called the French manicure, and until the look really caught on with the common nail lover.
The turning point came in 1978, when Pink had the opportunity to demonstrate how to achieve his “Natural Nail Look” at Paris Fashion Week, and was suddenly struck with inspiration in the City of Love. “On the way back from Paris to L.A., I said to myself, Jeff, you know what? Natural Nail Look is really kind of cheesy. Maybe you should come up with some other name,” he says. “And then the idea came to me. I just came from Paris. Let’s call it French manicure.” And then the French manicure was born.
“[Orly] was really pushing the versatility component, which was important to women of the 1970s,” says Suzanne E. Shapiro, nail historian and author of Nails: The Story of the Modern Manicure. “It was a look that you could wear from the office to your social life that matched any number of changes of clothing would’ve been hugely appealing at that era.” The style also gained resonance at the time because “it had that look of Hollywood glamour and the almost aggressive femininity was really appealing,” adds Shapiro. She likens the style to dental veneers for the hands—an artificial, exaggerated version of flawlessness that was trendy at the time.
While Pink may have not gotten an Oscar, he did create one of the most enduring nail styles of all time, so much so that it’s transcended language: Enter any nail salon in the world and you’ll be able to sit down and walk away with the style, communication barrier be damned. (That wasn’t always the case—the manicure style was initially dubbed as an “American thing,” in Europe, but Allure reported in the November 1995 issue that the trend had crossed the pond and become popular among women in France. C’est la vie!) Pink tried to trademark the phrase “French manicure” in 1980, but was blocked—apparently, it was too “well known” for him to be granted ownership of it. Instead, he opted to trademark the phrase “Original French Manicure,” which is still what Orly uses to this day.
