Make up looks/London Fashion Week backstage commentary for The Times Newspaper
Words: Antonia Short
Photography: Tim Brotherton
With special thanks to Mac cosmetics
Bright-eyed dears
Sparked off by Manish Arora’s futuristic colour-charged collection, artist Kabuki set to work on a rocket-fuelled space-age explosion of neon face-paint, sticky-back plastic, rhinestones and glitter-bomb lipstick. And, as if that weren’t enough eye-candy, the look was finished with huge false lashes that fluttered about on the flawlessly floured face of each of his live Martian-esque figures.
The Queen is Dead
‘I’ll show you who’s boss, Kate Moss’ was the T-shirt slogan and fighting talk that Georgia Frost walked down the catwalk for House of Holland this week. And with Mac honcho Terry Barber’s fluro-clash post-punk makeover, she’s got a look that could send a supermodel or two packing. “We wanted to create that girl-falling-out-of-a-club look,” says Terry. “A street look that’s tough but not trying too hard. That’s what I see coming this autumn - a vulgar chic that’s looking to the future.”
Cheeky Girls
Puffing a pout at all those passing photographers is simply savoir-faire in this looks-led business. And pretty-faced pros always know how to catch a little limelight both backstage and front. This duo are showing off make-up artist Petros Petrohilos’s prowess and pastel-pink contour creativity on the part of Gharani Strok.
Loving the Alien
Latvian model Ilze Bajare gets ready for the Manish Arora show, on Fashion Week’s Monday afternoon. The Indian designer has been receiving rave reviews for his exotic eastern outfits, vivid shades and dazzling prints. And this week the make up was as colourful as the clothes. Models looked like extras from Close Encounters, smothered in face-paint and squeezed into rhinestone-encrusted swimming caps. But for the designer, the outcome was anything but otherworldly. “I don’t think they look like aliens,” said Arora. “They’re more colourful and dreamlike than that – like beautiful creatures from somewhere else. I travel a lot so the inspiration came from journeys to places like Goa and the hectic parties that go on there.”
Model Behavior
‘No closer please! Step away from the clothes!’ order the patrolling costume heavies paid to keep fluff-spreading liggers at arms’ length while perfectly pruned models wait by the rails for a final pinning and prodding at Gharani Strok’s parade. “You can get dressed!” shouts a warden at Todd Lynn’s run-through, “but there’s a strictly-no-sitting-down policy in these shirts…” she warns the models. Pity about the girl hiding behind me, who appears to have concertina-ed hers.
Beauty and the Bitch
Joan Collins’ 1979 movie The Bitch was the inspiration for the look created by Fashion East designer Danielle Scutt’s beautiful pageant this Fashion Week. Burnished metallic gold and silver shadow sparkles on the models' lids, swept from lash to socket-line. “It’s kind of Joan meets Studio 54,” says make-up artist Andrew Gallimore, who helped create the look and headed up the team of make-up hands on the day. “The coral lips came last – they’re a blend of Mac’s orange red and frost Lip Mix product. It’s pure fluke that it matched the colours in the collection. I hadn’t even seen the clothes at that point.”
Walk-on part
As models saunter down the catwalk in their own clothes for a pre-show run-through, Todd Lynn checks that the talent are up to the job of flaunting his much-talked-about nonconformist tailoring. The countdown has begun and there are only minutes before London’s fashion-fanatics are due to huddle into this Covent Garden basement on the Week’s rainy Monday night. Meanwhile, Lynn's crisp-cut creations are busy being pressed backstage, where make-up maestro Mathias Van Hoof‘s team are also hard at work making their mark with deep socket lines, pale lips and androgynous styling to spark off Lynn’s sober shades and make simplicity look simply spectacular.
If the shoe won’t fit…
This model at Manish Arora smiled sweetly while they powdered and pulled her into a pair of circulation-stopping Latex leggings. Then there was a last-minute panic when she discovered that her stylish slippers simply wouldn’t fit. And so, with half an hour to go before the show, the team of stagehands put a spring in their Manolos, diligently stepped up to the job of outsourcing a larger size and demonstrated just what can be done when the show (and shoe) must go on.
Proud as punch
;)
It’s all smiles for Charles Worthington and designer Nargess Gharani, who watch like proud parents as the fruits of their collective labours blossom backstage. While the Worthington school of stylists bandage models into dressage-style pinned-up ponies, invitations are flying for Gharani Strok’s knees-up at new nightspot Crystal. An afterparty that looks as though it might be keeping these creative dynamos up long after they’ve put this baby to bed.
Backstage Brains
Catwalk models are known for their glowering expressions and thousand-yard stares, but this model at Fashion East sneaked a smile. For Louise Goldin’s show for Fashion East, the make-up look was about the eyes. Veiled in balaclava and burka-style knits, faces were masked to reveal theatrical monochrome eyes and the ‘sexy, strong look’ that Thailand’s revered make-up artist Makky was so keen to create.
Super Size 0?
While posters dished out advice about eating disorders, wispy girls tucked in with apparent indifference. Flapjacks and brownies were gobbled up with gusto.
