London Fashion Week 2011 backstage blogs - MAC for Vivienne Westwood
M.A.C Senior Artist, Caroline Donnelly, blogs exclusively for handbag.com from backstage from the Vivienne Westwood S/S 2012 show.
Just got back home from a long day. It’s 13 hours since I left out this morning so first things first, poured myself a well deserved glass of wine, and now I am settled down to tell you about the show this evening.
The first thing MAC artists do before seeing who they are working with during LFW, is seeing what shows they have been assigned to work on. The Vivienne Westwood show, whether it be Red Label here in London, or Gold Label in Paris, is one of the shows artists speed-read their schedules to see if they have been lucky enough to have been picked to work on. A series of little squeals are heard when people see their names next to the show.
We all arrived half an hour before call time as everyone is just dying to get there and get set up ready for action.
I was at the Westwood hair and make-up test last night so was lucky enough to have I have had a sneak preview of the beauty look for this evenings show and I have been winding up the make- up artists even more by telling them how much they are going to love the look, but not giving anything away!
Make-up genius, Alex Box, created the make-up for the show, whilst Malcolm Edwards created the hair. This makes for an extremely talented, creative pairing.
During Alex’s demos of the looks, people look on in silence, occasionally catching each other’s eyes and smiling. This is big make-up, make-up artists' make-up, something we can really get our teeth into, which is very exciting. It’s colour, layering and technique, individualising the looks slightly for each model's face.
It’s fun to look at, and fun to do. It’s like young girls wearing far too much make-up but looking fantastic. Think peacock coloured eyes, with a Tequila Sunrise coloured cheek and you will get some idea of what Alex was trying to create.
If you know MAC colours you will recognise names such as Electric Eel, Bitter and Lime eye shadows, High Def Cyan or Process Magenta Chromaline, Devil, Salsarose or Azalea blusher, Bright Fuchsia or Acid Orange Pigment and the list goes on. It is bright floral colour palette with a softened and highlighted face, which made an effective ethereal contrast between the features of the face and the face itself. The cheeks are heavily contoured and it all just looks gorgeously exciting and over indulgent.
It’s busy right from the word go as the hair and make up looks are big, there are always also a lot of press and photographers backstage too which along with the designers team, the models and the hair and make-up teams makes for an awful lot of people. It’s too hot and too cramped but people are really being satisfied by the whole package. It’s backstage at a Vivienne Westwood show, it’s a place a lot of people would love to visit and we all know and appreciate that. The first model whose make-up I did was the sweetest girl, who almost smiled through the entire process of me getting her face done. She was thrilled to be doing Westwood for the first time. I asked her "will your mates be excited that you’ve done this?" And she said "Yes! Everyone loves Vivienne Westwood!". And I for one, think she's right!
There’s a bit of a commotion going on near the opposite end of the row of tables I am working on, and when I look over it’s Pamela Anderson causing a bit of a stir amongst the journalists and photographers (she is wearing all Vivienne Westwood...of course!)
The runway was built for the occasion in Smithfields Meat Market, and looks great. We all checked out the show space and the make-up out during the runway rehearsal. I would loved to have watched the actual show in action, but we are always too busy to see it from that side, however, I have it on good authority that the show was absolutely incredible.
Now then, for me it's time to clean my make-up kit, wash my brushes and get organised and ready for a 7.15am pick-up to my next show in the morning.
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