Makeup Madness and Fashion Week

Makeup enhances your inner beauty.

Fashion isn’t always about the clothing. It’s always important to get your look right  from your head down to your toes – starting with your makeup. Montclair fashionistas can get the perfect makeup items from local shops, such as Parlor and Bobbi Brown Studio. Taking a look at more popular companies can allow even the most clueless makeup-user to make their faces picture-perfect – even in styles that could be seen in Paris on the runway.

Givenchy impressed with their 2014 Spring/Summer Collection at Paris Fashion Week in September. Givenchy went haute tribal with an earthy sensuality mixing Japanese and African cultures, but that wasn’t the only thing that shined on the runway. It was the crystal makeup masks that left everyone in awe.

Artistic director, Riccardo Tisci, put on an elaborate and impressive show at fashion week on Sunday night. With Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Ciara and Lilly Collins sitting front row, the five-car pileup centerpiece and a live tribal drumbeat the show was perfectly dramatic. West is a known lover for Givenchy so it was only necessary for his front row appearance. But the perfect touch to the show was the hand-appliquéd masks.

The mastermind behind the gorgeous detailed masks was British makeup artist, Pat McGrath, who has been called the most influential makeup artist in the world by Vogue Magazine. She says was inspired by the Japanese and African cultures in the collection and wanted it to reflect in the makeup. She was thinking of the futuristic form of the cultures and wanted the look too be extremely jeweled.

17 models were given the sparkly makeover that took up to 12 hours. The applying started at 9:00 in the morning and was not completed until a half an hour before the show started. With two people working on one model at a time each mask took about four hours to apply by hand and each model was wearing up to 1,500 Swarovski crystals. A total of 40 people worked on the incredible masks developing a show-stopping look.

McGrath told Vogue, “Only four people knew about the look before the morning of the show – nobody was allowed into the tent beforehand.” Just before the show, McGrath ordered for more crystals to be flown in because she did not think there would be enough. Crystals were flown in from LA, London, New York and Austria just for the show. That is a lot of paid crystals that definitely paid off!.

The creative jeweled faces were a jaw-dropping moment at fashion week. This could make for a great Halloween makeup look! Design your own creative sparkly look at local stores scattered throughout town.

  fashion week, madness, makeup, ricardo tisci