Alexander McQueen
Born in London on March 17th 1969, Alexander McQueen was a British fashion designer, who won many awards from 4 Designer of the Year’, to International Designer of the year in 2003.

When he was 16, he started an apprenticeship at Saville tailors Anderson & Sheppard, before joining Gieves & Hawkes and, later, the theatrical costumiers Angels and Bermans. McQueen then attended the Rosetta Art Centre after obtaining many skills from his apprenticeships, and later gained a reference which then led him on to study MA Fashion at Central Saint Martins. Then he went on to found his own fashion house in 1992, and gradually became a more successful designer, creating the outfits for David Bowie on his tour in 1996-1997, working with Björk in 1997 on her album cover, and directing the music video for her song Alarm Call. McQueen quickly became known for his controversial fashion shows, from a collection named “Highland Rape”, to a model getting spray painted, all of his shows had a talking point. His Spring 1999 show concluded with the model Shalom Harlow emerging in the middle of the runway on a rotating platform in a white strapless dress with a beige belt at the top to fasten it, and a tulle underskirt. Surrounding her, were two industrial spray guns produced by Fiat, which sprayed her with black and green paint, coincidentally staining the pure white dress.

I love McQueen’s work, and I find it fascinating how he has made the skull such an iconic and immediately recognisable symbol of his work, but more importantly, how McQueen has managed to make such a morbid symbol into high-fashion. Arguably, the skull is what McQueen is most famously known for to most people, and it has lived on as a memorable symbol of his legacy. Inspired by McQueen, I printed t shirts with skull designs on, with one just on the front pocket, and the other had a row of five skulls around the neck. My favourite shirt was the one with the skulls around the neck as it was more interesting and attracted more attention than the  shirt with the single skull. I then took photographs of my friends modelling both the shirts for me, in multiple locations as I wanted a modern clean setting, and also an old run down setting. The reason I chose to have both a modern and run down setting is to show the contrast of the dark and morbid skulls, with the concept McQueen has brought to the skull symbol, making it the iconic and high fashion symbol it is today. 

 

Pat McGrath
Pat McGrath is a makeup artist who has worked for Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci. She has clients ranging from Naomi Campbell to Serena Williams, to name a few. Her looks always incorporate vivid colours or glitter, paired with flawless skin. The avant garde look that she has created for runways such as Christian Dior inspire me to be more creative with my work.

My favourite piece of McGrath’s work is Rihanna’s makeup for W Magazine in September 2016. Three people were required to create the looks, taking at least a week, however the gold eye decoration was taken to set in individual parts, and was then assembled onto Rihanna’s face piece by piece like a puzzle, and then also had to be disassembled after. The gold teardrops were made using pigment with 3D materials, metal eyeliner and a mixing medium. Rihanna’s lips were painted with lip colour, then coated in glitter and lastly the ruby red individual jewels were placed on top. McGrath said “Makeup is her shield” about Rihanna’s character for this magazine, which is amazing as it shows how makeup is such an incredible thing that can transform a person physically and mentally. This is why I chose to create some phobia makeup, such as the spider protruding out of an eye, or the clown makeup or even the white tiger I turned myself into. All of these were in hope of extracting some type of reaction out of the viewer, especially if they have a phobia of the stated subject, as the models were transformed into them. “Makeup is her shield” is a quote that can be used about all makeups created, as some men and women wear makeup to give them confidence and make them feel protected, others wear it as an art form, some do it for fun but most importantly, people enjoy doing it.

For Alexander McQueen’s Autumn/Winter 2014 show, Pat McGrath was the makeup artist, obviously as you can imagine, these two minds coming together meant something incredible was bound to be created. The result was a pair of bold black feathered eyebrows and lashes made for each model. McGrath painstakingly pre-cut the feathers to create lashes, and then applied them to the models’ eyes, about 65 pieces per eye. Pat McGrath had a large team behind her, as placing the feathers on each model took about two hours each. I love the dramatic result, as it is clearly the work of McGrath, due to how extreme the looks are, which is a reason why she is one of my favourite artists, and arguably the best and most versatile makeup artist ever.

Pat McGrath mainly works with her fingers instead of brushes, and most of her creative makeup pieces are handmade. Her wide use of materials really inspires me to be more adventurous and do more extreme beauty looks. McGrath states her creative thought process “I’m influenced by a lot of the fabrics that I see, the colours that are in the collections, and the girls’ faces. It’s always a challenge but that’s the key – to make it different every time” She said this in an interview with Vogue UK, during London Fashion Week in September 2008, and it explains how she gets the inspiration for the striking looks, with most of the influence coming from the fabrics and colours of the fashion collection.

 McGrath had always wanted to create her own makeup line, so to expand her career, in 2015, McGrath decided to do just that. On the 25th October 2015 McGrath launched her first product for her makeup line, Pat McGrath Labs. The first product was “Gold 001” which consisted of a gold eyeshadow pigment, mixing liquid, spatula and an extra eyeshadow container. Only 1,000 of these sets were produced, they retailed for $40 and were exclusively sold on her website, now Sephora carries the line. After releasing Gold 001, she slowly expanded her makeup line with the following releases of Phantom 002, Fetish 003, Lust 004 and then most recently Metalmorphosis 005. As well as having eye kits available, McGrath has greatly expanded her line now and has many eyeshadow palettes, eyeliner, lip glosses and lipsticks available, and has recently launched “Skin Fetish” which is highlighter kits and a highlighter and balm stick. The small quantities of her products that are released is why the line is so sought after with makeup artists and makeup lovers alike.

Vanessa Davis
Vanessa Davis is an artist that found fame through the social media platform Instagram, with nearly 700k followers, Vanessa is clearly a successful makeup artist. She has had a long career in the beauty industry as she used to be the manager of wigs and makeup at the Royal Opera in London for about 12 years. In 2015 Vanessa went to a Halloween event and had to think of a last-minute costume, so she decided to make half her face look like a skull using coloured eyeshadow and iridescent embellishments. At the event, she was photographed and asked about her makeup many times, and this led her to create an Instagram page. Since the start of her account, she has collaborated with brands such as MAC and Makeup Forever.

Vanessa’s work really enthuses me, as I love her use of bright colours and her creative use of embellishments such as toy snakes, barbies, sequins and fake tattoos. Her use of imaginative materials is similar to Pat McGrath, as both of them create looks using many different types of unusual products.

One of my favourite makeups of hers is the ”Holo Wings Skull”, where Vanessa created a beautiful wing headpiece made of holographic card and foil that fit behind her ear, and also used face paint and holographic stickers to create the face of the skull. The metallic paint that she dripped down  her neck adds more colour and dimension to the look, making it more eyecatching.

I created a look inspired by Vanessa for my art project, using iridescent foil, gems and glitter and also card which I covered in crinkled iridescent foil to make a wing earpiece like Vanessa’s. I shaded the eyes and cheek parts I with eyeshadow and to make the look more colourful and interesting. If I did it again, I would use more eyeshadow all over the high points of the face instead of just the cheek of the skull, the nose and the eye. I would also have put more of the foil on the neck of the model, or maybe used eyeshadow and foil to create something for the neck.

Vanessa Davis and Alexander McQueen both have something in common, which is their fascination with the skull. Vanessa has created many makeup looks inspired by the skull, and McQueen made countless clothing items and accessories featuring skulls. The aspect that can be seen through both of their work is how death is not the end, and how it does not have to be as morbid and depressing as it is made out to be. This can be seen by the fact that they have both created beautiful work from something as dark as the skull.