Happy December! It's that time of year where not only do I share current holiday goodies but also highlight some that came before. I was digging through the Museum's archives and couldn't believe I hadn't posted about this beautiful palette Armani released for their 2007 holiday collection.
A smooth, sleek black case is adorned with a delicate flower pattern offset by black crystals. I found the design to be rather elegant and understated, similar to the lovely 2008 crystal palette. (Why they went the the more blingy, "look at me" route in 2009 I'll never know, but I still think that collection's gorgeous too because, well, I love sparkly anything for the holidays.)
The first tier contains 4 shadows for building a smoky eye.
The second tier consists of face powder imprinted with the same floral pattern as the case. *swoon*
I touched briefly on the fall 2007 couture collection in my coverage of Armani's fall 2007 palette, but I wanted to expand on it here since I suspect the Black Gem palette was based on the fall 2007 couture collection. Black crystals showed up everywhere.
The models were covered literally from head…
…to toe.
(images from vogue.com)
However, I must include this photo from the fall 2007 ready-to-wear collection. I wasn't able to zoom in, but I swear the floral pattern is the same as the one on the Black Gem palette, and it looks especially similar because of the black-on-black detailing. So maybe they combined elements from the ready-to-wear and couture collections in one palette? I don't know.
(image from vogue.com)
I do know that the Black Gem palette is gorgeous and I wish Armani would return to these sorts of designs. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that the more recent runway palettes are literal representations of the pieces from the fashion shows, but I appreciate crystals and embossed powders even more. ;) I mean, when I compare, say, the fall 2016 palette to Black Gem, both are Museum-worthy but the latter definitely has a more eye-catching design.
What do you think? And do you remember the Black Gem palette at all?