Over the past 4 years or so there has been an explosion of new Chinese makeup brands. Parts 2 and 3 of this post will more fully explore the how's and why's of this growth, along with a variety of brands, but in the meantime I wanted to focus on one called Florasis. Florasis (花西子, Huaxizi1) was founded in 2017 and celebrates traditional Chinese beauty and culture. It was certainly a breath of fresh air, since, as we've seen, makeup is rife with cultural appropriation when it comes to China.
What I love about Florasis is the artistry behind their collections. According to their site, the company hired master craftspeople to help design the packaging.
There are quite a few collections inspired by various aspects of Chinese culture, so I'll be presenting very brief summaries of each as detailed histories are far beyond this post – they could be (and some are) entire books!
First up is the Miao collection that was released in late 2020. The collection celebrates the silver work and embroidery that have been centuries-old traditions of the Miao people, one of 56 officially recognized ethnic minorities in China.
These two necklaces are at the Bowers Museum, whose guide to their Masters of Silver exhibition provides a good summary of Miao silver artistry: "Male silversmiths create a variety of ornaments through casting, smelting, repoussé (a reverse hammering technique), forging, engraving, knitting, coiling, cutting, and other methods. Concepts such as beauty, unity, fortune, and pride are expressed as visual abstractions and geometric motifs. Silver itself is symbolic of light, the moon, fertility, and protection against evil, but it also represents a woman’s wealth and plays a role in courtship. Families spare no expense in adorning their daughters, purchasing additional pieces as they are able. Worn mostly in large festivals, the headdresses, combs, earrings, necklaces, breastplates, bracelets, rings, ornaments, and the counterweights on display here can weigh up to twenty pounds. The fine work aims to attract suitors who look at each garment as measures of the wearer’s qualities. In marriage, silver acts a woman’s dowry and is eventually passed down from mother to daughter." The necklace on the right is actually a bridal collar. While the traditions surrounding Miao silverwork reflect a rather sexist patriarchal structure within their culture, some of the craftsmen are using it as a way to lift their community out of poverty and ensure the practice does not go extinct.
The Miao produce intricate embroidered garments in addition to silver jewelry.2 As the National Museum of Asian Art explains, "Because the Miao people do not have their own written language, their embroideries often take the role of documenting their history and culture. Their embroideries reflect their world view, values, history, religions, and the social changes they have experienced over the centuries. Working with silk and cotton thread, as well as with horsehair, embroiderers adorn cuffs, sleeves, collars, and tunic fronts with designs of mythical animals (dragons and phoenixes) and ordinary insects, fish, and flowers. Vibrant colors—such as scarlet, pink, purple, dark blue, and bottle green—are frequently used." The box set from Florasis opens to reveal three drawers adorned with patterns in the style of Miao embroidery.
This beautiful example is also from the Bowers Museum. The butterfly is a common motif in Miao embroidery, as part of their folklore centers on the tale of the "Butterfly Mother" from which all Miao people have descended. The legend says that the Butterfly Mother laid 12 eggs, one of which hatched to become the Miao people, and the rest hatched into other earthly creatures so that the Miao would not be lonely.
Florasis named their Miao palette the Butterfly palette and claim the pattern consists of butterflies, although I can't say I see any. It looks more like a floral design to my eye.
Next up is the Impression of Dai collection, which also uses the art and traditions of another ethnic minority in China, the Dai people. According to this site, "the Dai are closely related to both the Lao and Thai peoples, having a closely intertwined history and a relatively close geographical position. There are over one million Dai living in China, primarily in the southern Yunnan province."
For the Dai, peacocks symbolize "beauty and peace, and are said to be a good omen." In fact, peacocks are so significant in Dai culture that they created a whole dance! This traditional folk dance goes back thousands of years and mimics the bird's graceful movements. In 2006, along with Miao embroidery, it was added to China's national intangible heritage list. Also, if you look closely at the background of the ivory side of the powder, there's a gorgeous embossed pattern. The Florasis site states that the collection was inspired by Dai brocade. Once again, there are entire papers written about Daibrocade so I can't go into much detail and I couldn't really find a brocade that resembled the pattern, but it definitely looks like fabric.
For some reason I completely spaced on getting the Impression of Dai lipstick. I think I thought I had purchased it and then realized I forgot when the package arrived. Ah well, I'll pick it up another time but I need to do it soon as it's limited edition. The lipstick features exquisite carving that's as intricate as the Miao one, but with a peacock motif. The Florasis site indicates that the lipstick formula contains essences of dendrobium nobile (a type of orchid native to southern China) and lotus flower, and claims these ingredients are used by the Dai. I can't find any hard evidence of that claim, but orchids and lotus flowers have been used for centuries in Chinese medicine and cosmetics so it seems plausible.
Not only does Florasis use artists to design the packaging, for the Dai collection they also worked with Fang Langlang, an artist who recreated the collection using sand.
Next in Florasis's little trove of treasures is the Eastern Beasts face palette. Each section depicts an animal associated with one of the Four Symbols that are based on constellations, also known as the Four Auspicious Beasts (why Florasis is calling the palette Eastern Beasts is not clear).
First is the Green Dragon, representing spring. (I think they may have meant Azure Dragon…maybe they mistranslated azure as green and not blue.)
Then Vermilion Bird, symbolizing summer:
White Tiger, which corresponds to autumn:
Finally, there's the Black Tortoise who represents winter.
While I love the patterns and overall concept, it's driving me a little crazy that the Four Auspicious Beasts are out of order when one considers they are also seen as the guardians of the 4 cardinal directions. The Black Tortoise is associated with the north and the Vermilion Bird with the south so those should be reversed. The same goes for the Dragon and White Tiger (east and west, respectively). They should have been arranged in the palette as in this photo.
As with the Dai lipstick, I failed to purchase the Phoenix palette, the Blooming Rouge lipsticks and the Fairy Peach Blossom powder, so stock photos will have to suffice for now. I plan on adding them to the Museum's collection gradually – considering the lipsticks alone range from $29-49 each they're not inexpensive so I can't buy them all at once, alas. In the meantime, let's take a peek at these gorgeous pieces.
The palette's design is inspired by Chinese folding screens, and the engraved patterns depict scenes from the myth "All Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix". According to the legend, the phoenix carefully gathered fruit and seeds while the other birds mocked him for being greedy. But one day there was a drought and the birds had nothing to eat. The phoenix opened his den to the other birds and shared the food he had saved. To show their gratitude, each bird plucked out their most colorful feather, made a crown out of them and presented it to the phoenix. Every year the birds return to the phoenix to thank him. The story inspired much vibrant visualart, but perhaps the most well-known influence of the legend is a musical arrangement by Chinese composer Wang Jianzhong (1933-2016), which you can listen to here. It really does capture the birds' liveliness and movement.
I'm particularly struck by the gold scrollwork along the edges, as it's a small but significant detail in making the palette truly resemble a folding screen.
The original Fairy Peach Blossom powder (not the peacock-embossed Dai version) is inspired by the ancient Silk Road, a network of trade routes connecting China to the Middle East and Europe. As robbers were common, traders often banded together in large caravans with their camels and other pack animals.
Now let's look at the lipsticks. Some of them feature embossed dragons, phoenixes, azalea, and peony patterns, all of which are deeply symbolic in Chinese culture.
But some of the designs tell a more specific story. The Porcelain lipstick is a tribute to the Ding kilns, which produced beautiful white glazed ceramics for many centuries. According to this site, the kilns were "built during the late Tang Dynasty (618-907), flourished in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) and declined in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368)". The sites of the kilns were lost until about 1934 and finally excavated in the early 1960s. Florasis decorated the lipstick case with lotus petals, which resemble ones found on some plates produced by the Ding kilns, and sculpted the lipstick itself with images of kiln workers (I think?)
This lipstick depicts the legend of the white snake. While the story circulated during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), the first written version did not appear until the early 17th century and there have been many alternate versions. I'm greatly oversimplifying here, but basically the myth describes a shape-shifting white snake who assumes human form under the name of Bai Su Zhen and eventually marries a man named Xu Xian. He discovers her true form years later but they remain in love. Bai gives birth to their son, Xu Mengjiao, but is then imprisoned in a pagoda by her long-time enemy Fa Hai (another shape-shifter between tortoise and man.) Twenty years later, Bai is freed by her friend and fellow snake lady Xiao Qing. She reunites with her husband and son. As with "All Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix", the story has inspired countless artistic creations, including traditional and modern operas as well as a TV series. Unsurprisingly, the star of the show, Ju Jingyi, was tapped as Florasis's first celebrity endorser in 2019.
The inspiration for what Florasis calls Blooming Flowers on the Way Home is not quite as clear, but I think it might refer to a love story about Qian Liu (852-932 CE), the founder and first ruler of the Wuyue kingdom (907-978 CE), writing a love letter to his wife. Each spring Qian Liu's wife would go out of town to visit her parents for a few days. One year he penned a letter to her letting her know the flowers had bloomed and were waiting for her at home just as he was: "Flowers by the path are now in full bloom, and I’m here expecting you to come back soon" (I don't know how accurate that translation is but it makes sense).
This one is probably my favorite of the Blooming Rouge Love Lock lipsticks. The embossing shows Zhang Chang, a government official during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) painting his wife's eyebrows. He would do this each morning as hers were damaged in a childhood accident. Painting eyebrows became a symbol of commitment and a loving relationship.3
Florasis cleverly spun the traditional story to be used in a Valentine's Day promotion for their eyebrow pencils.
Finally, there's this exquisite palette, which depicts scenes from the poem "The Nymph of the Luo River". The poem was written by Cao Zhi (192-232 CE) and painted on a massive scroll originally by Gu Kaizhi (ca. 344-406 CE). In a nutshell, Cao Zhi visits the Luo river with his servants and happens upon a beautiful nymph. They have a brief and ultimately unsuccessful love affair.
I'm not entirely sure the palette reads left to right, as the original scroll painting by Kaizhi is right to left, but Florasis may have arranged it that way for Western customers. Based on the copies of Kaizhi's painting, one of which hangs in China's Palace Museum, the two panels at the bottom and the second one from the left show the horses that escorted Cao Zhi to and from the river. The light gold color is embossed with the nymph.
Towards the right of the palette, we see Cao Zhi observing and falling in love with the nymph. The far right panel I'm not sure what it could be – if the palette does indeed start on the right, then it would be Cao Zhi and his servants arriving at the river, but if it starts on the left, he would be leaving.
In any case, here are some details from Gu Kaizhi's painting.
So far Florasis's practice of highlighting traditional Chinese culture while leveraging the latest online sales tactics has proved fruitful. By 2020 sales reached approximately $442 million. That same year it was the top selling beauty brand on Douyin, an app nearly identical to TikTok. There are a few reasons for the brand's popularity. As many Western makeup buyers have not been previously exposed to many aspects of Chinese art and culture (myself included), Florasis's products represent something new and different; they go beyond stereotypes or cultural phenomena such as Lunar New Year celebrations that are now well-known in the West. Learning more about China's cultural heritage via makeup is very appealing to Western audiences. As Juliette Duveau, a co-founder of the marketing consultancy The Chinese Pulse remarks, Florasis has both "a super interesting brand identity and storytelling for Western countries."
The novelty of foreignness is the other side of the same coin for Chinese customers. Florasis is proving popular there as well precisely because the culture is familiar. The various artistic traditions and folklore are things they grew up with and are a source of comfort and national pride, particularly as the appetite for guochao in China (literally "national trend") grew in 2020. "Part of the wave Florasis has caught is a resurgence in reverie for culturally Chinese brands and products…sentimental resonance has been cast inward by many Chinese consumers and accelerated in a post-pandemic landscape in need and want of a little more local," writes Alixanne Hucker for The Challenger Project.
Another reason for Florasis's success is the relatively small product range and price point. While it can't be categorized as affordable, it's not a luxury line either. The product range is small compared to other brands, many of which seem to churn out new collabs and collections each week. The overall effect helps shed the "made in China" stigma of cheap, poorly made goods and delivers quality products at a reasonable price.
Finally, packaging is key to Florasis's popularity. Other C-beauty brands such as Maogeping, Zeesea and Flower Knows (stay tuned for posts on these!) incorporate eye-catching design and celebrate Chinese culture, but none have quite the level of detail of Florasis. Nor do any of them, to my knowledge, use master artisans to assist in the creation of the product designs. As one article notes, the products "have an 'instantaneous heirloom' quality about them. They sit comfortably in opposition to the Western giants that have previously dominated the market, and the wider category’s fixation on functionality."
I have two slight critiques of Florasis. First, I would like to see more of the proceeds being diverted to organizations that support the cultural heritage of China. Their website states, "We proudly sponsor activities in disaster relief, poverty assistance, female empowerment, and intangible cultural heritage to create value for society." The only evidence of their "social responsibility" I could find was the donation of 1 million yuan (roughly $150,000) to the Wuhan Charity Foundation in 2019, and the launch of the Miao Girls' Educational Assistance Program, a charity project run in conjunction with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (but I can't find any solid proof of as it was only mentioned in one article). While these initiatives are certainly better than nothing, it would be great if they did this for all their products, such as giving a portion of the profits from the Impression of Dai collection to an organization that helps the Dai people. If a Chinese brand (or any brand, for that matter) is going to profit off of a particular culture, even if it's one's own, they need to do their part in giving back to that community.
Second, as with most C-beauty, K-beauty and J-beauty brands, Florasis needs to greatly expand their base shade range if they want to be more fully accepted in Western markets, especially in the U.S. Explains one consulting firm: "While many Westerners do enjoy the design and aesthetic of Florasis packaging, the skin tones and the color preferences are different. China’s beauty preferences are reflective of the homogeneous society whereas the West has much more diversity. Westerners are used to beauty brands that increasingly cater to a wide variety of skin tones, which means Chinese beauty brands [that] enter the West will need to adapt to the diverse preferences." Not only is a comprehensive shade range necessary to profit in the U.S., it's important from an optics standpoint. Any brand that doesn't participate in this, even if they don't believe their main market requires a vast shade range, is generally not perceived as diverse by conscious consumers in the U.S.
What's your favorite object here? I love all but my favorite is probably the lipstick portraying Zhang and his wife. It's too perfect for a Chinese heritage-focused makeup line!
1The name was inspired by one of the "four great beauties" of ancient China, Xi Shi, as described by poet Su Dongpo (Su Shi).
3For information on eyebrow styles and makeup more generally throughout the Tang Dynasty, this paper was great.
Today the Museum is featuring a flash-in-the-pan brand from the 1940s. Shem el Nessim was a very short-lived line, lasting only about 6 months during the second half of 1946. I couldn't find much info, but one thing I can say is that it's not related to the fragrance of the same name by British perfumer Grossmith. The collection consisted of a lipstick, lipstick set with 2 refills, face powder, and a face cream.
Let's talk about the cultural appropriation aspects first. Shem el Nessim appears to be an incorrect, or at least outdated, spelling of Sham el Nessim, a roughly 5,000 year old Egyptian festival/holiday that is celebrated the day after Orthodox Easter (which, this year is today…yes, I've been planning this post for a while). The day marks the beginning of spring and is accompanied by several traditions, including dyeing eggs and enjoying picnics and other outdoor activities. Shem el Nessim loosely translates to "smelling the breeze". Why Grossmith spelled Shem with an "e" is beyond me, but it seems this new brand did too. And while Grossmith engaged in cultural appropriation to market this fragrance and others, they came relatively close to understanding the holiday and translating it correctly. The Shem el Nessim cosmetics line, meanwhile, claimed it was Arabic for "bloom of youth," which is totally off. Also, the name of one of the three lipstick shades appears to be nonsense. "Garfoz" does not seem to be an actual word in any language.
Next, the face cream container is shaped like an "Aladdin lamp"?! No information turned up about the brand's founder, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Shem el Nessim was started by a white American who wanted to capitalize on Western fantasies of the "exotic" Middle East. It's certainly an eye-catching design for a face cream , but completely inappropriate for a brand with no roots in or discernible connection to Egyptian or Middle Eastern heritage. Not to mention that if the entire jar was filled, it would be cumbersome to dig out product from the pointy front part of it.
In addition to using an existing product name, Shem el Nessim may have been looking at Amor Skin's lamp-shaped face cream, which debuted in 1927. It seems Amor Skin's lamp was originally a "Pompeiian" design, but by 1929 they were largely marketing it as an Aladdin Lamp.* Additionally, in the fall of 1946 Amor Skin heavily increased their advertising for the lamp and emphasized the Aladdin aspect, perhaps as a direct response to Shem el Nessim. Of course, the uptick in advertising may have been a simple coincidence, as Amor Skin had just returned to the market in the fall of 1946 after temporarily shutting down production during the war.
Lastly, the collection, or at least the lamp, was allegedly designed by a "Viennese sculptor" named Peticolas.
After a fairly exhaustive search, it seems this artist did not exist. There was a Sherry (Sherman) Peticolas who lived in L.A. and was active in the 1930s-40s, but as far as I know he was American, not Austrian. Additionally, his style was markedly different from the pieces in the Shem el Nessim line, and I couldn't find a record of Peticolas designing cosmetics.
So while it's certainly possible Peticolas was involved in the design, there's no concrete evidence to confirm. As of July 1946 Shem el Nessim had hired advertising agency Klitten and Thomas, so I'm wondering if the claims about the meaning of Shem el Nessim and the Peticolas design in the ad copy were entirely their doing. In any case, there doesn't seem to be any mention of Shem el Nessim after December 1946. I'm guessing Grossmith put a stop to the company very quickly, as the Shem el Nessim fragrance was most likely trademarked, and perhaps Amor Skin also told them to back off. Or it could have happened in the reverse: Shem el Nessim's owner(s) were unaware of either the Grossmith fragrance or Amor Skin lamp when creating the line, quickly realized their missteps and abandoned the business. What's interesting is that the Shem el Nessim Sales Co. did not seem to change names, they simply disappeared. Oh, if only all businesses that ripped off existing brand names (knowingly or not) would go away forever…the world would be much better off, yes? I also suspect the price points for a fledgling brand that was not an offshoot of a fashion/perfume house or other well-known entity were too high. A more established brand, or one started by a big fashion name or celebrity might have had better luck charging the 2022 equivalent of $110 for a lipstick. Per the ad copy, Shem el Nessim was intended to be "exclusive" and not mass market, but that may not have been a profitable tactic to start with.
Cultural appropriation and unoriginal name aside, the Shem el Nessim lipstick case remains a unique specimen of makeup design. The style recalls both classical busts and Surrealist art, with a dash of Camille Claudel in the graceful tilt of the head, dreamy, far-away expression and rendering of the hair. It could also be considered a more sophisticated and artistic precursor to the doll-shaped lipsticks that would prove popular some 15-20 years later.
Finally, while I haven't seen actual photos of the other items, the lipstick looks to be the most elegant, albeit impractical, design – certainly more visually appealing than the powder urn (the poor woman looks decapitated) and lamp (overtly culturally appropriative and the figure's silhouette and pose are a bit tacky).
Thoughts? If anyone can contribute any other information on this brand I'm all ears. 🙂
*While nearly all of the newspaper ads between 1946 and 1950 referred to the Amor Skin lamp as Aladdin's, a handful of them along with the November 1946 issue of Drug and Cosmetic Industry used the previous Pompeiian description.
Took a while, but I'm pleased to finally talk about Mikimoto's gorgeous collection from holiday 2020. As with the holiday 2018 and 2019 collections, the company enlisted an artist to create the packaging. For the Twinkle Pearls lineup, Mikimoto collaborated with London-based illustrator (and southpaw!) Fee Greening.
Greening illustrated a charming zodiac theme using her signature dip pen, ink and watercolor process.
As with the 2018 collection, the moisturizer is housed in a luminous, iridescent sphere that imitates the brilliance of genuine pearls.
Strands of pearls border the zodiac design on the palette, while the blush is delicately embossed with stars and an oyster shell opened to reveal a shiny pearl.
Gemstones surround a rather regal goddess wearing an elaborate crown made of pearl strands affixed to an oyster shell in the center. The star motif and wave-like clouds in the background fuse the celestial and oceanic atmospheres.
The interior of the box depicts a disembodied hand festooned with pearl strands, while the goddess perches on a lion escorting her through the heavens.
Both the makeup pouch and travel case display more of the lovely illustrations as well as a quote. I'm assuming the latter is from Mikimoto.
Fee Greening (b. 1990) always wanted to draw. Seeing famous paintings in galleries on travels with her parents, she would try to replicate them at home, with much frustration. But she found the right medium when she received a dip pen and ink as a gift. "I used to go to galleries in London with my family and try to recreate oil paintings unsuccessfully with my crayons at home and get very frustrated," she says. "When I was around ten, someone in my family gave me a Murano glass dip pen from Venice. It took a long time to get used to it. For the first few years it was hard to get the ink to run off smoothly and it would often drip. Now I have developed a muscle memory of what angle to hold my pen and it no longer happens."
As evidenced by the above photo of Greening, intricate dip pen illustrations require a lot of time and attention to detail. The finished product is well worth it, however, for both artist and client. "It is a very slow process, the pen can only draw 1/2cm before you need to re-dip it. I also have to wait for it to dry for couple of minutes so I don’t smudge or drag my long hair across the wet ink. Although there are many wonderful aspects of living in a digital age, it has given us very short attention spans. I think we crave traditional analogue outlets to balance out our scrolling culture. A detailed drawing is not only precious because of its beauty but also because of the time dedicated to making it," she says.
Thematically, since childhood Greening has been fascinated by the common narratives within medieval, Renaissance and Gothic art. "I always had a flair for the dramatic as a child, and loved storytelling. I think that’s where my interest in Renaissance and Gothic art came from…There are so many great heroines and doomed love affairs depicted in those artistic eras that I was really drawn to. I think, even though I didn’t know it then, I was very interested in fate and divine will. Characters fated to unavoidable doomed love like Tristan and Iseult, characters answering a calling like Joan of Arc or characters whose decisions had so many repercussions like Pandora and Eve. Maybe it was something to do with coming of age." This interest is expressed through the fairy tale quality in Greening's work. Take, for example, the story she created for Gucci's Acqua di Fiori fragrance in 2018, which depicts half-human, half-flower girls "blossoming" into women. Greening explains, "I explored the perfume’s themes of female coming of age, friendship and metamorphosis, I wanted the girls to literally blossom into women. I looked specifically at mandrakes in medieval illuminated manuscripts. Mandrakes were said to be half human half plant and when pulled from the soil let out a high pitch scream. I wanted to create an idyllic floral world for the budding mandrakes to frolic in and transform into women. I’ve known my closest female friends since my late teens. Drawing these reminded me of our early years of friendship, lazing around barefoot in a sunny garden surrounded by flowers." The inclusion of butterflies completes the theme of transformation.
What's wonderful about Greening's Instagram feed, in addition to seeing work that's not on her website, is that it occasionally includes the artworks that inspire her. Here are some illustrations of mandrakes from medieval books, along with a detail of the mythical Daphne turning into a tree.
Indeed, the concepts of transformation and magic through the lens of medieval and Renaissance art – whether earthly pursuits such as astronomy and botany or mythical like mandrakes and alchemy – figure prominently in Greening's work. While she delights in the fanciful side ("if money was no object I would happily just draw demons and angels," she notes), ultimately her work centers on revealing the magic of natural processes and phenomena. "I enjoy looking for something hallowed and fantastical in every day life." A good example is the triptych Greening created for Martin Brudnizki's Linnaean spa project. The spa's namesake comes from Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish naturalist who developed a "flower clock" in 1748* by planting certain blooms that opened and closed at specific times of day. The center panel of Greening's triptych combines a joyful rendition of an original flower clock illustration with surrounding flora and fauna arranged symmetrically, reminiscent of those found in medieval manuscripts. While the flower clock is based on various scientific principles, Greening uncovers the wonder of this concept and reminds us of the magic hidden in nature. Who would ever think one could use flowers to tell time?! That sounds quite fantastical to me, like something from Alice in Wonderland.
The same periods in Western art history also influenced Greening's style. "I think my fascination with medieval and gothic styles comes from visiting churches and museums in Italy with my family when I was young," she says. After graduating from London's famed Central St. Martin's in 2012, she received a Master's degree in illustration from the Royal Academy of Arts in 2014. It was at the Academy that she further developed her aesthetic, diving into the plentiful examples of medieval manuscripts and alchemical drawings offered there. "There was such an extensive section [on them] in the library. I was already drawing similar themes and using dip pens, so the more research I did on the era the more it reinforced my style. I tend to use the same straight on perspective, heavily detailed borders, hand written text, natural color palette, botanical specimens and symbology. Alchemical drawings are detailed but laid out in very simple, ordered compositions which is something I try to emulate in my own work." These influences are especially apparent in Greening's capitalized letters, which emulate a modern, light-hearted spirit while distinctly retaining their medieval origins.
These plants fused with jewels and a print entitled "forget-me-not" embody the strange, somewhat surreal nature of alchemical drawings. Seemingly disparate elements floating in the ether – flowers, gems, insects, hands – are merged with text to form a dreamlike yet orderly space.
It's unclear how Mikimoto's partnership with Greening came about, but it's not surprising given her previous collaborations including beauty illustrations for Sisley. Perhaps the company observed Greening's love of pearls, shells and coral. Additionally, Mikimoto may have spoken to the artist's interests: pearls can be considered a symbol of metamorphosis or alchemy, as sand is transformed by oysters into a precious and beautiful material.
Once again, it's great to observe the images that rattle around in the artist's brain as she conceives of her drawings. Here are a few pearly details from Greening's IG page.
The selection of a zodiac theme is a bit unexpected for Mikimoto. Something that looked out towards the sea rather than skyward may have been more appropriate. However, it's obvious how much Greening enjoys illustrating the zodiac and other celestial motifs. It looks as though she slightly modified her Celestial design for Mikimoto to make it more fitting.
I love how she pays homage to and re-imagines some of the details from various 17th century illustrations in the collection for Mikimoto, such as the scrolls, stars and fine line work.
These next two zodiac designs from the 1600s have not popped up in Greening's Instagram feed, but I would be surprised if she hadn't looked to them for inspiration. I'm also certain she owns a copy of this book.
My only complaint about Greening's design is that mermaids were strangely absent. Given that the artist has incorporated them into previous commissions and even chose bathroom tiles with a mermaid pattern for her home, I'm a bit disappointed not to see them on the Mikimoto packaging. Plus, they would have aligned nicely with the mer-folk on Mikimoto's previous holiday collections. These invitations and the mermaids therein are inspired by medieval and Renaissance maps…
…especially the ladies in the invitation on the right below.
Absolutely adore these tiles. The mermaid comes from a volume called Solidonius Philosophus, published around 1710 (there appear to be a couple different versions.) The mermaid is depicted with the 4 elements.
Overall, while it wasn't a perfect match in my eyes, Greening did an excellent job for Mikimoto. I wish the company had come up with any sort of narrative as they did with the previous two holiday collections. While they weren't the most coherent – I think something was getting lost in translation – Mikimoto at least tried to tell a story invoking the magic of the holiday season and tying it back to pearls. Greening is a skilled storyteller so her talents were somewhat wasted in that regard. Nevertheless, it's a visually beautiful collection, and my inner art history geek greatly admires Greening's style and influences.
What do you think of this collection and Greening's work? If she ever makes a mermaid print I'm buying every single item!
On average, the Museum receives one inquiry a week. It doesn't seem like much, but if it's something that can't be identified easily or a broad question about historic trends, they can take up quite a bit of time. Here are a handful of inquiries I worked on over the past year or so.
First, we have some questions about wartime makeup. One of the Museum's Instagram followers asked about this lovely set she had purchased on eBay. She suggested it may have been a kit provided to service women during the war.
The following week, by pure coincidence, another person got in touch with an identical kit in red.
As it turns out, the hunch from the tan kit's owner was spot-on: this is Elizabeth Arden's service kit, which dates to about 1939-1956. I don’t think the company provided them for free, but it seems like the kit with Stop Red was recommended specifically for the women in the Auxiliary Fire Service in the UK, at least initially. A book called the Home Front Pocket Manual contains an excerpt from the Nov. 1939 issue of a British publication called Britannia and Eve, and it mentions the set.
The kit was sold in Canada starting around 1942 and continued to be sold there into the 1950s, but was advertised just as a regular travel kit for the “busy” woman, not service women. It also looks like the red leather was not available until 1942. In any case, it's a compelling piece of wartime women's history – kits were actually created to help women adhere to the "beauty is your duty" motto.
So this was mostly solved…except for the number that appeared on both kits. If anyone knows what "R.D. 1941" means please get in touch. The only possibly relevant thing I found was "Reserve Decoration" which is an award for the Royal Navy Reserve in the UK, but it doesn't seem like that would be appropriate to put on this particular kit.
Next up, a vintage enthusiast and YouTuber, Katie May, asked about the use of gravy browning as leg makeup during the war. As silk and nylons were scarce, liquid leg makeup was sold as a substitute for stockings.
But in the UK, where shortages were even more dire and cosmetics prohibitively expensive, more women tried to DIY liquid stockings through a number of substances. According to some sources, ladies tested out a bunch of things to mimic the look of stockings. Along with gravy browning, cocoa, wet sand, tea, iodine, walnut juice and brown shoe polish were all experimented with. Katie wanted to know how the gravy was applied and whether it was a widespread trend. I'm afraid I couldn't turn up much concrete information given the limited access I have to resources, not to mention I know very little of where to begin looking for sources on WWII history in the UK. This BBC archive provides a brief 1st person mention of the stockings, but my findings consisted mostly of newspaper snippets and book excerpts, which may not be reliable and don't provide exact figures as to how many women were actually partaking in the practice.
So it's really difficult to say how widespread DIY leg makeup was, at least on a regular basis. It must have been so cumbersome to mix and apply, and it definitely was not waterproof. Even the expensive pre-made leg makeup sold by cosmetic companies were not necessarily waterproof formulas despite their advertising. The gravy browning in particular was rumored to attract dogs and flies. I can't envision women applying it themselves or going to the leg makeup "bars" to have others apply it every day, but maybe they did. It was a very different time; one woman remarked that it was "embarrassing" to go without stockings, so perhaps the social stigma was strong enough to force women to try DIY alternatives, and the cosmetics shortage in the UK was a lot worse than in the U.S. As for face makeup, the same ideas apply – I'm skeptical of how widespread DIY makeup was, but it seems most women in the UK could not afford cosmetics during the war even if they were readily available (which, again, they weren't…lots of shortages. While the UK government believed that cosmetics boosted morale so they didn't completely stop producing makeup, it was still difficult to obtain.) I must point out that men enjoyed making fun of us silly, shallow women's efforts to keep up with the constant societal expectation of beauty. And of course, they always had it worse. I can't roll my eyes hard enough at these clippings.
In any case, some sources state that beetroot juice was substituted for lip makeup and blush, shoe polish or soot (!) for mascara, and starch for face powder (NOT flour, as proposed by the sexist windbag above). Some women melted down whatever was left of their existing lipsticks and mixed them with Vaseline to make a balm. The two sources I found to be most useful on DIY makeup were 1940s Fashion by Fiona Kay and A People's War by Peter Lewis. Madeleine Marsh's book Compacts and Cosmetics (p.124) and Geoffrey Jones's Beauty Imagined (p. 136) also have brief mentions of DIY wartime makeup. Finally, I also recommended to Katie that she reach out to Kate Thompson, who has written several historical fiction novels about women who worked at the Yardley cosmetics factory in the UK during the war, and my understanding is that she's done quite a bit of research into WWII makeup. Anyway, Katie bravely tried out the gravy browning and a bunch of other homemade wartime beauty substitutes! Kudos to her for re-creating these unusual and rather messy cosmetic practices.
Next, an antique store owner asked about some old cosmetics sales kits by the name of Velens that she had come across. I didn't turn up much on the brand's products, but here's what I was able to find. The company was founded in 1930 by a Swedish ex-pat named Leo B. Selberg. Selberg had a background in chemistry and previously worked for Luzier, another cosmetics brand at the time. The Velen's Educational Cosmetics name was copyrighted that same year, as well as something called "Paul Velen's Color Harmony Chart". As it turns out, a man by the name of Paul Velen (based in Kansas) had actually come up with all the formulas prior to Selberg's involvement. The relationship between Selberg and Velen isn't clear; however, from newspaper clippings it seems that before moving to Missouri, Selberg socialized frequently with an older brother of Paul, A.R. (Reuben) Velen, so I'm assuming they knew each other. Paul also had a degree in chemistry, although what inspired him to start a beauty business remains a mystery. Maybe Leo approached Paul about being the owner of the business while continuing to sell under the Velen name and keeping the formulas, but it doesn't seem like either of them were too involved/hands on with the line. Selberg sold Velen's in 1959 to a company called Greer and Associates, but I couldn't find any mention of Velen's Cosmetics after 1955 so it may have been on its last legs by that point anyway. Paul Velen died in May of 1969 at the age of 68; Selberg in 1979 at the age of 83. There was also a man named Albert Colborn who served briefly as Chairman of the Board of Velen's Cosmetics from 1930-1933 and started his own beauty company called the Modernistic Beauty Service in 1933, but I couldn't turn up much about him other than his obituary.
Anyway, the Velen's line wasn't used for training at beauty schools but rather for demonstrations in salons to sell to salon customers. In fact, it was almost exclusively sold in salons with some direct sales (door-to-door/traveling) agents, not in department or drug stores. The "educational" part of the name meant that beauty salon employees would "educate" their clientele on the best products for them and how to apply them. It looks like it was sold primarily in the Midwest and Texas, with some salons as far away as California and New Hampshire, which is why it's a little surprising there aren't more records or product photos. So this was quite a find and an interesting tidbit.
Skipping ahead to the late 1950s, the Museum received a few questions about Helena Rubinstein's Mascara-Matic. First, someone sent in a box with some adorable packaging, which was released for the holiday season in 1958.
I couldn't find a magazine ad, but there were a couple of newspaper ads. A year later Rubinstein released another holiday edition of Mascara-Matic with a Christmas ornament design on the box. As far as I know the "harlequin" style in the photos sent in to the Museum was only released in 1958, and it doesn't seem like Rubinstein released any other holiday edition boxes of Mascara-Matic except for 1958 and 1959.
Then another person wrote in asking about the value of an original Helena Rubinstein Mascara-Matic, believing that the one she had found was from its first production run and worth a whopping £3,000 according to this Daily Mail article. It's hard to say with certainty whether any Mascara-Matics are from the first run. Perhaps those had the patent number and everything after that was marked "waterproof" or did not have any markings around the middle. However, the one I purchased for the Museum has the patent number but also came with a refill, and refills were not sold until 1958, a year after the mascara's debut. Even if the one the person had was original, it's not clear where the figure of £3,000 comes from. The Museum does not do valuations, but I will say Mascara-Matics, either with patent numbers or marked "waterproof" typically sell for about $50 so I can't see an original being worth 60 times more, unless there was proof it belonged to a celebrity or something like that. There was also a listing for one with a patent number at eBay – from what I can tell it was unsold with a starting bid of £49.95. If it was in fact sold, again, I can't see it going for £3,000 even in mint condition.
Lastly, another vintage store owner inquired about a skincare kit sold by blender brand Osterizer. (There are larger photos of the jars at Etsy.)
Based on the coupon included in the photo and some newspaper ads it was sold between 1971 and 1975. It looked like quite the gimmick. There wasn't a ton of information on it, but it seems Oster was trying to cash in on the "natural" cosmetics trend of the late '60s/early '70s and sold these kits for those who already had a blender and wanted to make their own organic skincare with fresh ingredients.
But who really needs brand name pink jars and labels for homemade cosmetics? One could go to any craft store and get their own supplies. And while Google didn't exist back then, the recipes would have been pretty easy to find as well. I'm just a bit astounded at what they were trying to sell, as it really seems to be a cash grab. Anyway, it's a fascinating bit of beauty history and definitely an expression of the era.
Which one of these were you most intrigued by? While I'm not the best at solving makeup mysteries I do enjoy receiving them, so please don't hesitate to send any objects or questions to the Museum!
I'm still a bit shocked that I haven't posted a single thing about Dior makeup in nearly 6 years! I guess Instagram has taken over the shorter posts I'd normally share here. But there have been some beautiful objects that serve as excellent homages to pieces of Dior's history and as today is the designer's birthday*, I thought it would be a good time to catch up. These are by no means all of the Museum-worthy Dior releases since 2016; I'm just focusing on the ones that have a more inspired relationship to the fashion.
Trafalgar blush and lipstick were released in fall 2019 as tributes to the designer's penchant for red as well as a fun little trick he used while showing his collections.
As the story goes, Dior would often send a surprise down the runway – usually in the form of a striking red dress – halfway through the show to keep viewers on their toes, dubbing this tactic a "coup de Trafalgar". Talk about audience engagement! I have no idea whether this "afternoon dress" from the winter 1955 collection was used as a coup de Trafalgar, but it is beautiful.
The brand named September 9, 2019 "#999 Day" to celebrate their iconic #999 shade in its cosmetics and announced the new Trafalgar collection then. According to the online Fashion Magazine, Creative Director of Dior Makeup Peter Philips designed the Trafalgar lineup to make "revolutionary variations on Dior’s iconic red," while the embossed motif on the blush and lipsticks "pays homage to Maria Grazia’s Chiuri’s work at the house, as well as the power of a true red."
The idea of a capsule makeup collection dedicated to the coup de Trafalgar must have been in the works for some time, at least since 2016, when Philips noted he was inspired by Dior's little runway maneuver. From the New York Times T Magazine backstage beauty report of the spring 2016 Dior couture show: "'Christian Dior had this idea: Halfway through the show when people were getting bored, he’d do a surprise — and quite often it was a red dress that suddenly came out of nowhere,' Philips said, referring to what has come to be known as the 'coup de Trafalgar.' He lined a handful of models’ lips with a Dior lip pencil in Rouge Royale before painting them with Diorific lipstick in Fabuleuse."
Next up is the Blooming Garden pressed powder. To celebrate the launch of Dior's Toile de Jouy fragrances, in spring 2021 the cosmetics division released a face powder embossed with the toile's floral pattern. I tried so hard to identify the part of the pattern that's on the powder, but couldn't find an exact match.
Before we get to Dior's use of toile de Jouy, a little background on toile de Jouy's origins is in order. My apologies for the laziness, but Pattern Observer has an excellent condensed history of toile de Jouy so I am copying and pasting it here. "Toile, or more properly, Toile de Jouy (meaning, “cloth from Jouy”) is a type of print that is characterised by complex vignettes scattered over the surface of the cloth. Originally, they were scenes carved on woodblocks or engraved on copper, printed in only one colour (often red, black, or blue) onto a white or cream background. To understand the print, it’s also useful to look at the history of the basecloth. Cotton was first imported in France in the 16th century, and quickly became the fabric of choice because it was cheap and easy to look after. Its ever-growing success was such that it began to threaten the local textile industries of wool and silk, and so eventually cotton was banned in 1686, with the ban stayed in force for around 70 years. Christophe-Phillipe Oberkampf was born during this time and had been working in the family textile business for several years. In 1759 when he heard the ban on imported cotton was going to be lifted, he took the only piece of furniture that he owned – a printing press – and set up business in Jouy-en-Josas outside Paris. There, influenced by Rococo art and its romantic zeitgeist, he joined with engraver and designer Jean Baptiste Huet to design idyllic pastoral scenes for their fabrics. These became immensely popular. The business grew and they began commissioning other designers, and by the time Oberkampf died in 1815, the company had a catalogue of over 30,000 patterns. Toile prints were the perfect medium for spreading not only populist themes, but political messages and recording historic events too; one by Huet proudly showed off France’s scientific advancement with scenes from the first hot-air balloon flight in 1784, and other toiles featured images of Colonial expansion with sailing ships landing on tropical islands and negotiating with tribal leaders. Other printing companies in France, England and America soon followed suit as the popularity of the toile spread."
Dior first used toile de Jouy for the medallion chairs and other surfaces in his boutique. Wallpaper explains that the designer's artist friend Christian Bérard – whose makeup ad illustrations I hope to cover later this year – recommended that Dior decorate his boutique with toile de Jouy. "Bérard understood that the pattern, typically associated with the rococo extravagance of the 18th century, could in the contemporary context of a Parisian boutique be used to create a modern, sumptuous aesthetic that was well-suited to the newly opened couturier. As Christian Dior later wrote of Bérard’s vision, 'it was he who advised us to hang the boutique with toile de Jouy and to scatter hat boxes bearing the name of the house everywhere, on top of wardrobes and in every corner. Beneath this semblance of disorder, he had created life.'"
According to Marie Clare France, Bérard designed a pattern based on some of Huet's sepia drawings and Fragonard's The Swing. Too bad I can't seem to locate a close-up photo of the toile de Jouy print used in the Dior boutique – I would love to see how it references the painting. (Side note: the article also mentions there is an entire toile de Jouy museum!) Dior began incorporating toile de Jouy in his fashion as early as 1956, when Roger Vivier created a pair of pumps in collaboration with the designer.
Apparently many Dior designers followed suit over the years. Alas, I don't have any Dior fashion books on hand – I only have the Art of Color book, which I used as a background for some of the photos here (see if you can spot which ones!) – so I had to make due with what was available online. The only other examples of toile de Jouy in Dior that I could find were these pieces from John Galliano's collections, and I don't even know what years they are. Browsing the runway shows at Vogue, I saw there were a few more by Galliano as well as Raf Simons that may have been toile de Jouy, but as I'm not a fashion historian or expert I couldn't tell for sure. The Marie Claire article notes that this piece from the fall 2010 lineup is toile, but again, my fashion eye is not trained enough to know with certainty.
Chiuri revived the pattern several times over the past few years, most notably for the spring 2019 collection. "The idea for the toile de Jouy came to me at the studio one day when we were all chatting together. The French on the squad weren’t sure what to think. But I, being Italian, saw this painting as something exotic. The main reservation was that we were touching on something so coded, so bourgeois, that it was going to prevent modernity," she says. Interestingly, it may also be another one of Chiuri's sneaky ways of calling attention to women's rights via fashion: as one blogger points out, "female workers comprised one-third to one-half the [toile de Jouy] workforce at various times. Female printers earned half the pay of male printers…Famously known for her “WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS” t-shirt, maybe [Chiuri] also knew a little history about toile."
Dior had also reintroduced the print for the holiday 2018 season. The pop-up stores were decorated entirely in toile de Jouy and sold a wide variety of accessories and homeware.
Getting back to the pressed powder, I think it's Museum-worthy, but might have been more interesting and versatile had Dior adhered to a toile color scheme, i.e. a red, blue or black pattern against a cream background. Perhaps the raised flowers could have been red or dark pink shimmer and set on top of a translucent powder, or they could have been rendered in black and/or blue and the background a shimmery ivory shade to make an eye palette. Those may have worked for more skintones than the the very pale pink powder. Although it was billed as an all-over "brightening and correcting" product and an Asia-exclusive (I think), more colors wouldn't have hurt. Also, purely from an aesthetic standpoint, in this case a dual color scheme would be far more visually appealing than using all one shade. I hate to say it, but to my eye the floral pattern bears a vague resemblance to broccoli or cauliflower, or something from a petri dish. There's a sense of growth but not a blooming garden – more like multiplying microbes.
Anyway, Dior regained its limited edition makeup footing (sort of) later in 2021 with the Millefiori blush.
As with the Toile de Jouy powder, the Millefiori blush was launched to celebrate the release of a new (old) fragrance in the fall of 2021. I'm sure a perfume historian could say exactly how many times the Miss Dior fragrance has been reformulated since its debut in 1947, but the latest iteration is called Millefiori. True to its name, the fragrance is described as an "olfactory 'millefiori', imagined like a bouquet of a thousand shimmering and colorful flowers." Chiuri designed a lovely dress for brand ambassador Natalie Portman to wear in the commercial.
I find it to be a gorgeous and modern take on the original Miss Dior dress, which was created for the spring 1949 collection and boasted a sumptuous embroidered mille fleurs design.
There wasn't quite as much product with the Millefiori theme as the Toile de Jouy. There were several scarves but no clothing, bags, housewares, etc. However, the Dior pop-up stores all got the thousand flowers treatment…literally!
The reason I'm mentioning the pop-up stores again is that I believe the imprint on the blush is actually from the pop-up store and not any of the Millefiori patterns on the scarves or dress. I pored over all of them and like the Toile de Jouy, none were an exact match. Then I spotted photos of celebrities in front of the pop-up and thought the wall decoration looked very familiar.
The pattern on the store, in turn, appears to be a mishmash of the flowers from the scarves.
I have no idea why Dior would "remix" their Millefiori patterns for decorating their pop-ups and then put it on the blush. Technology-wise it probably would have been just as easy to use a section from the scarf print or even one of the dress's flowers. Also, I'm baffled by the use of the Italian "millefiori"…why not call the fragrance the original French "mille fleurs"? I get that Chiuri is Italian, but the fragrance was not her creation, and her cruise 2021 collection centered on the mille fleurs motif and was not referred to in the Italian phrase (even though the show took place in Italy). Am I missing something?
Fortunately, the holiday 2021 collection was a bit more straightforward. Dior released a glamourous minaudiere and other items embossed with an image of Dior's first boutique located at 30 Avenue Montaigne. I wonder if the company was looking at Chanel's recent Poudre Cambon or if they remembered the Maison Lancome palette from 10 years ago. Depicting a storefront on makeup is not a new or even all that innovative idea, but I think Dior executed it nicely. I also thought it was a touch more inspired than their 2020 New Look '47 capsule makeup collection (which, mind you, I purchased immediately but still think it was a bit bland, especially compared to the Tailleur Bar palettes.)
Sadly, part of the embossing on the lipstick got mashed. It wasn't my fault (for once) – I think with embossing that intricate some of it is bound to wear off when swiveling up the bullet.
In any case, the imprint really does resemble the atelier's facade.
In my opinion, I believe it was inspired not just by old photos of the boutique, but also a detailed illustration by artist Xavier Casalta. Casalta was commissioned by Dior for the original run of the Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition held from July 2017 through January 2018 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. (The show is wrapping up soon at the Brooklyn Museum; I am heartbroken that COVID is still proving too risky for me to get on public transport to see it.)
This piece took even longer than the Millefiori dress, clocking in at over 600 hours as compared to a mere 500 for the dress. I really wish I could have seen it in person. Anyway, I love the minaudiere's design and I believe the dimensions – at least for the compact portion – are comparable to vintage pieces. I won't know for sure until the vintage minaudiere I purchased from eBay arrives, but I will compare the sizes of the two as soon as it gets here and update this post. So stay tuned for that as well as a new post on Dior's use of houndstooth, which covered the spring 2022 makeup collection. 🙂
What was your favorite here? Are you inspired to learn more about Dior fashion? Truth be told, I liked all of these, but I'll be honest: none are really on the same level as, say, the Lady Dior palette. Speaking of which, they're still collaborating with artist for those bags, so I wish Dior would borrow their designs for makeup from time to time as they did previously.
*Backdated as usual since everything takes me longer than expected, plus a nasty bout of food poisoning struck me down so I was even tardier finishing up this post. Sigh.
Here we go again! I was not nearly as productive on blog posts and exhibitions as I had hoped in 2021, but that was due to some behind-the-scenes things going on – namely, making the Museum a nonprofit organization, writing a land acknowledgment and developing a diversity report card (which is coming soon!) I must preface the following exhibition and blog topics by stating that there will be more behind-the-scenes things going on in 2022, so it will be even quieter than in 2021.
I won't bore you with the details, but I've made decisions about two major initiatives that have been rattling about for years: collections management software and overhauling the website. Since I can't hire a professional to help with either of these massive tasks, they will be very slow going and will require cutting back on blog posts and exhibitions (and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the website is exactly the same 12 months from now.) My goal is to curate one exhibition and however many blog posts I can manage – I'm hoping for 20-30, but even that seems very ambitious. So with that, let's take a peek at the topics I have brewing.
In an effort to narrow down the amount of exhibition ideas I have, last year I came up with a priority list of topics that might be doable in 1-5 years (if the Museum is still in existence) and a secondary list for ones that are not quite as high priority. The descriptions are basically the same as last year and I hope to think of better titles. Once again the husband came up with handy graphics. The first four are new ideas I came up with in the past few months, so feedback is greatly appreciated in terms of how they rank in relation to the others. Also, while I plan having people assist in specific parts of exhibitions, i.e. writing the introduction or an essay on one aspect of the topic, there are four exhibitions I absolutely can't take on mostly by myself. Whether they're a group effort or involve just one other person, co-curation is necessary. It will be difficult to get co-curators, however, given that it would be a volunteer (i.e. unpaid) effort. So while these exhibitions are included in the priority list, none of them will be the 2022 exhibition as it will take time to find funding or someone who will co-curate for free.
Priority:
"Indies and Influencers: The Changing Makeup Landscape" – I am so fascinated by the number of indie brands on the market as well as their creativity. Influencers are another fairly recent development and I think it would be interesting to see how these two major developments interact and also how they're shaping makeup history.
"Age Before Beauty: Teens and Makeup" – This is pretty straightforward. It would be a history of makeup marketed to teens, makeup advice for teens, and how past and current generations of teens view makeup. The segment on '90s prom makeup is already set. 😉
"Vanity Projects: Celebrity Makeup Brands" – Again, self-explanatory. You would be shocked how long celebrity endorsements and lines have been around.
I don't have a title for this one, but it would be similar to the big art x makeup exhibition/book. I think a deep dive into all the various connections between fashion and makeup is in order – from fashion brands launching makeup lines, designer collaborations and runway makeup to makeup as jewelry and a history of makeup/clothing color coordination, I'm aiming for a comprehensive look at the relationship between fashion and makeup.
"Aliengelic: Pat McGrath Retrospective" – I'd strongly prefer having a makeup artist co-curate with me. Alternate title instead of Aliengelic: "The Mother of Modern Makeup".
"Black and Blue: A History of Punk Makeup"
"Catch the Light: Glitter in Cosmetics from Ancient Times Through Today" – this one is just so enormous I still don't know where to start even though it's been on my radar for a couple years now.
"Color History Through Cosmetics: Blue" – I decided to scrap the gold-themed exhibition in exchange for blue. I discovered so many interesting things about blue makeup while pulling together some trivia on Instagram, there's definitely enough there for an exhibition. I'd also love to cover other colors.
"Ancient Allure: Egypt-Inspired Makeup and Beauty" – This one is still proving popular when I've polled on social media. My big issue is how to handle the cultural appropriation/racist aspects of it.
"Queens: A History of Drag Makeup" – Great topic but overwhelming. Need much help.
"Just Desserts: Sweet Tooth Revisited" – If the Museum is still around next year, Sweet Tooth will definitely make a triumphant return on its 10-year anniversary. I would also add a section on savory food themed makeup and possibly booze…some of the things I've seen are just bonkers and have to be included.
"Beauty Marked in Your Eyes: A History of '90s Makeup" – If you've been following this for a while you can see I tweaked the title from "She's All That". I was in the shower and listening to "Now They'll Sleep" by Belly, and the new exhibition title just hit me like lightning! You know I've been wanting to do a comprehensive exhibition and book since at least 2014, but just never seem to have the time. We'll see if I make any progress this year.
"Pandemic: Makeup in the Age of COVID-19" – Depressing but historically significant. I'll need to wait until (if) the pandemic is safely behind us, but I am gathering bits of what will surely become history now.
"Ugly Makeup: A Revolution in Aesthetics" – I still love Makeup Brutalism and her other effort Ugly Makeup Revolution. It would be amazing to have her curate with me. The exhibition would be a deep dive into how makeup is going beyond basic artistry and self-expression.
"Nothing to Hide: Makeup as Mask" – This was the other choice I included in the Twitter and Instagram polls. While respondents chose Egyptian-themed makeup over this one, the mask theme in makeup goes back centuries and would certainly make a rich topic, plus I could do a subsection on mask wearing's effects on makeup in the pandemic.
"From Male Polish to Guyliner: A History of Men's Makeup" – Would love for the author of Pretty Boys to co-curate!
Secondary list/things I'm not sure about:
"From Mods and Hippies to Supervixens and Grrrls: '60s and '90s Makeup in Dialogue" – In my opinion, cultural developments in both the late '60s and mid-1990s radically changed the beauty industry and gave birth to new ideas about how people view and wear makeup; there are many parallels between the two eras. I feel, however, that I'd need to do the '90s exhibition and book first so this would have to wait.
"Gilded Splendor: A History of Gold Makeup" – This is nice but the more I thought about it the more I didn't think it would be a priority.
"Design is a Good Idea: Innovations in Cosmetics Design and Packaging" – Another that I still like but not so much as to make it immediate. I do love the notion of including a huge section on novelty packaging.
"The Medium is the Message: Makeup as Art" – This will trace how makeup is marketed and conceived of as traditional fine art mediums, i.e painting and sculpture, artist collaborations for packaging (naturally) and also how art history is incorporated into makeup advertising and collections. Consider it a comprehensive discussion of this post while working in canonical artists whose work has appeared on makeup packaging. While the idea of makeup as fine art was the Museum's original raison d'etre, the expression of this has been overwhelmingly white. The artists used in vintage ads such Lancome's are white and even collections today don't collaborate with many BIPOC artists, especially Black ones.
"Wanderlust: Travel-Inspired Beauty" – honestly, this topic is sort of boring me now. But I figured I'd still keep it on the back burner.
"By Any Other Name: The Rose in Makeup and Beauty" – I pitched this idea to the FIT Museum as a small add-on to their "Ravishing" exhibition. They weren't interested and now that the exhibition has passed I'm tabling it for now.
And here are the blog posts.
MM Musings (1-2): Really want to write about museum accessibility and how museums can be agents of social change. Those topics are huge so it'll probably have to be one or the other.
MM Mailbag (2-3): The MM mailbag overflowed yet again in 2021 and they took a considerable amount of time to research and respond. We'll see what I can get around to sharing.
Vintage/brief histories (4-5): I still want to go ahead with histories of powder applicators, setting sprays and maybe colored mascara, color-changing cosmetics and how makeup language has evolved (for example, why we typically say "blush" now instead of "rouge" for cheek color.) The author of Cosmetics and Skin kindly suggested an article on copycats, i.e. how companies clearly ripped each other off and continue to do so today in terms of packaging, ad campaigns, etc. which is a great topic. I'm also interested in a history of Day of the Dead makeup, and the Museum's Revlon Futurama post got me thinking more about the idea of makeup as jewelry. I still need to finish the series of Dorothy Gray ads featuring portraits of well-to-do "society" ladies, and I'd like to pursue wear-to-work makeup from the 1970s-90s, histories of defunct brands (a bunch of celebrity lines, Diane von Furstenberg, Halston, Ralph Lauren, Benetton, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Nina Ricci and Inoui ID, and revisit Stephane Marais), especially Black-owned brands like Naomi Sims and Rose Morgan. I still want to write something about Black salespeople and customers in direct sales companies, i.e. Avon, Mary King by Watkins, Fuller, Artistry by Amway, etc. but given that it could be an entire book I'm not sure how much I'll be able to do on it. Finally, in 2021 I became quite fascinated with paper mache lipstick holders so hope to work up a history of those and other doll-inspired lipsticks in general, along with profiles of some more obscure makeup artists from the '60s through the '90s, and a feature on makeup ad illustrators. Whew!
Trends (1): Makeup brand merchandise and swag – another I STILL didn't cover in 2021 as planned. I'm also very interested in the video game trend in makeup, but I'm hoping this amazing person writes about it instead!
Artist collabs (5): Yes, still trying to catch up on some of 2020's holiday releases, including Fee Greening for Mikimoto and Cecilia Carlstedt for Bobbi Brown. There was also a beautiful surprise Japan-exclusive holiday collection from Clé de Peau, who teamed up with Charlotte Gastaut. There are tons of other collabs from previous years that I'm still thinking about, such as El Seed for MAC, Connor Tingley for NARS, the Shiseido Gallery compacts and lip balms, and a series on the artists whose work appears on Pat McGrath's packaging. There will a few surprises too. 😉
Book reviews (2-5): So. Many. Books. The speed reviews I did last year were fine, but I want to do more of these and also maybe return to more in-depth reviews.
Dream Teams (1-2): I really thought I would do at least one more of these in 2021, but I did exactly zero. I especially want to focus on BIPOC artists and flesh out the idea I had back in 2016 for a Rrose Sélavy-themed collection.
Color Connections (1-2): I returned to Color Connections last year with a vengeance, and made good on the idea to create an entire Instagram account for them. So expect a few here from time to time. 🙂
Miscellanous: a feature on new Chinese beauty brands and some kawaii collections like Kakao Friends and others. And of course, keep plugging away on individual bits and pieces for the '90s book.
Speaking of which, the book ideas are the same as last year. The first and second ones are the accompanying catalogs to their respective exhibitions. The last one is the coffee table book, which I'm tinkering with to make it more diverse.
So it looks like the Museum has its work cut out for it! What exhibitions and post topics are you most excited about?
As lovely as Clé de Peau's vintage jewelry inspired compacts were, overall I prefer the artist collaborations they've been doing since about 2014 or so. Last year the company worked with Daria Petrilli for a second time on a Swan Lake themed collection. While it was a stunning lineup, there are a great many artists who would jump at the opportunity to create makeup packaging so I was relieved Clé de Peau sought out a different artist for this year's holiday collection. Like the 2018 release which was inspired by Alice in Wonderland, the 2021 collection was loosely based on Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 novel The Secret Garden. (Yet inexplicably the collection is entitled the Garden of Splendor. Go figure. I also wonder if the brand selected both The Secret Garden and Alice in Wonderland just to incorporate a key motif.) Clé de Peau enlisted the talent of Michaël Cailloux, a French artist whose illustrations provided the perfect backdrop for the collection.
A pattern of trailing ivy adorns the outer boxes, which open to reveal a menagerie of squirrels, lambs, foxes and birds frolicking in the garden. It's gorgeous but also thoughtful – the key is a nod to Clé de Peau's brand name, while the ivy and keyhole refer to the book's description of the garden walls covered in the plant and the unlocking of the garden door by the main character, Mary Lennox. As we'll see, Cailloux imbued all of the packaging with beautiful depictions of the central symbols used in the book.
The animals are a reference to the ones charmed by Dickon Sowerby, the "common moor boy" who helps Mary revive the garden.
The robin and roses are also important symbols in The Secret Garden: the bird leads Mary to find the garden and later represents her transformation from unhappy and unloved child to flourishing young girl. Roses, the deceased Mrs. Craven's favorite flower, illustrate the necessity of nurturing children.
Later in the book Dickon cares for a motherless newborn lamb, further reinforcing the parallel between Mary and Colin and demonstrating that anyone can thrive when given love and support.
Other items in the collection included a face serum, cream and an exquisite cushion compact. Though lovely, the skincare items (at $295 and $550, respectively) were priced far above the Museum's budget. And sadly the cushion compact was not available in the U.S…but I am working on tracking it down!
Born and bred Parisian Michaël Cailloux (b. 1975) has loved drawing since he was a child. While he did not come from an artistic family, his mother encouraged his passion for drawing and art in general, allowing him to draw on the walls of their home and regularly taking him to museums. The artist reflects, "I've always loved drawing. Since I was a kid, it was my favorite hobby, I always had pencils or brushes on me. I could spend days by myself drawing in a corner of my room…I grew up alone with my mother in Paris. She wasn’t an artist and had never studied art. Despite that, she was my biggest fan and was always encouraging me to draw and she was constantly complimenting me. It definitely built up my confidence and motivated me to pursue this path even though I still had my doubts and cared a lot about other people’s opinion on the matter. I remember I used to draw on the walls at home and she would let me do it. She would hang my drawings on the walls of our apartment, she would buy me all the material I needed to stay creative and she never opposed me specializing in art during my studies. A lot of parents stop their kids from pursuing an artistic path because they fear for their future. But my mother was really sensitive to art, she would bring me to museums and various exhibitions, she taught me what freedom of thought was and she wouldn’t care too much about what people thought of her." I'm always so happy to see parents who are supportive of their children's dreams!
In 1998 Cailloux graduated from the École Duperré School of Design, writing his senior paper on the use of the fly motif (mouche) in 17th century still-life paintings and as beauty patches (!) in 18th century French culture. Cailloux's research led to what would be a lifelong interest in flies as an artistic symbol and the utilization of the fly as his signature. He explains: "The fly always fascinated me since I was a kid; it’s part of our everyday life, flying around us. Sometimes we chase it away, other times we simply let it be…depending on our mood. We don’t realize it but it’s there, present in our day to day life. My passion for this harmless, yet hated little insect led me to make it the subject of my graduation project, my memoire. I decided to always have it by my side so I made it my symbol and my logo. It’s almost like my lucky charm. If you look carefully, it appears pretty often in my artwork, sometimes visible, other times indistinguishable. Just like in your own life, you either see it and try to make it leave, or it just flies by you unnoticed. I always see them flying around my studio and to me it’s positive sign as they’re essential to biodiversity. [Flies] intrigue me and I find them attractive insofar as they come always disturb the eye." I personally hate flies and most other insects, but Cailloux does manage to make them pretty.
Around 2009 Cailloux began experimenting with cutting and engraving copper to make what he terms "wall jewelry". Inspired by René Lalique, Cailloux was intrigued by the idea of hanging jewelry on walls purely as decor. While they're not actual fashion accessories that could be worn as necklaces, bracelets, etc. – it seems "jewelry" here refers more to the materials used – the intricate shapes and sculptural lines, coupled with a metallic sheen, certainly appear jewelry-like.
In addition to metalwork, Cailloux is both experienced and gifted at translating his illustrations to whatever surface catches his fancy. "At school we were taught to work on different material: wood, metal, paper, linoleum, etc… It definitely allows me to apply my drawing on any surface I want. Despite all that, when I was contacted by Lenôtre, a famous French pastry shop, to work on a Yule log and Epiphany cake, it quite challenging! Currently, I’m working on a porcelain dinnerware collection with Bernardaud and once again, I have to adapt my drawings to fit the material. It’s not unsettling at this point anymore; it’s just another challenge. As well as for my collection Lemon Insect for Les Émaux de Longwy, I had to draw directly on the vases and jewelry boxes. All my past experiences prepared me for this and enabled me to adapt so easily!" It's true: in addition to makeup packaging, Cailloux's work can be modified to suit everything from playing cards and puzzles to cakes and advent calendars.
How stunning is this cake? Also, the wrapping paper doubles as a coloring sheet. I would dearly love to see an entire line of coloring books from Cailloux, especially ones devoted to sea creatures. 🙂
Stylistically, Cailloux cites William Morris, 17th century still-life paintings and the Art Nouveau movement as inspiration. Take, for example, his strawberry and sun print next to Morris's famous Strawberry Thief print.
Cailloux has not mentioned Ernst Haeckel, but I'd also argue that his work is a touch reminiscent of the 19th century zoologist and draughtsman. Compare Cailloux's ocean-themed print with those of Haeckel. It's definitely modernized and more whimsical rather than meticulously grounded in biological reality, but I think there's a similar vibe.
More generally, Cailloux enjoys playing with color and looks to nature for his primary subject matter. "Colour and all the different possible combinations are one of my favourite things to play with. Colour is at the heart of my work. It continues to spark my creativity," he says, adding: "Nature is my main source of inspiration; I love observing and drawing everything about it. That’s why I travel so much and bring my sketchbooks and pens with me; it allows me to draw new things all the time. But then I have certain phases: sometimes I focus on insects that I adore, or on birds and fish I find extraordinary, or simply flowers that never cease to amaze me with their intricate details." Indeed, Cailloux captures the complexity and vibrant colors of various flora and fauna but his style is never overly busy or garish.
And while Cailloux deftly applies his designs to a number of different mediums, drawing is his principal form, i.e. the starting point from which his work flows. "My artistic process always starts with hand-drawn illustrations with fine tip pens or India ink. I can’t see myself doing anything else but drawing…Drawing relaxes me; it clears my mind and helps me to focus my energy. I don’t think about it too much—I just draw everything I see around me…Everything starts from the observation of nature in general, and I also am inspired by old illustrations by redesigning my way. I have a sketchbook and I felt drawn to anything that inspires me: plants, insects, frogs and dragonfly. I can spend days drawing, and even nights."
I'm enjoying Cailloux's aesthetic, but there is something that gives me pause. When asked in an interview whether there's a contemporary equivalent to the 18th century mouche, the artist surprisingly says that makeup generally is not used to indicate one's mood. "In the 18th century, women used to wear an artificial beauty mark (also called une mouche meaning a fly in French) on their faces to show what mood they were in that day: coquette, discreet, generous, etc. This doesn’t really exist anymore today. Women can adapt their makeup for an event but there’s not much more meaning to it than that. However, I think social media is now where we show how we feel or share our daily thoughts. It’s kind of like the 'fly of the day'." I can only hope something got lost in translation. So many people, myself included, select makeup specifically based on the mood they're in on a given day – in fact, my mood, more so than any other factor (weather, plans for the day/night, outfit) is the key determiner in the makeup I choose. While it's not true for everyone, my makeup look is a direct expression of how I'm feeling that day. To say that makeup doesn't have much significance other than being conventionally appropriate for certain events is rather misguided.
Getting back to the Clé de Peau collection, it seems to lean more towards spring than fall or winter. The company specifically notes that Garden of Splendor "draws inspiration from nature’s ability to transform, heal and give a new perspective." Given the themes of rebirth, growth, healing, etc. expressed in the collection description and in The Secret Garden as well as Cailloux's colorful, cheerful illustrations, it would be more fitting for warmer weather (and I'm not the only one who thinks so). Plus, the makeup shades themselves – lots of pastels, delicate pinks and peaches – and the soft looks shown at the website are far better suited to spring.
I wish I knew who was in charge of this collection. It doesn't seem like Lucia Pieroni, the brand's former (?) global makeup artist is involved and hasn't been with the company for several years now, but I also saw no mention of Clé de Peau's current global color director, Benjamin Puckey, in connection with it either. Having said that, I do think the company made an excellent choice on all counts in selecting Cailloux for a Secret Garden inspired collection – his subject matter, mood and style align perfectly with the spirit and theme of the Clé de Peau collection. Even though it more appropriate for spring, the festive colors, feeling of hopefulness and renewal match what Clé de Peau was trying to do. As Cailloux says, "Above all what I’m trying to communicate is a smile and joy. I really want to pass on positive energy." Those are things the world could definitely use more of these days, and the sentiment very clearly came through in this collection.
What do you think of the Garden of Splendor and Cailloux's work?
I'm always so grateful when someone agrees to an interview with the Museum, and the one I'm featuring today is very special! You might remember the AstroLips lipstick line that was mentioned in the Museum's history of zodiac-themed makeup and how I was puzzled over not being able to find any information about it or its creator, makeup artist Scotty Ferrell. Well, as luck would have it, Scotty found the Museum's article and introduced himself and offered more information on the line. Naturally I wanted to hear as much as possible about it, along with Scotty himself! He kindly granted me an interview. Please read on to discover his work, his experience working with some of the biggest brands in the '90s and early 2000s, and his latest venture: an (actually useful!) beauty app.
MM: How did you get into makeup? What interested you about it?
SF: My fascination for cosmetics began when I got into trouble playing in my Mom’s makeup and opening all the small perfume bottles she had from Avon. I would get so excited when the Avon lady came over to visit and brought her big case of colors and potions. I was hooked. The mystery of all the pretty colors and glass containers captured my spirit.
MM: What was your experience working in makeup in the '90s? And what were the big trends/products? SF: The 1990’s really were amazing years for makeup. People were so excited to sit and learn about their makeup wanting to know how to apply eyeliner themselves and experiment with color. Quality makeup brushes and how to use them was so rewarding to work with people ready to discover and develop their own personal style. I had so much fun painting faces because the trends were really strong and each seasonal look was trying to top the next. I think the light lid and strong crease was all the rage because finally single eyeshadows were available in the artistry brands allowing for more experimentation. I loved when I started applying to my clients two different color liners top and bottom lash lines. Jewel tones in combination were really big during late 90’s.
The true smokey eye also came from this time period. The smokey eye really is buffing out the eyeliner on the lower lid and layering it with a dark shadow. But now today, anyone wearing eyeshadow says it’s a smokey eye when it’s not. I am not a big fan of the influencers because too much misinformation and lack of experience working with real people seems to be most popular. Influencers are pushing wrong information because they lack the makeup artistry experience applying makeup on people other than themselves. Too many influencers are promoting low quality products and wiz-bang techniques that do not wear or look professional. The legacy brands still have the some of the best tried and true products like Lancome’s Effacernes and Aquatique eye concealer/base, Elizabeth Arden Flawless finish cream foundation these products cannot be beat. Influencers are pushing the industry against quality products that cannot withstand a real photoshoots, catwalks under hot lights or outdoor weddings.
MM: Tell us about your alter ego, Gigi Romero, and how she inspired you to create the AstroLips line! SF: Say GiGi Romero to me and I light up and am romanced dreaming about the silver screen stars like Bette Davis, Ava Gardner, Sophia Loren just to name a few. GiGi Romero is my muse/ alter ego that channels the larger than life confidence and on-stage personality that celebrates their fans with great entertainment. Makeup delivers the fantasy to a tangible reality, a way to feel special because it’s fun to play dress-up. So when the brainstorm came over me about AstroLips with Lovespell, I thought of GiGi Romero conjuring up the colors and speaking directly with the cosmos to create the shades and stories belonging to each sun sign. AstroLips with Lovespell may still have a come back yet when GiGi Romero connects with the stars once again!
AstroLips shades, 2000. Images provided by Scotty Ferrell.
AstroLipLiners, 2001. Image provided by Scotty Ferrell.
MM: You had mentioned [in a previous correspondence] you had some stories about Smashbox, Trish McEvoy planners, etc. Can you expand on those? SF: Bill Parks, rest his loving soul, does not get the credit he deserves creating the Smashbox brand from scratch let alone me helping him launch the brand coast to coast. I consider the absence of acknowledging his contribution to Smashbox beyond shameful on the part of Estee Lauder and the great grandsons of Max Factor, Dean and Davis. The origin story begins with Bill Parks and me working for Trish McEvoy. Trish McEvoy held a big, big meeting with Nordstrom west coast to bring a next-level strategy for her Nordstrom counters putting Bill Parks in charge and me as at-counter National Artist to produce at the events. After this meeting show casing Bill Parks as a business superstar that he was, Nordstrom secretly invited just Bill to a clandestine behind the curtain meeting for Smashbox. Nordstrom was initially investing in the launch of Smashbox the artistry brand for Dean and Davis Factor, but knew it needed someone who actually understood selling color cosmetics. Bill agreed to their offer and left to be the creative head of Smashbox to create products, sell the products and be the personal face launching the line coast to coast. I stayed with Trish McEvoy for a couple more years seeing Bill grow the brand all on his own.
Smashbox postcard, ca. 1996
Bill actually worked to formulate the first cream eyeliner for that time because he knew the pitfalls from Trish’s eyeshadow liners and brush #11. How did Smashbox get on QVC? Well, let me tell you a story. Michael diCesare haircare and hair brushes were in several Nordstrom stores where he also met Bill Parks. They hit it off and whenever I saw Michael he would always ask me where’s Bill? Michael was already on QVC selling his products and asked Bill to do the makeup for his models. The rest is history once QVC met Bill Parks he began selling Smashbox to record heights on their channel. I joined Bill Parks in 1998 launching Smashbox into other retailers in addition to more Nordstrom doors. I trained Holly Mordini who later took Bill’s place on QVC after Bill passed away suddenly. I have many cherished memories and stories about my time with Trish and learning directly from her extremely talented hands and eye for color. Trish gave me the freedom, encouragement and confidence to become the best showman and artist I could be. Trish demanded us to all have a Franklin Planner and follow its system to set goals and exceed them. So after a big, big event in Dallas Neimans Northpark we all piled in this van we thought to go back to the hotel or wherever we were staying that night, but instead Trish had other plans. Somehow she kept telling the driver to continue to drive around, drive around while we all talked and Trish was in the groove to with her vision to send us her elite team back across the country opening counters, raising up important stores that needed an open to buy and who would stay in Dallas making sure we prevented any event returns or sold more than might come back to counter. A bunch of us, her elite team were frantically turning the pages to our Franklin Planners trying to make sure we got every word and detail correct coming from Trish. Suddenly, we all start talking about how organizing our makeup just like our Franklin Planners! I was already putting Face Essential shadows on palette boards to make it easier to paint at events. We all were competing for an edge to sell better and did our best with our brush rolls and our go-to favorites. It was decided that night that Trish had to go to Italy to get this new idea off the ground. The first set of pages were that same kind of plastic used for potted plants you get from the store. The brush bag of course had to be like Trish’s black Chanel bag that I did get to hold for her on one of our trips. The story about how Trish’s Planner came in to existence has changed over the years. Trish tells the story now moving up the timeline to when she was in Italy with her husband ordering the first version. The beginning year of the Planner was very exciting but took a lot of effort before we got better and better versions of the pages which had to be switched out several times for customers.
There is a very, very important story that I still to this day want to remind Trish personally. I am certain Trish does remember that Saks 5th Avenue almost sabotaged the Planner’s first Christmas. The part that Trish may have forgotten, and I would like to definitely remind her that I am the very person who sounded the alarm. I know exactly where I was and how I found out Saks 5th Ave was ready to go to the floor with their knock-off Planner. I was painting local models for a Saks 5th Ave Fashion show at the Intercontinental Hotel Miami. A Saks 5th Ave big-wig who flew down for the event also came back stage and was showing off what he knew that Saks “had a knock-off Planner in their warehouse ready to go on the Holiday Sales floor to under-cut Trish’s Planner 1 st Christmas.” I ran outside, on my very first cell, all the way outside and called the office demanding to speak with Trish directly. I said it was extremely urgent and that she had better get her lawyers on the phone to save the Planner! I called more than once even on a pay-phone in the lobby with every chance I could get until I was sure the message got through. Trish, if you're listening, my cell number is still the same!
MM: How would you say the cosmetics marketing landscape has changed since the late '90s? (e.g. the impact of the Internet/e-commerce/social media, etc.) And what stayed the same? Do you find it more or less difficult to sell makeup now? SF: After the 90’s, companies did change dramatically not wanting to support events. Not wanting to pay artists who knew the brand intimately and loved teaching customers how to wear new looks, how to apply their makeup providing live- action customer service. The focus became and still is selling one hit-product at a time. Click-bait selling beauty over the internet breaks down the expertise of professionals that know how to design personalized beauty regimens for individual customers. Brands and social beauty stars are ignoring that beauty products must work together to be successful helping people. It is a must to talk to customers and listen to their needs so their lifestyles fit the products that do work together and deliver the results people are after.
MM: You've explained about your new app, but please elaborate on it and what inspired you to create it. SF: This is the great segueway to my app. Face My Makeup app is reality based and is a digital version of how millions upon millions of makeup and skincare products were sold for years. Face My Makeup app is a digital face-chart but actually its true potential is personalized beauty’s next generation Face-cart that provides customer service and supports sales. I created Face My Makeup app directly from my experience selling on the road for Trish and BABOR. My customers would carry with them for years and tape to their mirrors the Face-charts I made for them with all the tips, tricks, colors, shades and multiple products that we chose together. Countless times a woman I helped years prior would find me again bringing her Face-chart and wanted a fresh new look. This love for the Face-chart and service it provides is so valuable and necessary for personalized beauty to be meaningful to make sense. Face My Makeup app has been received with open arms having over 5000 downloads from Google Play and the same amounts for iPhone app store. The elevator pitch that grabs people’s attention, “If you lost your makeup bag with all your favs, how many eClicks would it take for you to replace all your makeup? Would you remember all the names, shades and brands? Is there an eCommerce site that knows your Day Look products from your Night Look routine?” eCommerce, Mobile sales are obviously here to stay but what I know is must have companion is the Face-cart service from Face My Makeup app. (Disclaimer: The Makeup Museum is not endorsing/advertising the Face My Makeup app and has not been compensated in any way for mentioning it; its inclusion in this interview is merely for information-sharing purposes.)
Face My Makeup app overview. Image provided by Scotty Ferrell.
MM: What are some of your favorite makeup trends or looks? (Can be current, can be historical, whatever you want!) SF: Deep violet and emerald jewel tones playing off each other in the outer corner is to die for. I love an extended eyeliner that isn’t a cat eye but more Egyptian straight across with a softer edge. I think I still have a similar color story that I created for BABOR. A look I did paint on Jennifer Lopez on South Beach right after she made Selena. It was this beautiful tangerine and lime combination with shadows from Shu Uemura so super hot even though Jenny was less than nice.
MM: Anything else you'd like to add? SF: I just want to get back on the team and do the work in beauty that I continue to see is still so necessary to produce results. Talking, listening to customers providing them service with the skills and experience to back it up; I’m there. Customers are demanding these conversations but those in charge have never painted a single face, ran an event with 100s of people making sure everyone leaves happy. Anticipating people’s needs and following up with a menu of choices is what it takes to grow a business. Translating this process digitally is doable but only from professionals that have touched faces with honest and real experiences. I mean why is Bobbi Brown now on Jones Road? Huge shout outs to forgotten greats, Alexander De Markoff, Stagelight, Germaine Monteil, Stendahl, PAYOT, Shu Uemura, and my ultimate favorite closest to my heart, Fernand Aubry!
The highly coveted Shu Uemura ME 945 eyeshadow
Thank you so much, Scotty, for this wonderful history you've provided! It's incredibly illuminating to get a first-hand account of how the makeup industry and trends change (or don't), and I'm so pleased to hear more about my favorite era. The Face My Makeup app sounds great, but I hope we see more of Gigi's creations in the future too. 😉 MM'ers: any thoughts?
In case you were wondering why the blog has been so quiet the past 6 weeks or so, it's because I've been working feverishly on the latest exhibition. And I'm pleased to announce it's finally here! Well, you'll have to click over to get the full online version, but there will be more here soon. 😉 If you've followed the Museum for a while you know I've been obsessed with mermaids since I was little, and with all the wonderful mermaid makeup I've added to the collection over the years, I simply couldn't wait any longer to dive into an exhibition fully dedicated to these creatures (rather than incorporating them piecemeal into summer exhibitions as I had been doing). Plus, the only good thing about the pandemic was that I was able to dye my hair beautiful mermaid colors as a result of working from home where my boss can't see me and claim that my magical streaks are "unprofessional", so I figured now was the right time.
You can check out the exhibition at the Museum's special exhibition website. I was having so much fun though I wanted to display it in the Museum's physical space (a.k.a. my bedroom). Keep your eyes peeled as I will be updating this post with the in-person exhibition. UPDATE, March 29, 2022: I have finally gotten around to installing an abbreviated version of the exhibition at Museum headquarters! Just in time for International Mermaid Day.
Top row, left to right.
This is obviously a print-out of the original Coets ad – I didn't want to remove it from the 1955 copy of Vogue that I purchased and it was too large to fit anyway.
Second row, left to right.
Third row, left to right.
Bottom row, left to right.
Naturally, Research Assistant Mer-Babo was on hand to inspect everything and make sure it was in order.
All in all, I was really inspired and now I want to do either an entire water-themed exhibition or a mythological creatures exhibition.
As always, if you have any thoughts about mermaid makeup or would like to submit photos of your favorite mermaid looks or products, please comment below or email me! I'd love to have a little community gallery at the exhibition site.
The MAC x Harris Reed collection was released in February this year, but I wanted to wait until June to write about it in honor of Pride Month. For brevity's sake – I read through dozens upon dozens of interviews with Reed – and because I'm not a gender studies or fashion expert I will try to keep this as brief as possible.
The collection was manageable, consisting of an eyeshadow palette, a gold kohl pencil, Cream Color Base compact and a palette of three lip colors. I juts picked up the eyeshadow palette and the Cream Color Base as the packaging for that one was the same for that of the lip palette.
Who is Harris Reed? Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll recognize them as the 25-year old wonder who's been taking the fashion world by storm. Reed came to my attention when Harry Styles wore several of their fabulous flouncy frocks in the December 2020 issue of Vogue.
(images from vogue.com)
Committed to gender-fluid fashion, Reed creates clothing that makes a statement yet doesn't take itself too seriously. "I don’t just make clothes. If you want pretty clothes, you need to go to someone else. I fight for the beauty of fluidity. I fight for a more opulent and accepting world. That is really important to me…there always has to be a message. I wouldn’t pretend that doing some crazy avant-garde outfit is going to change the world, but I like to think that it could start a conversation."
Reed's aesthetic is heavily influenced by the free-spirited atmosphere of the '70s, particularly the androgyny of glam rock and Studio 54's dazzling evenings. The wide pants legs and lapels, bold patterns and extensive use of embellishments (feathers, sequins, etc). reference the era but are modernized so as not to veer into full-on costume territory. Reed explains their fascination with glam rock to Fashionista: "I've always loved glam rock. I’ve always said we need more people like David Bowie. At a time like right now, a lot of things can either look very the same, or brands are doing things—or musicians are doing things—that sometimes don't feel authentic. I love glam rock because there’s a level of grit and more importantly a level of authenticity that I think shines through all the glitter and the glam and the flares and the ruffles. I look at all those things, the flares, the ruffles, as points of reference of someone expressing themselves at the most heightened, most authentic, most outrageous part of themselves. So I think for me, glam rock, it's almost like fluidity. Obviously it’s different, but they go hand in hand because it's your most extreme version of yourself. You are expressing who you are in the most heightened, over the top, fabulous way…I really try to be modern in my designs, but I still try to keep that nuance and push it to the limit. Be the person who doesn't fit the mold. Be the person that doesn't fit the box. That’s where I see glam rock coming back into what we do and our daily lives and within fashion—being referenced more as a way of being than just a specific style."
I can't say Reed's designs are wearable for the average person (or at least, not an entire ensemble), and they acknowledge that their latest collection is more about artistic vision than whether it would sell. I'd also argue that their clothes were made with a certain body type in mind, i.e. skinny and tall – I see zero diversity in terms of size. But Reed's dedication to creating flamboyant yet expertly tailored clothing for all genders is definitely something we can all support. Their statement about breaking free of slogans and logomania represents a thoroughly Gen Z outlook and is a refreshing new direction in fashion. "I’m ambiguous about my gender and have never understood why something is made for a man or made for a woman. I think if a piece makes someone feel invincible or unstoppable, that’s all that matters. At the centre of my work is a drive to break down any preconceived idea of what gender is. I love that fashion has an obligation to trigger debate. But at the same time, it has to be in the most fun, playful way. It’s not about slogans, it’s about fantasy, and letting someone live that fantasy through clothes. Fashion is about self-expression – dressing in a way that makes you feel the happiest you’ve ever felt. Life’s too short to try and box yourself in to something normal, so why not have as much fun as possible with what you’re wearing? For me, that means flares and flouncy blouses – the more performative, the better. I’d describe my style as glam-rock Victoriana."
Anywhere is fair game for frills and ruffles; whether they adorn the front of a blouse, the end of a sleeve or a skirt hem, they add an exuberance and joy not regularly seen in high fashion. In looking at their work, I would posit that Reed is an aficionado of the late '60s as well. Take, for example, a blouse from the showy "peacock revolution" ushered in by Michael Fish next to one Reed designed for Harry Styles.
Reed also cites "old-world" classic European art as inspiration, especially the Rococo movement. Again, while there are some literal references to that period, the clothing exudes the overall vibe of the era: dramatic, over-the-top and ornate.
Though born in Los Angeles, Reed traveled extensively growing up. "My mom is very much a free spirit and artist. She was a model in the '80s, she would go to Studio 54, she is just an incredibly creative and soulful woman and then she became a candle maker and a perfumer. With my father being in Entertainment, Los Angeles, he remained there and me, my mom and my sister went off gallivanting around America, moving to different cities and different places," they tell Purple. Reed came out as gay to their parents at the age of 9, and was grateful to have their full acceptance – they encouraged his creativity and stood up for their son when teachers called to say some parents didn't want their children in class with a gay kid. "I was bullied for being gay and for being different…my mother would often find me dancing in bedsheets and shower curtains – and she and my father nurtured and supported that side of me." (I'm relieved to hear that Reed's parents supported them, but still aghast at how recent this was. Reed is so young – when they were 9 it was 2005. I honestly did not think that kind of casual, blatant bigotry was still happening to children in the 21st century.)
Reed was a creative child, but fashion design didn't occur to them until later. It was clothing's transformative power and ability to express a different aspects of one's personality that captured their imagination as a teenager. "Fashion wasn’t part of my background. I think creativity and this yearning for creating was a part of my background – I think for me there was always this idea of creation but it wasn’t until I was in my teens that I realised that clothing was more the artistic venture that I wanted to embark on. Clothing had this intense ability to transcend peoples’ emotions and for people to see each other in different perspectives and through a different lens. Once I took all this creation as a child and used and harnessed it, it was about applying it. I found it through dressing up and experiencing this playful carefree sense of trying on different identities until I found the right one. From there it was even more about building on the identity I already had and making it special to make it shine."
Reed's arrival in London to attend Central Saint Martins – the legendary design school that educated the likes of Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney – marked another turning point. "I never really sewed a proper piece together until I started at Central Saint Martins – a lot of people don’t know that. Before CSM I was mostly duct-taping, pinning, draping, literally using anything and everything I could get my hands on to create clothes without actually putting a machine to the fabric. As a child, as someone who was very much picked on and who was not someone who fit in whatsoever, I look to Central Saint Martins as the shining beacon of escape. When you looked at McQueen and Galliano and look at Ricardo Tisci, you could see what came out of there and I just remember watching old documentaries and you could see this sense of camaraderie with everyone communally coming together with shaved hair and crazy colours and crazy clothes and it just felt like my version of what outer-space would look like."
Reed was only in their 2nd year at Central Saint Martins when their "white show" outfit caught the attention of noted stylist Harry Lambert, who in turn introduced Reed's work to celebrities like Solange and Harry Styles. Reed explains: "It all took off with the first show of the BA fashion course, in which students have to make one piece in white. I’d always known who I was, but I didn’t quite know how to express that in terms of clothing and character. Then the White Show happened. There was so much I wanted to articulate in the piece I made – the experience of being bullied, my childhood fantasies, my commitment to making clothes that weren’t just pretty but also sparked conversation. And so I based my piece on those made-up characters from my childhood, this time a boy aristocrat who was kicked out by his parents for being gay and took refuge in an old opera house, putting on white powder every day until all his clothes become white. I made a giant, wide-brimmed, white felt Little-Bo-Peep hat, with a low-cut ruffled bustier jacket with huge puffed sleeves and dramatic white flares. It was neither menswear nor womenswear but genderless. And within about 30 seconds of my posting it on Instagram, Harry Lambert requested the piece for a shoot. Next thing I know, Solange is being photographed by Peter Lindbergh wearing it."
"The outfit was, in a way, parallel to my own story. This character was like me coming to London and finding my salvation,” they say. “It was quite emotional because it was the first time that I put myself completely out there in London, my first kind of big full look."
Reed cites the support of their classmates as well as more seasoned designers such as Alessandro Michele, head of Gucci, for whom they interned. "I think first of all collaboration is everything, as someone who is still in school I value the collaboration of my classmates more than anything…If you just sit with something in your own mind, the outcome you have will not be nearly as good as the outcome you have when you have four friends there helping, pushing, challenging you and criticising you to come up with something better…the support of emerging designers is crucial. The world is run by huge companies and we have to support young talent. That’s why brands like Gucci are so extraordinary because I think that’s why Alessandro Michele truly can pick young talent, nurture and collaborate with them. The collaborations he does with young artists, with illustrators, designers, singers, musicians, I think more brands need to be doing things along those lines. Alessandro opened my eyes up to a world that was more colourful, vivacious and more surreal than anything I thought it could be. Those nine months in Rome were the most incredible nine months of my life. It truly gave me a whole new perception on the way that I looked at fashion. He opened my eyes up to the power of texture and colour and embroidery. His narrative lies so deeply within his veins, so deeply within his soul that I think it just pushed me to a deeper level of understanding of creation. It’s massively affecting my work now because I think everything I do has so many more layers to it within the narrative as well as the design. Now there’s a hand-painted print, with embroidery on top, finished with hand-diamanté. Everything becomes so much more multi-faceted and Alessandro instilled that within me. I think he’s a genius." Reed, in a very fitting collaboration with their mom, has since designed a collection of candles for the brand.
Their designs for their 2020 graduate collection hit a new peak for creativity. With the pandemic making in-person shows all but impossible, Reed and their fellow classmates had to figure out how to exhibit their collections remotely. Reed, with typical flair, teamed up with illustrator and 2020 RISD graduate Lukas Palumbo to make elaborate theater sets for their designs. The finished product is absolutely astonishing – one would never know it was photographed against a green screen in Reed's living room. Reed, of course, modeled their own designs, having previously walked for Gucci. Standing at a very lean 6'4", modeling is certainly another career option for them.
And this is where we start to talk about the makeup! Terry Barber, Director of Makeup Artistry for MAC, was in charge of makeup direction for the show. Barber provided makeup tutorials so Reed could wear the look for the final photo shoot. The summation of the style, according to Barber: "angelic but sordid." Speaking with Dazed Beauty, Reed elaborates. "The looks were quite dramatic and over the top. Terry Barber being a complete and utter beauty genius he was really able to transport and positively move what I was doing in a better direction. I was originally like ‘more gold!’ or even getting a bit more costume-y and Terry just so seamlessly brought it to a place where it was opulent, it was fluid and it was quite majestic. The influence for the make-up really came from the starting points of people like Henry Paget and this idea of theatre make-up. This idea of rosy kissed lips that are slightly smeared because you're trying to hide a secret while you’re wiping your mouth and this gold on your eyes that’s gleaming and shimmering but in a way that’s a bit fucked up because you just woke up with it on from the night before. This idea of stage make-up but then you were just at an amazing party at Studio 54 and you woke up and you slapped it back on to go greet your day and this kind of alter ego fluid manifesto of yourself…We were really just trying to find a good balance between Henry Paget and the New York Dolls. They went heavy with the stage make-up and they went quite crazy but it was that love of theatricality and this idea of men wearing make-up for the performance of it. I love the idea of everyday is the performance. The face, the skin, the lips were very Henry Paget but then the eyes were so New York Dolls to me because even though I wasn’t doing the black intense eyes they were doing, I was using that technique of smudging with my finger, getting in the creases, getting in the cracks really going for this fucked up glam rock vision…It’s a fluid romantic opulent, stable kiss fantasy. it's quite in your face, it's quite loud but then it's almost smeared. This kind of kiss-behind-the-stables, hidden Renaissance."
Adds Barber, "I had worked with Harris a few times before and we’d already connected on things that we loved in beauty like a smacked-on cheek, a rubbed in lip and finger-painted eyeshadow. The idea just came from the story of a slightly surreal, aristocratic, faded glamour, rather than anything too technical. A suggestion rather than a major statement…Harris has collected so many references along the way which not only relate to designing a collection, but also to the story of being gender fluid and how that might manifest itself in terms of styling. Many of those references lent themselves really well to creating a beauty which is at the same time romantic and subversive. We discussed foppish boys in 16th century Flemish paintings, Victorian am-dram, Fellini caricatures, Tilda Swinton in Orlando, and Bowie in his Diamond Dogs period. It was essentially about creating a character rather than a specific design."
Given the success of the Barber and Reed partnership, a MAC collection wasn't unexpected. MAC was also a natural choice for Reed as the brand was part of the designer's early makeup memories – they remember going to a MAC store and seeing the artists applying makeup on boys. "My first experiences with make-up were with my friends at a MAC store getting ready for prom and it was the brand that I first saw putting make-up on ‘boys’…for [MAC] to even trust me, and take on my strong-ass message of fighting for fluidity, I have to say, has just felt like the most beautiful partnership…M.A.C has an amazing heritage of fighting for self-expression and inclusivity, so they were so on board and supportive of that vision."
(image from maccosmetics.com)
All of the product and shade names are personal for Reed. The monikers in the collection are iterations of their mantras, with the name of the copper shade in the eyeshadow palette being a favorite. "I always just say, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah,' when there's someone in the street saying something homophobic or mean to me," Reed tells Teen Vogue. "If someone doesn’t understand what I’m trying to say or doesn’t get who I am, [that phrase] lets me brush it off, peel it away, and step forward into the light."
"Every single name in the collection is based on daily affirmations I tell myself," Reed says. "Whether it's 'embrace your duality' or 'spark conversation,' I want men, women, non-binary people, and you to be able to pull it out and to put on the best version of themselves. They're putting on an affirmation; they're putting on something that it's really helping them enhance and showcase who they are."
The shades and concept for the MAC collection are more or less an extension of the ones used in Reed's 2020 graduate collection. "The colors tell this soft, poetic story but, at the same time, I wanted to include emerald and black to be able to quickly shift to something more rock ‘n’ roll and messed up…Reference points come from anywhere from Studio 54, the ‘70s—a time of complete androgyny and glam rock and decadence and fabulousness. And then also, looking still within that theme, a completely different world [of] Rococo, more of this idea of androgyny back then. In paintings, it's so effortless and just kind of had this beautiful blending. So very much pulling in this old world, Rococo, men in makeup, really kind of lounge-y fabulousness, and then juxtaposing but also sitting beautifully within Studio 54 and the ‘70s."
The entire collection, of course, is based on Reed's boundary-less approach to fashion and makeup. The goal was to create something that could be worn by anyone for any purpose. "I want anyone and everyone to be able to wear this. This was two years in the making, and when I was creating this, my family was in the room and everyone including my dad, mom and sister agreed they’d try and wear the products I was working on. We don’t just want to normalising the wearing of make-up, but to make it accessible and acceptable to everyone by breaking any preconceived boundaries that people may have with such beauty products." No products are in a tube, and the palettes lack brushes, encouraging users to adopt a more playful, carefree application rather than precision. "The collection for me really embodies this idea of not only fluidity, but complete and utter self-expression. Nothing is in a tube and nothing has a brush. It's really all very much like an artist palette; it's meant for your fingers, it's meant for men, women, non-binary, every individual to feel completely comfortable to be able to play with…What I love about make-up is it doesn't get more hands-on or personal then you putting something on yourself. That's why for me, I'm not really a make-up brush person. You should play, touch, smudge, feel and love with your fingers on your face."
Accessibility also came in the form of the products themselves. Much like Reed's fashion, they're multi-purpose and are intended to create a variety of looks to suit any mood. "Everything and anything goes," Reed tells Allure. "It's just like my approach to fashion. One thing isn't meant to be for a top. This fabric can be for boots, it can be for a hat. This eyeshadow is not for your eyes. This eyeshadow is for your collarbones; this eyeshadow is put up into your hairline and almost making a gold halo around your face." Reed demonstrated the gold halo look at the British Fashion Awards in 2019.
Additionally, gold was chosen as a prominent shade not only to align with the sparkly glam-rock/Renaissance aesthetic but because it's flattering on every skin tone. "I want this line to be showcased on people of different genders, races, ethnicities, and gold is such a universal color because it works for everyone," says Reed.
Reed makes the same point I do about artist and fashion collabs with makeup brands, which is that one may not be able to afford an original work by an artist or a couture garment, but they can afford makeup. "Make-up is also incredible because, you know, when I was younger I didn't have the money to have the clothes. But I could go to the drugstore store and buy a great lipstick and that lipstick could be a blush, it could be an eyeshadow, it could be for your lips, it could be for your ears, you could put it in your hairline. Make-up is accessible and it's fun. I think people get scared of it but you have to just own it and use it as a weapon to be who you are. It's such a cheap and inexpensive way to get a message across…we can’t all have a giant gown in our wardrobe but we all can have that one lipstick that changes how we feel about ourselves. And for me, that accessibility is crucial because it lets anyone have a dream, lets anyone feel like they have the power to change and evolve as a human being. This is what I truly love about make-up…I’ve been so incredibly lucky that millions of people have seen the things I’ve worked on and have been a part of, but have maybe until now they’ve not been able to buy into it. This is now something that anyone can get their hands on and be a part of. It doesn’t feel real, it feels crazy."
Makeup is also a handier way of accessorizing for one's mood, with the ability to change any time. "What I love about makeup is the fact that I can't change my clothes throughout the day, but I can change my makeup look with the touch of a finger," Reed says. "It really allows me to almost have different looks, different personas within the day, all literally through something that fits in your pocket…I can start the day with one mood, but change and amplify it by lunchtime. Then, by the evening it’s a full-blown party."
We all wear makeup (or don't) for different reasons, most of which are fairly mundane. But for some, makeup can be a tool for transformation. Reed discusses how their first experience with lipstick made a lasting impression of the power of makeup. “I picked up a random red drugstore lipstick with my mom when I was eight or nine, put it on, and thought, "'Fuck, this is amazing,'” Reed recalls. "Actually, I was young, so I probably didn’t say the F-word, but I remember being so blown away by the transformative power of makeup…this small thing in your hand had [the power] to really show different sides of yourself, show different aspects of your personality, your individuality," Reed tells Allure. "That relationship with makeup is still my approach today with everything I do. It's this idea of putting something on that enhances and brings out a side of yourself. You're not becoming someone else, you're not trying to be someone else, you're literally pulling from within."
Along those lines, Reed is very much a proponent of makeup for self-expression and play rather than as a way to meet conventional beauty standards, and this belief was what they were trying to convey with the MAC collection. "My interpretation of gender fluid make-up is really being what makeup should be—a tool to help not only enhance but communicate a story. Makeup is so beautifully able to transport someone and the way people see that person simply by what you put on your face. It’s similar to how clothing almost serves as armour walking into a daily battle, fighting for what you believe in and being who you are. And makeup goes so beautifully hand in hand with that. Putting on a fabulous red lip on or adding pops of sparkle and glitter to your face is like claiming your identity, facing the world with authenticity and claiming your space…[The collection] is very much about a playfulness and the joy of make-up. As I have pushed this idea of a more fluid space in a more fluid world, I’ve really loved that make-up can always be that gorgeous icing on top. It doesn’t only complete the look but, it also completes the message, acting as that extra ounce of light to help radiate what I stand for. Try and not think of make-up as something that makes you look ‘pretty’ and try and not look at it as something that you use to make yourself better, but to explore and enhance something within you. Use make-up as a tool to be your most authentic self…I really hope this collection is something that can help me break down conventional ideas of what make-up looks like. I hope in 2021 and going forward that ‘glamour’ is going to be about something more than just copying a set-in-stone look from a tutorial. It's about asking 'how does that work for my face, my features and my personality?'"
Now let's take a peek at the gorgeous packaging. As soon as I saw it I knew it was Museum-worthy. We'll get to the illustrations in a hot second, but first I want to highlight the use of pink, which Reed is reclaiming from its overtly feminine connotations by combining it with a regal gold to give it an "old-world" feel. "I love the color pink. I like to be a bit tongue in cheek with it, I think that's the English side of me. I like to take something that is so specific and gender-specific and just take it and make it my own. I was like, we're gonna choose the color pink and really just make it this color that is universal and mix that with the old world charm. I've always been so deeply fascinated by history. I think if I didn’t do fashion, besides being a queer activist I'd really maybe be a historian. I think we've learned from the past, we learn from history, and when I was developing the packaging, I wanted to really represent this old world nuance."
The artwork for the packaging was created by Lukas Palumbo, an illustrator and collaborator of Reed's. A 2020 graduate of RISD, Palumbo began working with Reed in 2020, when he designed the sets for their graduate collection.
How jaw-dropping are these at full-size as a backdrop for Reed's designs?
I wasn't able to find much information on the individual designs, but this one (with mermaids!) had a tiny bit. "This garden was inspired by a collection of 17th century engravings of a garden that once existed in Belgium. You can also probably tell that on paper, this piece exists only as half of a landscape, as the right half is a digital mirror of the left half. This trick was a necessity in making so much work in so little time, and I found it worked especially well for theatre backdrops," explains Palumbo. And perhaps the double-tailed mermaids were influenced by those in the Fountain of Neptune in Bologna.
According to his website, Palumbo is inspired by etchings from the 16th-18th centuries. (I tried to get an interview with him but received no reply to my request, alas.) To my eye, his style also brings to mind both medieval manuscripts and Neoclassical landscapes.
Some of his illustrations remind me a little of the ones Pamela Colman Smith created for the famous Rider-Waite tarot deck.
For the MAC collection Palumbo created more of his signature otherworldly dreamscapes. The illustration on the eyeshadow palette shows a pearl with a human face resting in an open seashell, which is held up by two red-headed figures standing at a rocky riverside (seaside?) as if an offering. Rays of sunlight radiate from the shell, while the sharp stakes emanating from the pearl are wrapped by serpents or pierce through crowns and hearts.
The artwork on the Cream Color Base and lipstick palette depict king and queen figures wielding scepters atop a seashell overflowing with water, their heads silhouetted against a bright sun. Says Reed, "It shows a woman and a man combining into one fluid being." The long, flowing robes are one of Reed's creations.
Overall, I think Reed did a great job and accomplished what they set out to do: create a makeup line that could be used by everyone for any purpose, complete with visually appealing packaging. While the designer doesn't see themselves as being the first to release a gender-fluid makeup line, they acknowledge the MAC collection is helping lead the way to normalizing makeup's use for all genders. "It’s amazing that so many brands are jumping on the idea that people don’t have to be so gender-specific but we have a long way to go. I don’t look at myself as the first pioneer, but I’m hopefully one of many to be coming, wanting to stir things up… a lot. This collection is not for men. It’s not for women. It’s for every single person." Hear hear! I really hope we see more makeup from Reed. Perhaps a collab with Gucci Beauty is in order. ;) As for the designer as a person, I can honestly say they seem very nice and genuine. Despite growing up in an artistic household, attending one of the most prestigious design schools in the world, meeting great success at a young age, AND being good-looking, factors that seem like a recipe for pretension and self-aggrandizement, Reed comes across as humble and kind. I think you can get a sense of that in all the interview snippets I've included here. And after following them for a little while on social media, I can safely say this is someone I would love to have a makeup playdate with.
What do you think of this line and gender-fluid makeup in general? I think everyone should approach all makeup as gender-free and not feel as though they can't use it because they're not the "right" gender, but it seems society at large still has a problem with that. Fortunately it seems that more companies, in addition to MAC, are shifting towards collections and products that speak to everyone, regardless of gender, by using gender-neutral language and including gender-fluid models in their advertising (or at the very least, starting to include people who present as men instead of only women models). Now if we could just get more fat models and people over the age of 30 to be represented, we'd really be moving in the right direction.
(images from guide.bowers.org)
(image from chairish.com and 1stdibs.com) 
(images from bmimages.com and alaintruong.com) 
