Over the weekend you’d have been hard pressed not to have seen an image on your instagram feed fed straight from Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week. The images from the runway of John Galliano’s Spring 2024 Couture collection for Maison Margiela were everywhere. And although the entire show deserves recognition (the clothes, the setting, Gwedoline Christie appearing to close it) it was the make-up that seemingly had everyone talking.
Created by legendary make-up artist Pat McGrath we saw what looked like living dolls traipsing down the runway. Think waxy skin with a precision that looked like melted wax had been poured onto their face. Brows were a pencil-thin arch, eyeshadow was a colour palette of pale blues, teal, burnt orange or lilac. Some lips featured pops of pink while others were blotted with green. And blush ranging from yellow to a classic pink flush emphasised the dimensions of the face. With their hair in ringlets or sometimes in a candy-floss like up-do and their corseted dresses they had a ghostly air of characters from another time and place.
Online commentators have been quick to respond on McGrath’s instagram with comments such as ‘No words! True mastery!’, ‘My mouth is on the floor’, and ‘You are THE MUTHA OF MAKEUP’. Even fellow makeup maven Bobbi Brown said: ‘You are the greatest living makeup artist of all time.’ While many are still speculating exactly how she did it (with some suggesting it’s Kryolan liquid glass layers applied with an airbrush) one thing is clear – McGrath’s creation stopped the internet for a bit this weekend.
Watch behind-the-scenes:
Set on the rain-soaked steps under the Pont Alexandre III – the arch bridge that spans the Seine – models emulated otherworldly creatures (under the Wolf Moon, no less) conjuring a debauched Parisian nightlife scene from a bygone era.
Images: launchmetrics.com/spotlight, Instagram via Pat McGrath
