The key is in the blending.
It was a soft 70s glamour that was immediately apparent at Hailwood’s show during New Zealand Fashion Week. A textural clash of wool, lurex, lace, lamé, velvet danced around the era while presenting easy separates alongside more high voltage event looks, but it was the beauty details that really sold the throwback.
Touchable voluminous curls and two of the era’s key colours, yellow ochre and forest green referenced in the bold eye look were indeed meant to allude to the decade, says the show’s key makeup artist MAC’s Lochie Stonehouse. But he is quick to point out the everyday relevance is in the application and we can, (and should) adopt it asap.
“As with a lot of Adrian’s collections inspiration is drawn from different eras. With this one it was the 70s. So we used the two colours, an oche and a green on the eyes to reference that. But it’s done in a really soft, ‘blown out’ shape that references some of the key MAC trends at the moment, in terms of being really diffused and blended and taking it a little bit higher above the crease of the eye rather than your typical smokey eye that can be quite harsh around the socket.”
Stonehouse pinpoints MAC’s soft 286 Duo Fibre Tapered Blending Brush as being responsible for achieving the seamless look, which he says by all means, can be worn anywhere from the boardroom to the ballroom, depending on the colour you go for. The team built the look with creamy base colour over the lid and then layered a loose matte pigment over top before meticulously blending to a perfect finish.
“It’s a wearable glam look that’s really current as compared to more traditional ‘glam’ show look that might have a bit of a glitter element or a red lip or a strong contour or highlight, this is a little bit more fresh and wearable and current.”
If you’re keen to recreate the look exactly, the MAC artists used some professional-only items which can be purchased by anyone from the brand’s Britomart, Auckland store. The ochre-yellow eye used Ochre Lip Mix and Fluidline Brow Gelcreme in Redhead, and the green was created with Landscape Green Acrylic Paint and Landscape Green Pigment.
Paired with fresh, flawless skin and nothing more than a dab of lip conditioner on the lips, it’s a modern way to wear to adopt unexpected colour into your makeup routine. Now if only we had an army of KMS stylists to nail that tong-set, bold and brushed out hairdo for us at home!
