Mehron UK meets Paris Fashion Week

Posted on March 22, 2014 Updated on March 22, 2014

Sometimes, you get the most amazing opportunities that you can’t miss – Paris Fashion Week for 2014/2015 was one of mine!  I got invited to go to Paris Fashion Week and be on the makeup team for the Carlotta Actis Barone AW 2014-15 show!!!  And what better way to do this, but by working as Lead Makeup Artist for Carlotta and bringing her together with the fabulous professional makeup company, Mehron. 

I love Paris, I love fashion and I love makeup!

Carlotta’s collections are the expression of her artistic and socially orientated background.

The Designer – Carlotta Actis Barone
She was born and raised in Italy, the daughter of a visual artist and a published author, where she grew up in a very creative environment, stimulated and encouraged to cultivate her creative interests in literature and the arts.  Carlotta then moved to London and graduated with honours from Central Saint Martins.  After this she then gained experience working for designers and houses such as Stella McCartney, Balmain and BCBG Max Azria among others; building her knowledge and working towards establishing her own brand, which she launched at London Fashion Week in September 2010.  She has since featured in Vogue and continues to build a strong name for herself.

Carlotta had a definite idea of what she wanted to compliment her latest collection – her style is very unique, with a strong signature, which relates extremely modern matters whilst also drawing on influences from the past. Her garments are tasteful and bold, conveying statements and messages through intricate shapes, slogans and symbols. As she says herself, Carlotta likes to give to her clothes a voice of their own, so the wearer is not only a representation of femininity but also the carrier of a message.

The Collection
Carlotta Actis Barone’s AW14-15 Collection reaffirms her signature Steam Punk Feel.

‘Futuristic Retro’ is the key element that revisits the exploration of a survivor of the nuclear apocalypse. She reuses natural elements of the past such as signature wools and silks and crafts studs and chains into the reconstruction of the garments, incorporating the silhouette into a modern day warrior through the reinvention of shape.

Variations of wools create an innovative balance of both volume and structural patterns, which effortlessly wrap the body without restriction. Textured knitwear and distressed t-shirts embody a contemporary perspective of a war’s survivor as she wears them proudly while rising back from the ashes like a phoenix.

Unconventional textures are blended together with dusk shades of black and charcoals that contrast against a palette of vivid auburn and rich burgundy. Bold plated studs inject radiant silver and gold against the garments neutral colour palette, representing it as armour as a defence for the woman.

The Makeup
In advance of the show, I worked behind the scenes with Carlotta and Mehron UK to finalise and create the makeup look to meet the expectations she had.

My brief – “For the makeup, Carlotta’s girls’ skin is to look fresh, flawless and youthful.  The models are wearing the typical “Steam Punk gears” as accessories, on the face almost appearing as though they got attached to the skin from the explosion.  For the makeup colours they need to perfectly match the black and burgundy palette of the collection itself, with more focus on the eyes other then the lips.  To finish off the warrior mood they have metallic colours underlining the eyes to lighten up the whole look.  The hair is glamorously braided, but messy at the same time.”

To complement the designs, and to ensure the fresh, flawless look for Carlotta’s models, I chose Celebre Pro HD Makeup and Celebre Pro HD Loose Mineral Finishing powder to set the foundation.  I then selected the makeup colours that matched Carlotta’s collection colour palette, for the eyes and lips.  To create the look, we applied a soft, smudged line on the top and lower lids using Black E.Y.E. Liner Pencil, then we applied a generous coating of Celebre Precious Gem Powder in Tigers Eye from the corner of the eye to the center of the bottom lashes – to link with the gold in the collection and brighten the eye.  E.Y.E Power in Black Onyx was smudged from the lid of the eye, corner to center, and blended with CHEEK Powder in Bold Red.  The red was to be more prominent than the black and the two colours were blended to the underneath outer corner of the eye.  For the cheeks I selected  CHEEK Powder in Rosewood or Mocha, depending upon the model’s skin colouring.  It was meant to be striking and therefore the blush started from the temples, blending down, but avoiding the apples of the cheeks.  And finally for the lips we blended L.I.P Cream in Chocolate with Velvet Rose (being a last minute change to the look), and topped it with Glosstone PRO in Crystal Clear.  To complete the look, Steampunk style bronze and gold pieces were added to the right hand side of the face from forehead to cheek, and fabulous black studded false nails, created by Sarah Wright Nail Design were applied to each model.

To showcase the collection, Carlotta held a Street Show.  “This was a huge publicity event for the designer and her collection,” said Lauren Thompson of Mehron UK.  “The show’s head MUA Katrina Stamp spoke with many members of the Paris media, including Grazia French Magazine.”

The Makeup Team
Katrina Stamp – Lead MUA
Valbona (Bobbi) Bicker
Christelle Pellecuer
Nikki Tipping

Mehron NYC said “We LOVE the designs and the makeup that highlighted them.”
You can read Mehron‘s own blog about this for Paris Fashion Week 2014 here – http://mehronblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/behind-scenes-at-paris-fashion-week-2014.html?m=1