Alexandre Herchcovitch gets Ghoulish

Catwalk make-up and styling by Celso Kamura.

Matthew Barney

He is a modern Surrealist and an incredible stylist, this still from Barney's Cremaster Cycle makes me think of the the previous posting 'War Hero'.  Check out his collaboration, Drawing Restraint 9, created with his partner Bjork.

It's Pat, doing what she does best. Telling it how it is.

War Hero

Remembrance Sunday and the Two Minute Silence held on 11th Day of the 11th month have been observed since the end of the First World War, but their relevance remains undiminished. When we bow our heads in reflection, we remember those who fought for our freedom during the two World Wars. But we also mourn and honour those who have lost their lives in more recent conflicts. 

In light of this, the portrayal of a war hero’s bloody face, the symbolism of extreme confinement of casts, masks and braces and misplaced body parts, which can only mean the loss of limbs, lends itself a more telling cache.  Lest we forget.

 
Dazed&Confused July 2010
Photographer: Richard Burbridge
Stylist: Robbie Spencer
Hair: Shon at Julian Watson
Makeup: Peter Philips at Art+Commerce

Urban Dolls

"It is getting more and more difficult to define a concept of contemporary beauty. In urban society, where the hunt for perfection begins at an early age and modified ‘plastic beauties’ wave from the covers of glossy magazines, humanity’s struggle for perfection appears almost limitless.

This project is an explorative journey in search of alternatives that could replace plastic or aesthetic surgery. Design becomes a mediator between humans and existing body modification processes; static, permanent procedures are transformed into flexible, temporary prosthetics."

Vilma Jaruseviciute

As seen on vilmajar.com and Next Nature

Smiling with your eyes only

Inspired by the art of Chinese paper-cutting, these paper eyelashes created by Ting yu Wang blend an element of tradition infused with symbolic meaning rooted in Chinese culture, with contemporary design.

As seen on FaceHunter

Painted hair on muted faces

The Altuzzara SS 2011 show had a tribal theme that avoided being too literal by using techno, severe chic as a point of reference.  Building on 70's punk references Paul Hanlon for Catwalk by TIGI backcomebed, brushed and flat ironed hair and injected random pops of colour on just one side of the head..  The make up was deliberaltely kept minimal by Tom Pecheux for MAC Cosmetics, through sculpting and contouring the face, keeping the overall look matte.

Great Hair, but where is the emotion?

Vogue Italia October 2010

I love my hair.

Beauty Kit for Little Girls

Hilarious spoof on the product marketing towards today's pre-teen girls.

Janine Mannheim

 Ah, Janine.  It's tulle, it's pink, it's delightful.

 

photographer_silke.zander

make_up_janine.mannheim

model_stephanie@slick_management

 

As seen on Hotel Pacific

Ariana Page Russell - Dressing Series

Ariana Page Russell

 

Hairoism Oreet Ashery

Oreet Ashery, Hairoism, Tate Modern - 27 June 2009 from Oriana Fox on Vimeo.

Performed with Shir Aloni and Magdalena Suranyi

For 'Hairoism' Oreet Ashery shaved her head and applied hair donated from the audience to her scalp and face to imitate the hair patterns of four male public figures: Moshe Dayan, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzouk, Avigdor Lieberman and Yassar Arafat/Ringo Starr. The first figure has the least hair and the last has the most, allowing her to become hairier as the piece progressed. After the fourth figure’s hair pattern had been applied, her two assistants continued to glue hair to her face and body, with the goal of covering it entirely as time permitted.

'Hairoism' was inspired by Eleanor Antin's 'The King', a silent, 52-minute, black and white film where Antin slowly applies hair to her face to become her male alter ego. In a recent interview, Antin states: ‘Role playing was about feeling that I didn’t have a self. And I didn’t miss it… I just borrowed other people’s, or made them up. And it’s something that continued when I started working with personas because it was a very good way of dealing with a lot of the political and social issues that were of interest to me.’ Oreet Ashery shares Antin’s subjectivity expressed in those descriptions and in taking on various characters for her work she addresses socio-political backdrops and challenges a sense of authority over herself.

Camerawork: Richard Canham & Francesca Ungaro
Stills: Christa Holka

Text and image as seen on Vimeo


Oreet Ashery from Cityofwomen on Vimeo.

As seen on Vimeo

Vampires on the Catwalk

Continuing the theme of consumption on the catwalk, I read that in the 18^th century, TB was also sometimes regarded as vampirism. These folk beliefs originated from two observations: firstly, following the death from consumption of a family member, household contacts would lose their health slowly. This was attributed to the deeds of the recently deceased consumptive, who returned from the dead as a vampire to drain the life from the surviving relatives. Secondly, people who had TB exhibited symptoms similar to what people considered to be vampire traits, such as red, swollen eyes, sensitivity to bright light, pale skin, and a blood-producing cough. They "waste away" and "lose flesh" and at the same time remain active, and conserve a fierce will to live. This dichotomy of lust and "wasting away" was reflected in the vampires' desire for "food", which forced them to feed off living relatives, who, in turn, suffered a similar wasting away (Sledzik 1994). 

Looking at the Roberto Cavalli show, with make up created by Pat McGrath, and also Rick Owens and Nina Ricci, it is clear that this is a theme that has not only invaded popular culture with the success of television recent series such as True Blood and the Vampire Diaries.

Roberto Cavelli as seen on Style.com

Nina Ricci as seen on WWD.com

Rick Owens as seen on Style.Com