Wire Couture

My friend Alyson is ALWAYS coming up with crazy new concepts and ideas and then roping me in to help! LOL

One great thing about Aly though, is that she always gives me creative freedom with the makeup. Unless she has something extremely specific in mind, she lets me come up with the makeup concepts and execution, and even when she wants something specific it's more of a specific type of look rather than dictating all the makeup itself. (If that makes sense!)

Soon after the Mannequin shoot, Aly came up with this amazing idea for what she called "Wire Couture". It was a take on some stuff we've seen around - an outfit made of trash. It was awesome. Aly, with the help of a designer friend, made a dress out of big black plastic bags and cut up, pleated magazine pages, and a hat out of a round piece of chicken wire, a hole cut in the middle and attached to a black crochet cap.

We asked Cathy to be our model again because she impressed us so thoroughly as the Mannequin, and boy were we in for a surprise! Cathy proved to be such a chameleon, and I really loved making her up. There are those faces that I just love to get my hands on as a makeup artist, and Cathy's face is one of them. I adore her bone structure and her overall look. Check out where her natural eyebrows actually fall, and then have a look at her as the Mannequin again with the eyebrows 'erased' and drawn in much higher! Of course, women in the 20s actually shaved their brows off...we just covered Cathy's up with glue.

The Makeup concept for the Wire Couture shoot was late 80s/early 90s supermodel Cindy Crawford-esque makeup. Aly wanted the soft smoky browns and peaches. It was an interesting excercise, because Cathy's  face is quite chiseled, but under the soft makeup all her angles diffused.

 I kept Cathy's skin peachy and healthy, with subtle rosy cheeks. I think I used a Clinique foundation in a warm beige tone, and set it with a medium/light loose powder by Almay and a matte bronzer by Constance Carroll for warmth. We highlighted VERY subtly with MAC MSF in Soft & Gentle (one of my personal favourite products of all time). I used matte browns and beiges on her eyes for soft, smoky definition. I used a few different brands of eyeshadow, from MAC (charcoal Brown and Brule), and a L'Oreal palette (can't remember the name - this was over a year ago!). The eyeliner - I think it was by Covergirl - on the upper lids was a very dark espresso brown khol liner, smudged lightly to soften the edges, and on the bottom lashes I used a lighter brown pencil and softened it with MAC charcoal brown eyeshadow. I lined the lower waterline lightly with a beige khol pencil to brighten the eyes and keep the look soft. I topped the eyes off with some Clinique Natural Mascara and a pair of Ardell Fairies lashes. I decided to leave the browns natural, slightly unkempt a la early 90s style. I loved how it looked. The lips I made fuller, lined just outside the natural lip, and filled in with the pencil. I topped it with a peachy lipstick. I didn't use any lip gloss since we wanted a more matte, satiny finish to the makeup on a whole.

The finished product

 That Chicken Wire hat was the BOMB! See the plastic bag top?

Cathy has the most amazing profile!

The Whole Oufit. We shot this in my backyard with my other late grandfather's old wheelbarrow and a giant umbrella skeleton. My Grandpas left use some pretty cool props! 

That's it for today, guys!! Hope you enjoyed! I just might make one of my first youtube videos a tutorial on this look because I just LOVE it.

Have a great day!

Love, kisses and chicken wire hats,

Mandy