Monday, May 9, 2011

Revisited: MAC for Alexander McQueen and the Savage Beauty Experience





MAC for Alexander McQueen Fall 2007. Clockwise: New Vegas Mineralized Skinfinish, Pagan Eyeshadow, Haunting Eyeshadow, Nile Eyeshadow and Archetype lipstick

Swatches from top to bottom: Pagan,Haunting, Nile, New Vegas and Archetype

Pieces from Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This weekend I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibition and was totally emasculated by all of works that were shared from his collections.
Last week, upon hearing that the exhibition would be opening a few days after the Met Ball hosted by Vogue and Anna Wintour, I started going through my makeup stash, revisiting my MAC for Alexander McQueen collection from October 2007. The MAC for Alexander McQueen collection was inspired by the Salem Witch trials, with which he had a familial connection and Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra. The makeup look was from Taylor's role as Cleopatra, strong eyebrows, heavy eyeshadow with extended cat-eye and glowing skin.
I remember my initial thoughts of the collection of vibrant yellow-greens, sea-foam teal and golden as too out there, but they worked well once applied, whether it was everyday subtle with a "wash" of color on the lid and a dab of lipstick or applied heavy and dramatic.
This collection was ahead of its time just like its co-creator, Alexander McQueen.
Savage Beauty brought you some of his pieces from his famed Central Saint Martins thesis collection and some pieces he created in the early late 1990's while he worked for Givenchy up until his last runway collection shown Plato's Atlantis.
My favorite was his fall 2005 collection which was displayed on a chess board, with each model being moving chess pieces and the inspiration ranged from a pucci-esque swimsuit with football pads to overly curvy silhouette's with horsehair trim and Gemma Ward having a carved bonsai tree as a headpiece. The color palette featured camel, lilac and a melting pot of colors in between.

The Savage Beauty Exhibit at the Met is open until July 31st and I definitely plan to revisit in the next month or so. I loved it all, the videos, the collections, the thoughts and the clothing. So moving and theatrical, there is and will be nothing else like it.

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