Saturday 20 February 2010

MEN FASHION WEEK A/W 2010-2011: ZEGNA

At the E.Zegna show I worked for the first time with Wendy Rowe, a very talented British make up artist.

I found it very easy to get along with her and also  that our way of working is very similar, I guess coming from a British make up school explains why.
The models at Zegna's looked once again groomed but not obviously "made up". So the foundation was very light in texture,  little powder and concealer.
I was very pleased with my work. At the shows we had four guys with dark skintone and as the first one came to me I didn't hesitate and started doing his make up. I ended up doing them all four and being in charge of them on the line up.
Now you probably think that this is perfectly normal, being a make up artist I should be able to work with every skin tones. But it's not like that really...there are people out there that can do amazing work but when it comes to black skin tones they still feel not sure, maybe because they don't have the right colours (in some countries is still quite hard to find them) or simply because throughout their career they didn't have many chances to work with different skin tones.

I was lucky to experiment from the very beginning of my career...At the time I had just finished my course of photographic make up and arranged with a photographer to do a test. I was very excited about my first photo shoot and I remember going to the MAC shop to buy a couple of gorgeous violet eye shadows and a new foundation with some reflecting particles in it. The look was discussed, the clothes ready, the model was booked, everything was done.
The day of the shoot I'm there, punctually waiting for the team when I see the photographer approaching me with a stunning girl who reminded me of ..Halle Berry!! I wanted to cry first and then run away!! We were all so inexperienced (the photographer was a beginner too) that I didn't think to ask if the model was Caucasian or ethnic and he didn't think about telling me!
I pulled it out quite well I must say. I quickly tried to remember what I had on my kit: I only had 2 colours for dark skin, no yellow powder, good selection of lipsticks, and the violet shadows were bright enough. She had great skin, and luckily the shades that I had were fine, everything went very well in the end. phhhhhhewwww!!
After that episode I overcome the fear of working with different tones and living in London, such a multicultural society was helping too.
On this respect I will write a page of do's and dont's and recommended brands for dark skin tones.

But now let's go back to the Zegna show with AN INTERESTING BACKSTAGE VIDEO
and the one of the show:





Enjoy!!

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