London Fashion Week: A Round Up From Alex Cummins, Junior Brand Manager ...

Wow, what a week! I always get so much more excited by the Autumn Winter collections than the Spring Summer ones, as there are always a few really dark, dangerous, surreal collections that appeal to me, so I was delighted to be invited to a smattering of shows that showcased a real celebration of individuality ...

Kristian Aadnevik

The wonderfully named Black Metal collection was a delicious mixture of leather, metal and feathers that, teamed with the biting cold but beautiful open-air setting of the Old Naval Club in St James Square and heavy rock music, demonstrated a cracking return to the international fashion stage for Versace protege Kristian Aadnevik.

The beautiful make-up was headed up by Illamasqua freelancer Kristina Theodoris, who blocked out the eye brows and focused on heavy, goth-inspired eyes. What were the key Illamasqua products she used? "Powder Eye Shadow in 'Gimp' and 'Lestat' blended out over the Medium Pencil in 'Sophie' for ultra matt black eyes," She tells me, "with no mascara."

Skin was pale, yet with a certain luminosity and hint of baby pink on the cheeks, with a soft lip colour pressed in to the mouth, to keep the focus purely on the eyes.

Thanks to Luisa Voia blog for the backstage shot and Christopher Dadey for the other images.


KRISTIAN AADVENIK A/W 2011-12 from KRISTIAN AADNEVIK on Vimeo.

 

Casette Playa

In the words of Monty Python, "and now for something completely different"...

Colour was the order of the day over at Casette Playa, with designer Carri Munden getting psychedelic with prints and playing a pumping track of grime, dubstep and hip hop as the models graced the catwalk for her MEN show, the quirky show spoke volumes about Carri's individualism and sense of fun. You can watch the show here.

Our make-up artists Sally Rose and Gavin Pickle had a great time supporting lead make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench with gilding the models head to toe with our Liquid Metal in 'Solstice'! Other models had vibrant hair courtesy of the lovely Charlie le Mindu [who is also setting the fashion world alight with his clothing designs as well as his spectacular hair designs... Lady Gaga's pieces in her monsters ball tour? Yep - that was Charlie]

Ziad Ghanem

This was a cracking show for pure theatrics and a stellar guest list including Boy George, Daniel Lismore, the lovely Munroe Bergdorf and just about every other mover and shaker on the London night-time scene. The fusion of eccentric models, floating fabrics and interesting prints [plus a fantastic soundtrack that took in everything from classical to 90s New York house] has made this one of the most talked about shows of the week.

I am going to let the pictures do the talking ... and on a side note, if anyone happens to own/ ordered the beautiful lilac A Line dress, I'm happy to take it off your hands for free, how generous of me ;-)

A Child of the Jago

Our Joint MD Joe Corre's other venture is the menswear label A Child of the Jago, who debuted their AW2011 collection at The Village Underground. Of course, Illamasqua provided the make-up for the boys, who Barnzley [one half of the design team with Joe] wanted to look like "anarchistic rebels, swines and bandits".

National Make-up Artist for Illamasqua Francesco lo Cascio headed up the team that also included Illamasqua artists Clare Lille and Helen Roche, and created a mixture of natural looks and more glossy eyed, seriously smoky eyes.

"I buffed out Medium Pencil in 'Sophie' all around the eye. The creaminess of the formula allows for manipulation with a brush much more easily that harder pencils. On top of that, some of the boys had matt finishes with Powder Eye shadow in 'Lestat' and 'Drama' whilst others had a glossier finish, achieved using Intense Lipgloss in 'Repulse' and some even had a reddier tinge with Intense Lipgloss in 'Femme'. The look was simple, as it had to look smudged and undone, so after creating the eye look, we smudged at it with our fingers to make it look more worn in."

At the end of a long, eventful week I think my feelings are pretty much summed up in Francesco's T Shirt below ...