In the previous post, we explored how art details resonate within contemporary fashion collections. Yet, the dialogue between art and beauty is equally profound. Nearly a year ago, Margiela's Spring/Summer 2024 Artisanal collection rocked the fashion world, reviving the forgotten grandeur of fashion as spectacle. But it wasn't just the collection, the narrative and the presentation that broke the Internet. One of the highlights of the show was indeed Pat McGrath's visionary makeup artistry that transformed the models into ethereal porcelain dolls, their skin gleaming like polished glass.
Speculation ran wild as everyone scrambled to identify the products responsible for the otherworldly finish.
Social media exploded with experiments and theories, but McGrath kept the beauty world guessing until she revealed the secret: a combination of products was used to achieve the look. In that circumstance she also teased the release of a Pat McGrath Labs product promising the coveted glass finish, something she had been working on for three years.
The wait is over: launching on January 30th, Pat McGrath Labs Skin Fetish: Glass 001 Artistry Mask promises to deliver the sought-after porcelain glow.
This peel-off, pore-blurring mask features a blend of hydrating glycerin, rose flower water, and soothing allantoin. Designed to create an ultra-luminous, lacquered radiance, the mask is as versatile as it is transformative.
The application process is straightforward as shown on Pat McGrath's site: brush it onto bare skin or over makeup in thin layers, ensuring each coat dries completely before adding another.
Whether you're channelling Margiela's fully-lacquered runway look or opting for a subtler glow by highlighting your cheekbones, the mask forms a smooth, glass-like film that can be effortlessly peeled away. For the full porcelain doll effect, however, you'll need to keep facial movements to a minimum as the mask's delicate lacquer won't hold where there's motion.
Can we detect any similarities between this porcelain effect and any paintings by a modern artist? Well, the finish evokes some of the hyperrealistic textures in Michaël Borremans' haunting paintings. Like his art, the effect teeters between the surreal and the sublime, bridging the gap between beauty and art with spellbinding allure.
Michaël Borremans shifted his focus from photography to oil painting, employing traditional techniques inspired by masters like Velázquez, Manet, and Degas. His works carry the richness of historical painting while incorporating an unsettling, surrealist aura.
In 2008, Borremans exhibited his works at the Zeno X Gallery in Antwerp: the show was entitled "Painted Fruit" and explored the themes of masks and the lustrous sheen of glazed surfaces. The invitation card to the show was indeed a painting by Borremans representing a porcelain figurine View this photo).
One standout painting in the show, "Mombakkes I (Mask)" (2007-2008), depicted a close-up of a figure whose ambiguous identity amplified the work's emotional complexity. The figure's exaggerated makeup evoked the playful spirit of commedia dell'arte, with arched brows, blue eyeshadow, glossy cheeks, and bright red lips. Yet, the figure's gaze looked hollow, distant, and profoundly melancholic and his smile seemed frozen and disturbing, looking more like a sneer.
This contrast between outward merriment and inner desolation actually encapsulates the tension in Borremans' work. His aim is not to portray realistic portraits but rather to create masked figures imbued with dramatic, often ambiguous, narratives. As the viewer is drawn in, the painting reveals the truth about the sitter who is actually wearing a mask, made of a transparent material. In another work, Borremans also depicted the discarded mask, stripped of its illusionary joy once removed.
The mask itself heightens the illusion of humanity while simultaneously exposing its artifice. The recurring motif of masks in Borremans' oeuvre, such as in "Untitled" (2008), where a woman lies with a similar mask on her face, embodies layers of reality, oscillating between appearance and authenticity. Masks in his art function as a metaphor for modernity's preoccupation with surface, concealment, and the blurred boundaries between what is genuine and what is contrived.
The hyper-glossy finish by McGrath mirrors Borremans' surreal transparency, both invite us to explore the interplay of illusion and reality. The skin mask is therefore a tool for performance and transformation, embodying narratives of identity, fragility, and artificiality. Like Borremans' works, it examines the dualities of fake and real, depth and surface (and in fashion surface and appearance reign supreme…), and permanence versus ephemerality.
The artistry mask offers a playground for these contrasts, allowing users to engage with its creative potential. But the opportunity to experiment with the Skin Fetish Mask may be fleeting - the product will be available in limited quantities, so those ones eager to explore its glassy allure will have to be quick to snatch it as soon as it goes on sale.
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