Fashion Makeup for Collection, Essay Example

For this project I was asked to select a makeup look used by a professional designer and take inspiration from it. I was then asked to create my own makeup design based on the elements of the other designers work that have inspired me to create my look. The following report for this project contains my research into the history of my selected look and designer and his inspirations for the collection and also the inspirations, concept and justification for my own design.

I will begin this report by giving a brief insight into the history of the look I have selected. I have decided to use the 2012 Spring/Summer collection by Jason Wu. Jason is a very flamboyant young designer from America who moved to the states from Taiwan when he was 9 years old.

His style mixes chic elegant looks with elements of a more subversive style. His work is elegant and ladylike in the shapes he uses and is very Haute Couture. He is known for his use of juxtaposition in his collections and for the blending together of often conflicting styles. His best loved items are his beautiful ball gowns and dresses. He has also produced a wedding dress collection. The collection I have chosen is deemed by critics to be one of his most daring.

He graduated from the Parsons School Of Design and launched his first ever collection in 2006. The success of his first collection earned him the Rising Star award in 2008. He originally designed clothes for dolls whilst working at a toy company and eventually produced his own doll the Jason Wu doll. Jason has designed clothes for many celebrities including Ivana Trump, January Jones, Emma Watson and Amber Valleta.

One of his most notable clients is the American First Lady Michelle Obama. In an article in the LA Times newspaper he is quoted as saying ’ I love working with young actresses who are just starting out. Its always good to have a muse ‘. He is described on www.net-a-porter.com as being ’ one of America’s leading talents. The epitome of Park Avenue chic ‘.

This season he has opted to create his collection in collaboration with a street artist named Kaws who became famous in the 90s by painting advertisements of the Kate Moss onto the side of bus stops. Kaws helped him to create his new grey and white floral print which runs throughout the collection. He is quoted on the Vogue.co.uk website as saying that the theme of the collection is to ’ Combine the refinement of couture with the dynamism of the Pop Art movement ‘.  His main themes will be Pop Art, neon colours and lots of chiffon windbreakers. The collection will be sold by the fashion brand Target and will be called Jason Wu for Target when it goes on sale next year.

The collection has proved popular with critics who feel that he is taking more chances than usual with this collection through his choices of materials and colours. The website (www.vogue.com) stated ’Get ready come spring peplum is going to be the new platform‘.

Guests attending his fashion show for this collection included many notable faces including an actress from Glee.

He has combined grey and white monotone coloured garments with items in bright contrasting colours like lemon yellow and pink and also lime green. For example one outfit consists of a grey blouse and shorts with black heeled sandals and a bright lime green handbag. Another design contains a bright yellow wrap worn around the shoulders. This creates a beautiful contrast between the two types of design styles. And perfectly displays the blend between chic and bright fun styles which Jason Wu was going for here.

The clothes mostly consist of very short pairs of shorts and chiffon blouses with high heeled sandals. There are also some beautifully tailored jackets included. The items are all fitted and ladylike with very haute couture shapes which again emphasises the contrast between

The collection also contains some of his trademark dresses for which he is so famous. One of the focal points of this collection is a long sunny yellow ball gown with a black belt around the waist which combines elegance and class with poppy, showy colours.

The makeup used for the models in this collection uses the lips as the focal point of the design. The lips are bright neon red and pink. It is used to set off the monotone colours of the design and it has an almost party feel. It is youthful and fun in appearance and is extremely colourful. I like this use of neon colours to set off the design because it is very innovative and daring and embodies his bright pop art theme.

The blush used is very understated and is just barley visible to the audience. I believe that this has been done so as not to distract attention away from the strong lip colour which is being used.

The models used in his show are wearing brightly coloured nail polish and the eyes are made up with lots of mascara and dark eyeliner.

The main inspiration that I have taken from his work and incorporated into my own makeup design is the concept of neon colours which is a crucial part of the theme of this collection. To me the term neon invokes mental images of candy and the bright showy colours used in candy wrappers and the sweets themselves. Because of this I wanted my design to be comprised of bright candy colours such as pink yellow red and orange tones to reflect what the term neon means to me.

I wanted the overall design to have a strong playful and youthful feel which I have achieved through the use of   bright colours in candy tones whilst still keeping the design elegant and chic. I wished to create something which gave off a strong sense of fun in the same way that the makeup used on Wu’s models does.

I also wanted my design to be colourful and consist of colours which give off an element of fun. I want my personality to shine through via the colours that I use in my design.

For the eye makeup I chose to use sweeping orange, yellow tones for the upper eyelids and a bright pink shade for underneath the eye. I feel that these colours are in keeping with the candy wrapper and neon colour themes of my design without being overly bright and gaudy.

I wanted to avoid anything too colourful to the point where it would distract from the models outfit and put too much emphasise on her face. They are brave and playful colours that will stand out to a viewing audience without distracting away from the rest of the design that the model would be wearing.

Also the pink used underneath the eye will define the shape of the eyes. The overall effect is almost like a sunset because of my use of hot bright colours. I feel that the eyes are the focal point of the design because of the strong colours. I want to keep them as the most important part of the design and also the area where I used the most colours.

For blusher I chose a quite dark shade with burnt orange tones. This sets of the models cheekbones and gives an element of elegance to the design while still embodying the by continuing the colour scheme of oranges yellows and pinks that is the foundation of my design. It gives the design an element of class and is much more subtle in colour than the sunset shades of orange used on the eyes. The blush tones down the fluorescent effect of the eye shadow and nets the whole look together.

I chose a quite bright orange shade for the lips  inspired by the bright red and pink lips used by Jason Wu’s models but I used a shade that is less fluorescent. The lips and eyes are equally crucial to my design and the shade of orange used on the lips draws attention immediately to the models face as well as to the clothes she is modelling whilst keeping the eye makeup as the focal point. The shade compliments my theme of neon colours perfectly. And also my theme of candy wrapper themed colours.

I feel overall that my design invokes the candy and neon themes that I was going for and would look excellent on a real model wearing any of the designs in Jason Wu’s collection. I feel that the design is similar to the one used in the actual show but that it puts a fresh new twist on the design concept and shows my personality through the choice of colours.

The pink yellow and orange colour scheme which I chose fits my candy colours theme because these colours are often used in the packaging and wrappers of sweets. It also invokes fun and youthful feelings for the audience along with complimenting the themes used in the designers collection.

It is very experimental and brave in its use of bright colours for both the eyes and the lips of the model which is perfectly balanced out by the blusher. Usually if the eye makeup is bright the lipstick is a paler colour or vice versa but I have chosen to use bright colours for both.  It is colourfull, playfull and bright which is exactly what pop art is. Therefore I believe that my creation would fit in perfectly at any fashion show of this collection.

In conclusion I feel that I have created a piece that is entirely worthy of Jason Wu’s collection and that I have kept true to my concept throughout my design and have created something fresh using my inspiration, rather than creating something too similar to the original makeup concept for this designer.

In order to research for this project I visited several websites including Jason Wu’s own website. I researched the life and fashion history of Jason Wu. I also read reviews and comments for his collection.

Work Cited

LATimes.com. LA Times, n. d. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://latimes.com>.

JasonWu.com. JasonWu, n. d. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://jasonwu.com>.

Vogue.com. Vogue, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://www.vogue.com>.

Telagraph.com. Telagraph, n. d. Web 05 Dec 2011. <http://telagraph.com>.