Today I stayed home sick… What is a girl to do? Perhaps a little shopping on the internet? : )
It was ♥ at first sight 🙂
May 2009
Monthly Archive
May 27, 2009
May 21, 2009
I just ♥ this picture so so much that I had to post it… ultra chic.
May 19, 2009
At the couture shows, the beauty looks are as fanciful as the fashions. When I chose the name “Couture Makeup” I knew what couture meant to the fashion world. It is another word for extravagent, magical, dreamlike, and usually quite different from classic looks and fashions. Not synonymous with wedding makeup! But I loved the illusionary and imaginative things it could represent for me and my models.
April 2009 A month before his January couture show for Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld gave makeup artist Peter Philips and hairstylist Odile Gilbert each a sumptuous picture book about shells, hoping to inspire them in concocting the delicate faces and bejeweled heads for his collection. Soon after, he handed them a sketch of a woman, hand-drawn in makeup, to illustrate his couture vision for summer.
Sequins at Dior.
Taking a cue from Lagerfeld’s pastel palette, Philips swept the models’ eyelids with a silvery gray shadow and sprinkled glitter to create the illusion that the models had jumped into the sea, with air bubbles “running across their faces,” he says. Gilbert, in turn, twisted tresses into chignons crowned with tiaras of shells and semiÂprecious stones.
Given the high prices that high fashion commands—and the untold hours of labor needed to realize each collection—it’s not surprising that designers rarely send models down couture runways in just a ponytail and a dab of lip gloss. Haute couture is the designers’ fantasy world, says hairstylist Paul Hanlon, who this season created the styles for Armani Privé: “It’s an exaggeration of their ideal woman.” And beauty—whether in the stitching, the hairstyle or the makeup—lies in the elaborate, well-thought-out details.
According to makeup artist Pat McGrath, runway hairstylists and makeup artists typically describe ready-to-wear beauty looks as “fresh,” “modern” or “simplified,” but they’re apt to go all out for couture, using words like “luxurious,” “decadent,” or “ornamental.” And the genteel pace of couture shows—as opposed to the hurried frenzy of ready-to-wear—means that beauty pros can take their time and test the boundaries of their ingenuity. “Since haute couture is custom-fitted for a client, couture makeup can be built to suit each face or garment,” says McGrath, who this season created couture looks for both Dior and Valentino. “Custom makeup reflects the highest level of luxury and extravagance.”
In a nod to Dior’s colorful clothes for summer, McGrath outlined the models’ eyes with iridescent sequins, acid-bright bits of paper, metallic fabric and vivid feathers. At Jean Paul Gaultier, Tom Pecheux gilded a model’s arms and legs to match her golden dress and painted another’s chest with a faux tattoo of flowers that could be glimpsed through her sheer net shirt. “It’s interesting,” says Pecheux, “when makeup becomes clothes and clothes become makeup.”
For hairstylists too, haute couture often translates into greater flights of fancy. “You don’t have to think trends,” says Orlando Pita, whose chignons at Valentino seemed to bloom from the base of the models’ heads. “There’s an opportunity to create something more intricate.” At Dior, he designed a “frizzy flying saucer” look inspired by Klimt, while at Armani Privé, Hanlon embellished coifs with shards of black Lucite.
Extreme as these looks might seem, Pecheux believes that elements of couture beauty are transposable to daily life. For a past couture show, he used bindis around the eye “like a fashion accessory,” he says. After that, “I saw a lot of young women playing with the idea.”
McGrath notes that fashion-obsessed clubgoers will sometimes mimic couture looks. “It can create an interesting cycle,” she says, “because many designers frequent these same clubs and will see the kids and find inspiration in their interpretations.
“The genius thing about couture is the surprise,” McGrath adds. “There are no limits, which means it is always magical.” This quote was the reason I chose the name Couture Makeup. The sky is the limit.
May 18, 2009
Yesterday was the Phoenix Bridal Show. Diana from Silver Spoon Studio, was there to help me all day. She was so wonderful to lend a hand, I dont know what I would have done without her!! It was a very successful showing. I booked most of my fall weekends and several in Spring. The day was really fun and I loved interacting with all of the excited brides. Wow, I really love what I do! 🙂
This shot makes me laugh… a caption would be “well…now that you asked..” 🙂
I look forward to working with those of you who booked me. I cant wait to make you look gorgeous on your special day!
♥
Katy
May 12, 2009
I couldnt sleep last night so I put in one of my favorite movies.. Sex and The City of course!! The scene where she shoots 5 looks for Vouge had me thinking about my recent photoshoots… And that terrible dress that she wore to the actual wedding. My question is, who was the stylist? No wonder Mr. Big took one look at her and turned the car around! OK just kidding, I had to say it….
I did a little research and found out some interesting and shocking facts.
Sex And The City fans all over the world (Hmm all over the internet world is more suited) caused an immediate sold-out Vivienne Westwood dress.
Why? Because of Carrie Bradshaw, of course! She was seen wearing the white bride number in the Sex And The City movie so, naturally, every true fan out there wants to get married in the same dress Carrie did!
That sounds perfectly natural, but you should also know that the dress available on net-a-porter.com had an amazing tag price: $9,875. And it was a knee-length version! The floor length original version, as seen on Carrie in Sex And The City the movie costs a whopping $15,700 and you have to order and wait six months for it! As a Sex and the City fan myself, I found the dress to be… well, over designed! Check back in my gallery to see the couture gowns that I chose for my last shoot. They took my breath away… In a good way! 🙂
May 12, 2009
Christian Siriano is no stranger to a woman’s most beautiful and intimate thresholds in life. He designed a maternity line, now he’s taking things further with bride gowns designs (actually, he’s taking things backwards, given his first steps into the fashion world were made through his freelance bridal designer gigs)
Brides magazine asked him to sketch a bride dress for Amy Adams, Rachel Bilson, Uma Thurman and Zooey Deschanel. I love pictures of free hand sketching… ahh so beautiful….
May 11, 2009
Mika and Russ Perry were married in Maui in Feburary 09. It was such an AMAZING wedding… I did the makeup for the bride, bridal party, and mother of the bride. The night was truely spectacular. I wish I could post all of the pictures from that night, but thanks to Diana Rothry (the amazing photographer) here are a few…
One of my favorite photos, ever. You can see the anticipation in her toes.
Thank you Russ and Mika for letting me be a part of your special day
I ♥ you both.
May 9, 2009
I recently put together a photo shoot with my favorite photographer in Phoenix (Mark Susan) for my website. The day started out pretty hectic, First of all, I was going on less then two hours of sleep… not easy to perform on that kind of energy. Immediately I bolted for some coffee…and added an unusual 5 shots in my Starbucks latte that morning. I picked up my phone while in line to find out that the hair stylist cancelled at 6 am the day of the shoot. I thought “Dang it!” a major draw back. I stayed on schedule and headed over to pick up the six dresses from Laura’s Bridal. Beautiful thousand dollar gowns!! I was so excited. I walked into the store and there was my favorite dress of the six I had chossen… on a potential client. As she stood there admiring the gown in the mirror, I stared at my watch, thinking “if she doesn’t take this dress off soon I’m going to be an hour late for call time!” But I couldnt leave without it, I loved it too much!! Finally…the dress came off, I loaded up my car, and I was on my way to the studio with 40 thousand dollars worth of jewelry, dresses, veils, head pieces, and flowers in my back seat.
I was running 30 minutes behind. “Not bad” I thought… Then, I got lost. So lost, that it took 40 minutes of extra driving to find my way to the studio. I had to stay positive; the shoot was going to be beautiful. But again, I ran into an unexpected dilemma. I had put together the flower bouquets the night before, specifically, a white one filled with hydrangeas and roses. Unfortunately…it did not last the car ride. I pulled into the parking lot of the studio with dead droopy flowers on hand. Fortunately, ONE bouquet survived and still looked gorgeous. “That’ll have to do” I thought.
I met my first model Gwen. Oh how lovely she was… kind and beautiful. We immediately got to work on her hair and makeup. I started to airbrush Gwen’s face, and all of the sudden, crap! My airbrush gun is broken. Could this go any worse? I smiled and informed her that we would be using liquid makeup that day. Luckily, we were the same color and my foundation was a perfect match. I styled her hair, picked out her first look and handed her over to my brilliant photographer, Mark Susan. From there, he and I led her through some specific concepts for the shoot… the moment she set foot under the lights she hit every pose like a pro. I had her in some very tiring positions and she did not complain at all. She was such a delight to work with. We spent the following two hours styling and shooting her other looks. I’d say the hardest part of the whole thing was lacing up those dresses! Wow, talk about time consuming!
Around 4 pm my second model Gina arrived. Sure enough, it was also time for my second Red Bull of the day. Gina Is strikingly beautiful. I had her jewelry and looks decided in my head the second she walked in the door. I knew she would look awesome. After we wrapped Gwen we quickly started on Gina. Gwen was such a doll and stuck around to put some dresses back into their proper bags while we worked. She probably took pity on me because I looked like I was going to pass out. Oh geez, Food! I knew there was something I forgot! A granola bar would have to do…
Gina hit every pose perfectly, I styled her in two beautiful gowns with different hair, makeup, and jewelry for each dress. She lit up the room with each snap of the camera. Eight pm rolled around, time to wrap this up… by 9:30 I was out of the studio with the dresses in my car headed back to Tucson.
It was a 12 hour day on no sleep. But I saw my concepts realized and learned valuable lessons on keeping it cool when things don’t go as planned. It was a growing experience. I had to push through the tiredness to achieve a goal, and that’s exactly what I did. The photos are amazing and overall I am so proud of the way everything turned out. Stay tuned for AWESOME pictures that will be added to my gallery in about a week. Here is a little preview 🙂
xoxo
Katy
May 8, 2009
One of my favorite types of flowers to inspire and brighten my work area, hydrangias!
Couture Makeup Blog - Makeup Artist Serving San Diego and Orange County. 
