Its become a bit of a Mercedes Benz Fashion Week tradition for me to visit the NASDAQ center in Times Square and be ushered behind a thick black curtain for the backstage prepping of the Carmen Marc Valvo show. Last year, as a fashion week novice, I can't tell you how therapeutic it was to bask in Ted Gibson's warm smile and laugh at Romero Jennings' quips amid the anxiety that is one's first fashion week. Now, a year later, I could navigate myself there in the dark—and almost had to amid Times Square being shut down and a thunderstorm—and am always happy to see their familiar faces, along with Carmen Marc Valvo himself, who always looks like he's having so much fun. This season, I scored a ton of information on the CMV spring/summer '11 look—so much so, that I have to divide it into two posts, which seems better anyway. Makeup and hair deserve their own time to shine!
Romero Jennings shows us his magic-making tools
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For the spring/summer 2011 collection, M.A.C.'s key makeup artist, Romero Jennings walked us through his beauty look, gracious as always. He said for this season he wanted to concentrate on a strong eye—something that would complement the details, textures and colors on the garments while not necessarily being a color that was in the collection. After much deliberation, Romero and Carmen decided on M.A.C.'s brand new powder to cream eyeshadow called "Daliance", a gleaming metallic color somewhere between silver and champagne (not available until the spring).
Romero Jennings doing what he does best!
As he demonstrated, Romero told us he was dotting the color from the inner to the outer lash-lines to elongate the eye. Once he reached the outer corner, he extended past the outer corner and wrapped it up and around into the crease. Then using a teal shadow, Romero dabbed over the "Daliance" with M.A.C.'s #217 blending brush and blended the whispy blue into the crease and at the outer corners, creating a kind of U-shape. As a finishing touch, he used a tiny brush to dab another line of blue right at the lower lash waterline to make the eyes pop just a bit more. Since it was raining, Romero noted that the look had become substantially softer than originally planned. He explained the blue was to be more vibrant when planned for a sunny day, but to adjust for the lack of light, the color was toned down.
M.A.C. artists finish the cheeks, lips and eyes on the Carmen Marc Valvo models
For the rest of the face, a taupe sculpting shadow was applied to the cheeks and M.A.C.'s Kissable Lip Color in "Super" was painted on each models' lips, regardless of skin tone. romero explained "Super" was one of those hands down amazing colors that was universally flattering, and served as a lipstick, pencil and gloss all in one. After he added a light coat of black mascara to each model they looked lit from within and ready for the runway.
The finished look-gorgeous!
-Alia Rajput
Photo Source: Second City Style
