Pat McGrath: Pat McGrath

You have make-up artists and then you have Pat McGrath. She is the undisputed master of make-up. Her mother was a Jamaican-born immigrant to England, and she influenced Pat by watching old films with her and commenting on all the actresses’ fashion choices. She later recalled that Pat was also ‘always mixing colours up because there wasn’t anything out there for black skin’. So in a sense the way the black skinned community were sidelined by major beauty companies in the past, encouraged Pat to be inventive and explore new possibilities – leading her to where she is today: at a position where she now influences the make-up companies including Georgio Armani (whose line she helped found) and Max Factor (which she is currently Creative Director of) – making sure of course that there are now options for all skin shades. Her big break came in the early 90’s with her close friend and collaborator, the Fashion Director Edward Enninful, when she joined him in creating spectacular shoots for i-D magazine that put it and them on the fashion map. Specifically she brought inventive colour back into the fashion world that was towards the end of its love-affair with grunge, which meant since a few years make-up trends were all about looking like a half-dead junkie. Pat and Edward helped to bring the fashion and beauty industry back to life – with their love of colour, their understanding of street culture and simply their energy.

Pat fits in a mammoth amount of work for endless runway shows, campaigns and editorials and every big name in the fashion industry has her on speed-dial – from Steven Miesel to Jil Sander to John Galliano – they all want Pat. And that’s because her make-up really takes the whole production to the next level – it adds a whole other layer to the fashion cake that is so much more than adding ‘a sheen’ or making a girl ‘pretty’. Pat can really click on a level with these photographers and designers, most likely because she is an artist herself. Famous for her ‘range’ she can work with a minimalist like Sander one week, using only the gentlest tones, and then move on to surrealist Galliano the next – creating outlandish latex petals that are stuck to models’ faces, drenching bodies in cobolt-blue powdered paint and matching them with vinyl lips. Also famous for not using the typical make-up artist’s brushes, Pat mostly uses her fingers to create looks that set trends from New York to London to Paris.