Finishing touches - Editorial Look

I decided on the hair colour for my Editorial look, Instead of opting for the traditional black hair that an Inuit/Eskimo would have naturally I decided to go to the opposite end of the spectrum and went for a light blond wig. I chose to do this because I felt that 1, it would give the look a much more contemporary edge and 2, it will add to the snow and ice theme/colour palette of the look.

I went for a wig that didn't have a particular style to it, I want it to be quite natural so that I could style it myself.

I've added beads to the hair to represent the icicles, I've decided against using the sugar however because it wasn't very visible against the light colour of the hair.

finishing touches - Catwalk look

I'm going to add some small red beads to the chin along side the thin red tattoo lines, I think this will give the look more depth and texture. It also relates to scarification and the concept of attaching things to the skin or scarring the skin to make it rise and bubble up. I'm going to add a little brown around the eyes to pull it all together. With the hair I want it to just be off the face and quite "fluffy" and "furry" like an animals.

Editorial Face charts and experiments

Instead of using black for the tattoos on the face I've chosen white. I feel this look is based on the habitat of the Eskimo/Inuit. 

The blue I'm going to use is my pigment by Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, it actually has quite a green shine/glow to it. I'm going to layer this with a golden shimmer to give it a warmer glow, like the sun is setting on the ice and sea. Also the glow will make the skin look very healthy.

Here are a couple of experiments.

In the first experiment photos the pigment looks quite purple, I think this is due to the lighting in the room I was in, however I still think it looks very effective.

First Experiment

Second 

I've added some white to the tips of the eyelashes, next time I want to add some white to the eyebrows.

I found a fantastic image of a man who's face is covered in frost. I might see if I can add some frost-like texture to the eyebrows and eyelashes, however I want it to be as safe as possible. I don't want sugar or fake snow falling into my model's eyes!!

I love the shape of the frost moving down the bridge of the nose!

Catwalk look - First draft moodboard

Here is a very rough draft of my mood board for the Catwalk look:

I want lots of fur to feature in this look. The idea I have is very simple, it involves only two colours, very healthy looking skin and lots of fur! I want the hair to almost resemble fur.

The contrast of the red on the white is supposed to represent the colour of blood on white snow. The tattooing is a tradition among many Eskimo/Inuit tribes. The tattoos wouldn't normally be red but because I wanted it to also represent blood, and the tattoo comes from the mouth, I feel that the tattoo serves two purposes; the traditional tattoo and blood from eating the raw animal. I am going to have my model wearing fur also because this is another product of an animal that an Eskimo/Inuit would use. 

My first go at the look (on myself) I really need to practice keeping the lines precise and thin. 

Creating Frosty looking hair

For my editorial look I want my model to have hair that looks like its covered in frost!

I found it a little difficult to create the look of frosty hair through drawing, this is the best I could do!

I went on to experiment with some sugar, fake snow and beads, using PVA glue as an adhesive.

Beading

This was pretty time consuming but I was very pleased with the results and definitely want to include this for the final piece. I'm going to have to buy a wig and bead the hair before hand otherwise I wont have enough time to shoot my image!

Starting with the thicker beads and moving down to smaller creates a lovely icicle effect.

Fake Snow

Putting the PVA on my fingers I lightly applied it to the tips of the hair and then poured the fake snow over the top.

I was quite happy with this effect, I wish the white was a little stronger but the texture works very well.

Sugar

I achieved this the same way I did with the Fake Snow

I'm SO happy with this effect. Definitely going to using all 3 techniques. I love how the sugar clings to a single hair, I think it looks exactly like frosty hair. However, I'm not entirely sure I want my final look to have black hair. I feel like going in the opposite direction and using blond hair will be more contemporary and unexpected. If the beads don't show up as much on the blond hair, I'm going to experiment with painting them with nail varnish!

Editorial look - mood board first draft

After gathering together some images that represent my Editorial look I've put a rough draft of the mood board together:

I've found a beautiful pigment by Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics that looks like the sun setting on the ice and water of the Arctic. This is the image used to advertise the pigment:

I've noticed that the skin of an Inuit is usually very beautiful and healthy, I want to use this pigment to not only represent the sun setting on the ice, the glow of the pigment will give the skin a healthy looking glow also.

Catwalk Inspiration

A few of these Images touch upon some of the ideas I have floating around my head:

The white eyelashes representing frosted eyelashes and the frizzy wind-swept hair are both Ideas I've been toying with and want to go on to experiment with. I also think the sequins on the lips top of the frosty look perfectly.

"The collection is by Carlotta Actis Barone. She took her inspiration from cruelty against animals, particularily the slaughter for fur, and with special focus on seals. The colour palette is navy blue, beige and white and reflects the climate these animals live in". - http://superstarmagazine.com. I also want to use a colour palette that reflects the environment that Inuit tribes come from. Using paint I made a very quick little colour palette idea image. 

This is only a rough Idea of what I'd like to do.

I'm not particularly blown away by this look but the white "fluffy" bits in her hair are along the lines of the sort of thing I'm thinking of doing for my catwalk look.

Once again I'm seeing the same sort of colour palette that I'm thinking of using; Ice blues, white and then bright red. The hair is also fluffy and frizzy like the collection by Carlotta Actis Barone. This is Chanel A/W 2010.

Last but definitely not least:

Vivienne Westwood's men's collection A/W 2012. I can't quite believe that she has created this look because it's almost EXACTLY what I had in mind for the hair in my catwalk look, maybe using some glass clear beads braided into the hair instead of creating something that looks exactly like an icicle. I'm thinking of using a wig for my model instead of my model's actual hair because it may take a lot of preparation. I'm yet to experiment!  

Practical Lesson work so far...

So far we have looked at tattooing the skin free hand, transferring from magazines and imitating scarification:

Research so far...

Here is a quick little story board summing up a few of the things I have researched so far. 

I'm going to move onto developing my colour palette for both looks.

BBC Arctic Life clips and Inuit Diet

(There are several graphic images in this post, please don't read if this may make you feel uncomfortable)

"It is one of the most extreme and barren environments on earth, but four million humans have learned how to live here thanks to a deep understanding of the landscape and wildlife. Narwhal, beluga whales, auks, seal and reindeer are just some of the animals that Arctic people depend on for their survival, not to mention Arctic man's best friend - the indomitable husy"

QUOTE FROM BBC.CO.UKK - CLIPS ON THE ARCTIC

Both images from the BBC. I love the colours of the landscape.

Inuit consume a diet of foods that are fished, hunted and gathered locally. This may include walrus, Ringed Seal, Bearded Seal, beluga whale, caribou polar bear, muskoxen, birds (including their eggs) and fish. While it is not possible to cultivate plants for food in the Arctic the Inuit have traditionally gathered those that are naturally available. According to Edmund Searles in his article "Food and the Making of Modern Inuit Identities," they consume this type of diet because a mostly meat diet is "effective in keeping the body strong,  keeping the body fit, and even making that body healthy". Searles defines Inuit food as mostly "eaten frozen, raw, or boiled, with very little mixture of ingredients and with very few spices added." 

(Information sourced from Wikipedia)

I wanted to look at the idea of the tribes consuming raw meat. One of my looks may include the hint of a bloody lip where they could have just eaten an animal they've killed.

I also find the rich, bright and intense colour of blood against the cool colours of the ice and snow quite interesting.

(images from Wikipedia)

More tribal inspired fashion

Behind The Scenes Numero # 124 Daphne Groeneveld from Greg Kadel Studios on Vimeo.

I'm really blown away by many of the tribal inspired shoots I've come across.

This particular shoot featuring Daphne Groeneveld is probably my favourite, although there may not be a great deal of inspiration taken from Arctic tribes I want to include this in my research because I love the shoot.

The "candy floss" like hair reminds me a great deal of the hoarfrost on this man's beard:

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This image is from an incredibly stunning shoot by Rene Habermacher. It is a captivating look at Tribal wear with a modern and very dark twist. I'm reminded by the image of this Inuit when looking at the fashion image

Here some more images that I'm including simply because I think they're fantastic

I'm so in love with the grittiness of these images and would really like my final images to hold an element of grittiness like these images do.  

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Another image with antlers and fur, which is also very dark:

I definitely feel that in one of my final images, possibly my Fashion Editorial image, it must include some antlers and lots of fur. I'm going to move on to look at an Inuit's religion and their diet. I feel that the fact that the Inuit's main source of food is meat (vegetables are difficult to find and grow in such a cold environment), it must be communicated through one of my final images. An Inuit wouldn't just use the fur and antlers as warmth or decoration, it would have eaten the animal, I'm thinking of showing this in my final look by maybe making the lips look very bloody but I need to go onto experiment with this.