A Child Of The Jago AW10 show - The Fallout

Wednesday 24th February saw the close of London Fashion Week and the last of the Autumn Winter shows from British soil! The official final show was A Child of the Jago, the menswear label from Joe Corre and Simon 'Barnzley' Armitage.

With front row guests including Vivienne Westwood and Janet Jackson, this was one of the hottest tickets in town and the show did not disappoint.

Illamasqua's art team consisted of Lucie, Helen and Francesco [Helen worked on the Spring Summer 2010 A Child of the Jago show] and with the variety of clothes and themes from the designers, it made for an interesting mix of make-up looks; from clean-cut libertines to Gangs of New York-inspired grit and grime and Victoriana highwaymen.

The historical references were as rich as the velvet jackets and the social spectrum of the characters represented created a feeling of free artistic licence - which we at Illamasqua obviously celebrate!

As you may be aware, the brand's HQ is located above ours in East London, so it's been fascinating for me to sneak up there now and again to watch them put the finishing touches to their clothes. As I was making my way to the show [I got some great backstage footage, so look out for a video to be uploaded to Youtube soon!] I saw Barnzley [co-owner of the brand] packing a van with the pieces from the collection, so I squeezed in with them to the show and managed to introduce myself. He is a real character and absolutely embodies the aura of the brand which is really inspiring. He told me all about his colourful life and also mentioned he is up for wearing make-up, so I will try and get some pics up if he comes good!

Christmas Gift Ideas

With December just around the corner, it's time to start thinking about Christmas shopping [unless you are like my Mother and got it all done in August and are now sitting smugly whilst everyone around you loses their heads...!] so I have put together some ideas for Christmas for you!

£15 and under

Cabaret: 30th Anniversary Special DVD - Liza Minelli stars in this highly entertaining 1972 musical whose cultural and stylistic influences reaches far beyond the confines of cinema.


Nail Varnish in 'Velocity' - £12.50 - 'grurple' at it's best! A perfect balance of grey and purple with a hint of blue, 'Velocity' instantly became one of our best selling pieces from the Dystopia collection.


£25 and under

Pantomime Nail Duos - £25 - for the Nail-ista in your life, you can bet they will love the Pantomime Nail Duos. 'Boo' has the best selling shimmering purple Nail Varnish in 'Baptiste' with the limited edition sparkling purple top coat. 'Hiss' contains the best selling pure black Nail Varnish in 'Boosh' with a glittering top coat of red, gold, silver and bronze.


Limited Edition False Eye Lashes - £25 - choose from 'Decadence', a beautiful, fluttering set of lashes with antique silver crystals, or 'Opulence', with vintage gold crystals to create alluring, party season eyes. Oh-so-OTT ...


A Goat - £25 from oxfam.com - For those of you who, like me, have too much 'stuff' as it is - how about a gift from oxfam? Hopefully my office secret santa isn't reading this post, as I bought them a present from this fantastic new venture from Oxfam. You can buy a variety of charitable goods from school supplies to chickens, goats and even camels! You then get sent a card - with a personalised note to the receiver - with details of the donation that you made in their name.


£50 and under

Silver Seductress and Golden Goddess Gift Sets - £42 - The most beautiful of gift boxes contains a cult Liquid Metal [Silver Seductress - Phenomena, Golden Goddess - Solstice], prized Pure Pigment [Silver Seductress - Android, Golden Goddess - Furore], best selling False Eye Lashes 019 and the iconic Sophie pencil.


Maitresse 50ml by Agent Provocateur - £46 - This delightfully packaged, seductive scent infusion including exotic ylang ylang and white lotus.


This Works: The Deep Calm Box - £28 at ASOS.com - Chamomile, lavender and vetivert are blended into a bath oil, shower gel and travel candle. A great gift, but even better to enjoy on your own post-Christmas...


Alex Box By Rankin - £50 - Available to purchase at www.illamasqua.com, this collaboration has been two years in the making. Ideal for the Alex Box fan, photographer, make-up student or anybody with an interest in art this book makes an ideal present.



£100 and under

Ambience Candle Set by Kiki De Montparnasse - £59.98 - quite possibly the most seductive, exquisite candles I have ever tried [and I have tried a lot!] these are perfect for travelling, or for dotting around your bedroom and bathroom. Beautifully packaged, too.

£150 and under

C9 Styling Irons - £129.95 - If you are like me, occasionally you wonder how you actually functioned properly without your trusty GHDs. Well, I've recently been introduced to the Cloud 9 hair straighteners and these irons put my old GHDs to shame. The variable, flexible temperatures allow you to create styles from tight curls, luscious volume, soft waves or poker straight looks and the pack comes with a manual to help you achieve any number of different looks at home. They are, quite simply, a revolution.


Vivienne Westwood Crystal Embellished Orb Pendant - £145 - As a big fan of the eccentric punk-rock Brit, this pendant is high on my Christmas wish-list.

A Child Of The Jago SS10 show - The Fallout

Following on from my People Update post the other day, here are the pics from the A Child of Jago catwalk show!

Joe Corre and Simon Armitage have created not just a clothing line but an entire concept at their store on Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. The curiosity shop-like feel and historical references create a store that is wondrous in both atmosphere and the clothes that it retails.

The stylistic inspiration behind the aptly named 'Terrorist' collection was the morning-after-the-night-before in terms of attitude, with the clothing an unpredictable mix of tailored pieces and edgy cuts.

Adam led the team that consisted of Helen and Halimah as well as other freelance artists to create bespoke looks for each of the models. The below picture shows Helen going through the look book prior to the show.

Check out the awesome backstage pics!

Can anyone spot a certain Ms Westwood in this photo? FYI - she is Joe Corre's mother!

People Update!

Hello everyone - phew, it's been a busy past few weeks but I am here to give you all some updates!

We were really thrilled on Saturday because the Independant ran a great feature on theatrical make-up and even had our beautiful Dystopia promo image as the front cover of The New Review, the Saturday supplement.





Click on the images to enlarge them and have a read of the article - it's very interesting and thought provoking.

We had the House of Blue Eyes show and the All Walks Beyond The Catwalk event on Friday and yesterday we created looks for A Child of the Jago fashion show at Wilton's music hall. The label is the brainchild of Joe Corre [of Agent Provocateur fame] and was attended by Vivienne Westwood, amongst others. Unfortunately, I didn't get the time to go! I am awaiting some images from the show though and will get those up as soon as I receive them.



By the way, has anyone read the 1896 Child of the Jago book by Arthur Morrison? It's a Dickens-esque novel about the life of street children in the Victorian slums. I read it as a comparison point to Oliver Twist when I was about 16 and it's a very beautiful [but brutal] analogy of the streets of London in the 19th century.

So a quick update on people:

Katie, our wonderful Product Development Manager has several top secret projects on the go for next seasons collection [ideas currently being bandied around] as well as the mascara expansion project and special products for our birthday and Christmas coming up [the celebrations begin on 31st October - I'll let you know more closer to the time but it's going to be awesome!]

Jennifer is currently managing our Sephora expansion - 27 stores at present and I can reveal that we now have a new one in Roseville, California due to launch in November! Exciting stuff.

Kate is in Birmingham today, assessing sites for our new counter and taking a look around Birmingham for marketing opportunities. I have only been out in Birmingham once but it was a great city with a fabulous night-time vibe and we really want to embrace that!

Jonathan, our Retail Operations Manager has been hard at work picking a brilliant team to head up the new Birmingham counter - new additions to the Illamasqua family! To think we only had 16 artists when we first launched... we have over 50 now, less than a year on!

Alex Box is really busy with the Fashion Weeks across the globe - Paris is the big one for her but we have still managed to squeeze some time in for an appearance at Selfridges Trafford on Saturday 3rd October - more details on that to follow!

We have some great events coming up for our first Birthday and with the excitement surrounding Dystopia, we will be sure to include demonstrations and get-the-looks across town. Plus, we have a new recruit to our Selfridges London freelance team that I think that some of you are going to be very excited to hear about....