The Quintessential Alexander McQueen Look

One of my absolute favorite fashion houses in the one of Alexander McQueen. Although the original designer, Lee McQueen, died in February 2011, his understudy, Sarah Burton has been excelling and growing the house evermore. She has injected the DNA of the house, originally consisting of dark clothes with incredible tailoring and detail, and large production fashion shows where the models were always playing a character. She has added a much more feminine and lighter touch to the clothes but amping the level of craftsmanship and still keeping Lee’s incredible sense of history. Another thing she changed was the makeup!

Lee almost always had makeup artist Val Garland makeup the models according the inspiration of the collection. She painted then as creepy clowns (Fall 2001), space aliens (Spring 2010) and pasted feathers to models faces (Spring 2008). But since Sarah Burton has arrived the girls have been painted to look like blank canvases, so to speak. Very pale, perfect skin an that’s about it. No other “adornments”.

The look consists of not many steps or products at all. Keep reading to find out more.

So for McQueen shows these days Peter Philips does the makeup, for anyone who doesn't know him he is the creative director for the Chanel makeup line. What he does is he takes a sheer, matte, water based foundation and concealer in shades a bit paler than the models skin tone. He evens out the skin and covers any blemishes and covers the lips. He brushes through the brows, curls the lashes and dusts on a bit or translucent powder. And that’s it!

For my look I did exactly that. But don’t panic! You can absolutely do this in your everyday life but add little bits and bobs here and there. Keep reading for some tips.

- With this look you really should just do your foundation/concealer in your favorite foundation. Don’t change the shade or anything, the key to this look is just really perfect, gorgeous skin.

- You can absolutely fill in your brows, just take a a pencil, gel, whatever you use and fill in your brows lightly. Very lightly. You want to stay with the no makeup makeup feel of this look.

- I think in order to add a touch of life back into your face with blush. So after you do your base dust blush along your cheeks and this will help banish the starkness of this look.

- Put on a coat of brown mascara if you must. If you can’t live without mascara, add just a touch of brown to look natural.

- For the lips use tinted lip balm so you can get a touch of color and hydration. A full on bright color would overwhelm the subtlety of this look.

I really hope you enjoy this series and try some of the looks coming up! :)

You can also go to Alexandermcqueen.com or Style.com to learn more about the brand, view more shows or look through their online store.

Backstage photos courtesy of Style.com