Asaro Mudmen

When deciding on my catwalk look, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to create a look which was more natural and accessible to a catwalk show. I remembered using fullers' earth in a practical seminar at university a few weeks back.
I then sat and thought more about the effect, texture and accessibility of using fullers' earth in a look and became more and more enthused. So the next step was to research tribes across the world who used mud as part of their tribal makeup.
I came across the Asaro Mudmen.



They are a tribe from Papua New Guinea. The story behind this tribe is that they were once defeated by an enemy tribe and forced to flee into the Asaro river. The tribe waited until dusk and rose from the river, covered in sediment and mud from the bed. Story has it that the enemy spotted these tall, mudmen charging out of the river and mistook them for spirits. The enemies then fled in fear.

I like the thick use of mud on the hair and bodies of the men, I feel that this is something which could be translated into a catwalk look and could be applied to many people at a time, and quickly which is always necessary as catwalk looks have to be practical.

Editorial Styling

I wanted to take my styling choices from Indian culture as they use an abundance of gold in typical Indian wedding and celebration dress. I felt that this would tie in extremely well with my face chart and create the tribal 'mish-mash' I was going for.

Below are pictures of hair and styling inspiration I have found on the internet:

Hair Styling:

Again, I am drawn to the plaiting and braiding of the hair in these editorial shots. I have already done quite a few hair posts and I think I am going to do roughly the same thing with the hair as my previous catwalk shoot. I am planning to pull the hair away from the face and braid small gold chains into it. I want the focus to be on the flawless, rich, red skin and not so much on the hair which is why I have decided to keep the styling and the hair fairly straight forward.

Styling:

Jewellerry:
I have decided to acessorize my model using typical Indian jewellerry. I like the way that gold juxtaposes the rich red of the skin that I have already created. Therefore I have decided to use golden bangles on both wrists of my model. I will be sure to capture them in the shots I take as I feel that it will really bring out the red of the skin.

Clothes:
I have decided again to keep the clothing extremely basic and I am going to dress my model in a plain black maxi dress. The Himba Tribe wear no clothing but my model is uncomfortable with partial or full nudity. Therefore, I felt a simple black dress with no shoulders would not distract from the main feature as I want the gold in the hair and the bracelets to shine over the clothing as in Indian culture, the women are often adorned with fantastic jewellerry pieces.

Chosen Face Chart

I have chosen this design as my final Editorial look.
The richness of the skin accompanied  by the split peas carefully placed along the brow bone, collar bones and down the nose work extremely well. I am extremely excited to carry out this look and feel that I may have hit the jackpot with this one! Again, I have incorporated gold on the lips and eyes to help the face to stand out and stray away from a two dimensional look. I am planning to use red supra colour over the face, neck and arms of my model and feel that the gold helps the eyes and lips to pop out of the face and enhances the redness of the skin.
I am not planning to use any mascara on the eyes as I feel that this would distract from the already vivacious design.
Now all that's left to do is style and shoot this look! 
I cant wait!!

Editorial Face Charts

I felt it was time to get some face charts on the go for my editorial look. I've taken the makeup influence from the Himba Tribe and my research on Scarification and I plan to gather styling ideas from Indian culture as I am still extremely fond of it.
These are some of my face charts I have created with that in mind:

I used the idea of reddened skin. In this design I chose to keep it rather subtle to see how the rest of the design would come across. I've used gold around the eyes as I felt that plain red all over could become rather two-dimensional. The black strip down the chin would be achieved using rice and liquid latex, to create subtle scarification which would then be painted over with black supra colour.

I then toyed with the idea of creating a terracotta  coloured skin base, using split peas and lentils across the  brow bone and on the bottom lip, painted with black supra colour. I felt that terracotta was too plain and remembered that editorial looks are often over exaggerated. I also felt that the red was richer and would juxtapose better with the gold accessories I am planning to include when styling the look.

Again, I used a subtle hint of red across the face and shoulders which  would be created using dark red supra colour  and heavily highlighted with white supra colour or white Illamasqua rich liquid foundation. Across the brow bone I designed a strip of black topped with white covered split-peas. I do want to include something along the brow bone to simulate the idea of the bindi in Indian culture. However, I feel that this is too harsh and may not come across as I want it too. I also feel that the skin could be darker and therefore more striking.

I LOVE THIS DESIGN!
This is by far my favorite design! 

Editorial Moodboard

So here's my editorial moodboard.
After researching the Himba Tribe and Scarification I finally had some inspiration to create a moodboard to coordinate with my look:

Storyboard!

I made an initial Wild Kingdom storyboard but after all the changes my project has made, I felt it would be a good idea to create a new one, relating to my new thoughts and ideas:

Scarification

When thinking of ways to create an effective and striking catwalk/editorial look, I remembered a practical seminar I had been to at university in which we had learned an interesting way to represent scarification.

Scarification is a method of permanent body modification. Although its origins are tribal, it is no used in modern day fashion as a new form of 'tattoo'.Scarification can be achieved in a number of ways:

Cutting:
This method is fairly self explanatory  It involves the cutting of flesh in particular patterns to achieve a permanent collection of scarring.

Skinning:
This is the peeling away of skin which results in larger scarred areas and also an inconsistent texture to the skin.

Packing:
This is when a diagonal cut is made into the skin and then the cut is packed with ash or earth. This creates large and often extremely noticeable, textured scarring.

Abraision:
This is when layers of skin are removed through rubbing away at the surface of the desired area. This is much like when sanding a piece of wood and stripping away the top layers.

I have included pictures of tribal and modern day scarification as I found both fascinating.

Tribal Scarification:

 

Modern Scarification:

 

I have a few tattoos and have had over fifteen piercings myself and body modification is something that has always attracted and interested me. Therefore, I found this subject matter to be extremely inspiring and was extremely excited when I was able to learn an effective way of creating Scarification in front of the lens.

 


I have included a list of kit and the method in which I achieved this:

Kit Used:

-Cleanser, Toner & Moisturizer.

-Liquid Latex.

-Split Peas.

-Cotton Buds.

-Spirit Gum Remover.

-Illamasqua Rich Liquid Foundation.

-Real Techniques Buffing Brush.

Method:

-Anything can be used to create scarring, Rice, split peas, lentils, chick peas.etc.

-Choose the medium to apply to skin.

-Apply to skin in desired pattern using Liquid Latex.

-Leave to dry and then cover again with Liquid Latex.

-Find a Foundation or Paint to match the models’ skin tone and paint carefully over the ‘scars’

-This blends the scarring back into the skin and gives the effect of Scarification.


This was all completely new to me and I have to say I enjoyed it thoroughly  I am really pleased with the outcome of my first scarification trial and I will definitely look to incorporate Scarification into a final shot!