The collaborative corral keeps giving this season with Supreme X Damien Hirst (Summer Supreme June 2011) and yesterday's post on Fred Perry X Sir Peter Blake (Mod-ern Love-rs August 2011) contributing to this summer’s highlights. Today I bring you another artist collaboration that has had art and fashion worlds alike asking, 'why hasn’t this happened sooner?'
Cindy Sherman, photographer, filmmaker and guise-extraordinaire will release an artistic collection for MAC cosmetics. This is possibly the most obvious collaboration of them all - Sherman’s celebrated self-portraits see her transform her own features into exaggerated depictions of the female stereotype such as off-kilter Hitchcock heroine, Caravaggio Portrait or Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Maven.
The cult beauty brand is a major player, respected in the worlds of high fashion and make up for the stage and the collaboration with Sherman will only profit from the recent avant-garde style that is being pioneered by Lady Gaga as well as gaining major culture points with customers who want to purchase a piece of Sherman magic. With the launch of a series of three trademark Sherman advertising campaigns, MAC call's this exciting partnership,
"... the campaign we've longed forever to conceive... we're living in a time when people of all persuasions have become bolder than ever about the ways they choose to express themselves: with a colourful palette of possibilities, You are the Artist, You are your own Subject..."
Like all collaborations this summer, the Cindy Sherman for MAC collection will be limited edition and is another sign that brands are redefining marketing strategies for the luxury market: take a familiar product that was once accessible, pair it up with a celebrity figure (with bonus cultural caché) and label it ‘limited edition’. Bingo.
The collection of lipsticks, eyeliners and eyeshadows will be available from 29th September until the end of October, just before Halloween - one of the most profitable periods of the year for the brand – giving the ladies this Halloween a catalogue of inspiration from Sherman's extravagant characters such as #96, #360 or #469 that will compete with any witch or sexy nurse costume at the party.
