MAC, the Canadian-born global brand of cosmetics that built its name and credibility with makeup artists, is known for its limited-edition lines inspired by celebrities such as Lady Gaga, the latest celebrity endorser of its Viva Glam line. Now, it's embracing lesser-known fashion icons whose style is no less eccentric, even if their names are better known by fashion insiders.
Take 90-year-old Iris Apfel’s MAC makeup line coming in January, which is described as "a color collection inspired by a rare bird who has always been ahead of her time," says MAC's official release. The 20-piece collection is “full of bombastically bright lipsticks, attention-grabbing nail lacquers and unambiguous hues of eye-shadow,” writes The Daily Mail, and an “impeccable brow pencil."
The ever-chic Apfel is delivering her signature eccentricity, an inspiration for decades in jewelry, fashion and museum exhibitions, to make-up. “The range proves, yet again, that the wonderfully outspoken nonagenarian is beyond compartmentalising — falling far outside the usual fashions associated with those old enough to be great grand-mothers,” writes the Mail.
Born Iris Barrel in 1921, Apfel worked at Women’s Wear Daily and with interior designer Elinor Johnson before starting a textile firm in 1950 with her husband, Carl Apfel, called Old World Weavers. “She was boldly mixing flea market finds with haute couture long before it became de rigeur,” notes Elle UK.
Taking its lead from the 2005 Rara Avis (Rare Bird) exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the line is named mostly after birds: Toco Toucan, Pink Pigeon, Diamond Dove and Scarlet Ibis. Apfel told the Telegraph young people are wanting in the style department, “Most of the young people today look dreadful. And celebrities look even worse.”
And launching before then, on Dec. 26th, another style icon's collaboration with MAC — a limited-edition 24-piece cosmetics line with British heiress and fashion visionary Daphne Guinness, who describes her inspirations as including pigeon's blood (see her lipstick, below) and outer space.
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