Peter Philips
Born in Antwerp in Belgium, Peter Philips is currently the
global creative director of Chanel Make-up. Credited with the
reinvigoration of Chanel's beauty division, his range of
trend-setting collections has recently included the 2009 sell-out
nail polish colour Jade Le Vernis - a bottle of which was
reportedly resold on eBay for $100.
- He initially toyed with the idea of becoming a hairdresser but
eventually settled on graphic design, and completed a degree in the
subject at university in Brussels.
- He then returned to Antwerp from Brussels to study fashion
design at the prestigious Académie des Beaux-Arts, whose previous
alumni include Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, and Martin
Margiela.
- He became inspired by make-up whilst working backstage as a
dresser during Paris Fashion Week, and decided to focus on make-up
rather than fashion after graduating from the Académie des
Beaux-Arts in 1993.
- He built up his portfolio by collaborating with photographers
like Willy Vanderperre and Olivier Rizzo, and doing shoots for
magazines such as i-D.
- His career took a pivotal turn in the late Nineties, when he
drew a Mickey Mouse face perfectly to scale onto a model whilst
working on a Raf Simons shoot. "For years I was known as Mr Mickey
Mouse," said Philips in a later interview in 2009.
- He began to achieve global recognition for his work and
collaborated with major labels and photographers such as Dries Van
Noten, Fendi, Inez Van Lamsweerde and Peter Lindbergh, and shot
with nearly every international edition of Vogue.
- He came to the attention of Karl Lagerfeld while the designer
was at Fendi's helm, and was eventually invited to meet the then
creative directors of Chanel Make-up, Heidi Morawetz and Dominique
Moncourtois, who had jointly held the position for more than 30
years.
- He formally accepted the position of creative director of
Chanel Make-up in 2008, a role described by Vogue as being
"one of the most coveted jobs in cosmetics".
In The Eyes
IT was all about the eyes for spring/summer 2013, and with its
striking silver shadow, the Chanel beauty look
was no exception to the rule.
"The inspiration of this look is a few key words that Karl
[Lagerfeld] gave me: shine, focus on eyes and silver. So I
tried to put different 'types' of shine in the look," said Chanel
Make-Up's creative director, Peter
Philips. "Starting with luminous, shiny skin, by using
Vitalumière foundation and avoiding powder (except for on the
T-zone), I did a metallic 'shine' on the eyes - using a full cover
layer of Illusion d'Ombre eye shadow. For this show I exclusively
created a platinum shade which you can apply sheer, for a subtle
luminous effect, or for a metallic result you can put a thick
layer."
The third element of shine was on the lips, and involved a clever
combination of Chanel's Lèvres Scintillantes in Plaisir and
its Rouge Allure in Gracile to create the pretty shade of shell
pink sported by the models.
And the nail look, that we all so eagerly await each
season?
"We did a discreet, shiny French manicure, using Le Vernis
in Ballerina," Philips said. We certainly haven't seen French
manicures for a while, but Peter Philips does have a way of turning
the things we didn't even think we liked into the most covetable
nail trends of the season. We'll just have to wait and see.
