Tokyo After Dark
Shu Uemura pays tribute to women’s fearless pursuit of beauty with a new limited-edition collection.
here was mod fashion, and then there was the make-up. When Mr. Shu Uemura pioneered the now iconic idea of mod make-up in 1968, his first collection Flaggy strongly illustrated his vision. It featured a “floating” chequered flag on an eyelid, and fluttery false eyelashes. Adorning the storefront in Omotesando, Tokyo, it broke the mould of beauty conventions as mod was widely coined for fashion, not beauty. This was a new expression of beauty during the Swinging Sixties in Tokyo that since then, has lingered in the spirit of the brand today. Kakuyasu Uchiide, Shu Uemura international artistic director, recalls of his mentor: “He was perceived as an elegant gentleman, but was also quite a wild card. Mod gave him the possibiliy of creating make-up as an individualistic expression, dramatic and philosophical at the same time. “I want to communicate that rare aspect of him to the world now by coming up with such an extreme idea that would make people wonder if they dare to wear it.”
Enter Vision of Beauty, a creative endeavour with influences drawn from art, music, and fashion. “The sky is the limit,” says Uchiide of the project that releases a new beauty approach in two formats every year: a collectible artist edition, and a limited-edition make-up collection. First up: Brave Beauty. The objet d’art? None other than Shu Uemura’s signature eyelashes. “I thought of what would be the most challenging part of makeup. I think it would take much more courage for a woman to wear 3D eyelashes that aren’t normally on her face,” explains Uchiide.
“What inspired me a lot was Tokyo’s fashion hion scene because you can’t think about the beauty of women without the fashion element,” he notes. Three pairs of startlingly beautiful handwoven “couture lashes” were designed for artistic pleasure, complemented by images styled by the dynamic visual duo of Tokyo’s indie fashion scene, Erotyka.
“I was thinking of a female warrior ready to take on the world, and express the force of someone like a rock, punk, or underground artist heading towards something bigger and greater,” he explains this collaboration.
Brave Beauty comes as a complete collection of lipsticks, eyeshadow palettes, eyeliners, and satin radiant sticks in tangerine and berry erry hues. “Shu Uemura often used the world ‘ideologism’; ogism’; to him, if there is no personality, there is no fun n in being beautiful,” shares Uchiide.
“The brand is all about the art of beauty, and d th there is art in the products and the colours. We ultimately hope that this collection will transform women into beautiful works of art.”
“I was thinking of a female warrior ready to take on the world.” – Kakuyasu Uchiide