Val Garland Presentation in London for MAC Cosmetics

Last week I was invited by MAC Cosmetics to a special presentation by Val Garland at the Yard in Shoreditch. Jo Scicluna the Artist Relations manager at MAC Cosmetics and her team comprising of Mirijana and Christina are really brilliant at organising key events in London. The venue was amazing set in an art house style gallery format hosting a catwalk for the presentation.

I arrived at the venue and joined the crowds forming waiting to enter. I hooked up with the brilliant Lan Nguyen-Grealis who I always bump into waiting outside MAC events. We were both really excited to be seeing the Val Garland presentation. The MAC events are good because you have an opportunity to catch up with other makeup artists who due to working commitments you do not always get to see. I caught up with Kenneth Soh, who is a real treasure, Louise Young, Sharon Dowsett, always inspirational and then finally with one of my oldest friends from my LCF days Fiona Minors. Fiona is a visionary person who inspires me a great deal with her knowledge and wisdom as our friendship goes back over 18 years. I do not see enough of Fiona and we made a pact to make sure we meet up more. Finally after a quick drink we grabbed our seats, I was saving one for Nicci Jackson as she was racing over from a shoot in Wimbledon to join us and arrived just moments before the start.

The lights dimmed down and the presentation began with a show reel of Val Garlands work including footage of the ShowStudio collaboration with Val for Gareth Pughs special edition range at MAC Cosmetics. 

Then a catwalk production began to "Londons Calling" by the Clash with a host of models made up in Vals creative style. This was really inspirational to view and then Val was introduced to the stage with five seated models.

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Over the next hour Val talked through her ideas for the shows she had worked on with Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen. It was enlighting to hear how these great creative minds all work together and it was a joy to hear she also has a good sense of humour. We were shown examples of eye and lip details from key couture shows. It was a privilege to watch Val work and she made it seem effortless which we know it isn't. Finally there was a final section of Q&A and then the catwalk finale of all the models. Everyone stood up to give Val a standing ovation and huge cheers.
 I have images of the evening to upload but the above images show previous work by Val that she utilised in the presentation.

Its a real honour to watch such a creative mind create their spell binding magic in front of you. Val paid real credit to all her assistants including the MAC Pro team world wide.
Brilliant evening and very, very inspirational
Drinks after were very nice too as were the waiters. Big thanks to Val Garland, Jo, Mirijana and the MAC Cosmetics team we were all VALidated.