FOREWORD

WHO ARE WE? What reveals self or a version of self? Make-up is about transformation. Make-up ignites curiosity, desire and confidence and has a kind of magic that excites and animates. Like fashion, make-up has power. Some might say, when looking at people wearing make-up today, they’re not themselves any more. But actually they might be more themselves than ever.

This publication is a salute to the myriad facets of make-up and to its prime ingredient: colour. It is a fascinating playground that traverses history, culture, what’s intense and deep, what’s delightful and artistic, and the scientific study of hues that have intrigued civilisations. This issue is an exploration of what colour means through the eyes, fingertips and minds of photographers, writers, historians, novelists, graphic designers, ambassadors and make-up artists who collectively and brilliantly widen our aesthetic boundaries. The brainstorming always starts with a great conversation – that’s where the spark happens, where the adventure begins. The creative process is an odyssey in itself.

What Coco Chanel cared about deeply was experience and the capacity we each have to engage with life and connect with the one thing that counts – the present. Whatever the choice of palette, finish or tone, from classic to ethereal to the wildly intuitive, from the light and luminous to the painterly, make-up is a mediation with yourself. The way we “read” and perceive colour depends on so many factors, including personal influences, environment and experience. Witnessing a new shade can be an epiphany and, today, the technological advances in formulations and texture mean that tones can be ever more vibrant yet ever more nuanced. Colour has the power of revelation. What is the hue that remains in your mind’s eye? Maybe the impression is so glorious and fragile that words cannot describe it.

This new publication, COCO, is about daring, fun and experimentation, a medium for opening up new conversations.