Pat McGrath’s Club-Kid Inspirations: Missy Elliott, Edie Sedgwick, and More

When Leigh Bowery, Steve Strange, and Boy George got ready for a night out at Taboo, Bowery’s famous mid-’80s London nightclub, you can bet they weren’t simply combing back their hair and heading out the door. Nor were the gender-bending, boundary-pushing men settling for a classic bold red lip and swoosh of black eyeliner. Dressing, as Bowery put it, was a matter of life and death, and everything from their towering platform shoes to their rainbow-bright makeup was meant to thrill. This was the London that visionary makeup artist Pat McGrath grew up in. “As an adolescent, I was fascinated with Blitz Kids,” says McGrath, who admits she followed Bowery, Strange, and George around Chelsea’s Kings Road. “My friends and I thought we were the New Romantics—we would get changed on the train so we could get into the clubs!”

Once past the threshold, McGrath found herself immersed in the riotous mix of London’s most visually iconic and subversive tribes. In those dimly lit rooms, New Romantics comingled with punks; New Wavers met hip-hop stars; and grunge rock and glam rock both found a sense of freedom in the dark. And the icons of these subcultures stood strongly in her mind as she staged the makeover takeover of Kellogg’s Diner in Brooklyn last night, inviting the modern equivalent of club culture’s all-stars (think: Miss Fame, Petra Collins, and Harry Brant) to put a fearless and unique spin on their past-curfew beauty choices.

The legendary partygoers of the past were also the impetus behind last night’s makeup palette—a lineup of four intense 3-D jewel-toned shadows, one slick black eye gloss, and a raven-hued pencil produced by Pat McGrath Labs under the name Phantom 002—designed with the intent of inspiring midnight mischief.

Look closely enough and you can see traces of McGrath’s favorite influences in the rest of her body of work: Edie Sedgwick’s spiky drawn-on lashes reimagined by the makeup artist for modern-day party girls backstage at Louis Vuitton Spring 2015, or Soo Catwoman’s graphic swoosh of pencil, which McGrath borrowed for Amber Valletta on the October 2002 cover of i-D (where she was once beauty editor). There, she also gave Bowery and David Bowie a nod through the glam-rock look painted onto Jessica Stam’s piercing features for the September 2004 issue. More recently, Billie Holiday’s glossy lids and moody kohl liner found echoes in the punkish eye makeup McGrath designed for Rooney Mara in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

And if it all seems like a mixed bag of references, that’s precisely the point. These days, says McGrath, the distinctions between subcultures are less rigid than ever before: “[Now] the tribes of youth are less specific. It’s more about playing by your own rules . . . a cross-pollination of all cultural genres, which results in heightened individuality.”

Before you dip your brush in a shimmering pot of fuchsia or blue from McGrath’s line, take a look at some of her favorite club-kid makeup inspirations—and leave the rules to daylight.

The post Pat McGrath’s Club-Kid Inspirations: Missy Elliott, Edie Sedgwick, and More appeared first on Vogue.