Philip Treacy puts a feather in his cap by hooking up with MAC

Milliner Philip Treacy has his sights set on dressing every woman’s head through a MAC make-up collaboration

Philip Treacy x MAC, maccosmetics.co.uk

At first glance, a make-up brand and a milliner may seem like unconventional bedfellows, but considering the focus of both is concentrated to the same area – namely, one’s head – collaboration doesn’t seem that strange.

It made sense to MAC, which has recruited milliner Philip Treacy to create a limited-edition collection – just the latest in MAC’s eclectic list including The Simpsons, Barbie and Rihanna. Even if you’re not the hat-sporting sort you’ll know the work of Treacy – not least from the heads of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie at the royal wedding. But those creations were just a trifle in a long and illustrious career, with fantastical catwalk creations for Alexander McQueen among Treacy’s crowning glories. That body of work was a starting point for this collection – he took inspiration from his archive to create three hats, each of which represents three different colour palettes in the subsequent make-up range: metallic, colourful and gothic.

“All hats relate to beauty and make-up, because hats enhance the features of a person’s face,” says Treacy. “That’s the point of a hat, and make-up does exactly the same thing. When you have a conversation with someone, you talk to their face. You don’t talk to their foot. One wears make-up on their face and hats on their head, so to embellish or enhance the face or the head is the most potent part of the body to decorate.”

Treacy’s own version of decoration for the brand consists of a 12-piece collection; lipsticks in rainbow shades of red, berry and poppy pink, a highlighting powder with a quicksilver finish and paint pots in bright blues, teals and black. “MAC means: young, and fresh and hip,” states Treacy, “just like my hats.”

maccosmetics.co.uk