Oyster talks to lloyd Simmonds

"For even the most cosmetically challenged amongst us, there is one product we cannot live without — YSL’s Touché Éclat. No one knows this better than YSL’s new International Make-up Artist, Lloyd Simmonds. “I can’t work without my Touché Éclat,” he says when I speak with him, “or my YSL lipsticks — they are so rich and so intense.” Unsurprising then, that the look for the recent YSL Spring Summer show (pictured above) was all about luminous complexions.
Following in the footsteps of legendary make-up artist, Val Garland — who had the role before him — Simmonds has been a fan of the brand from a young age. “I discovered YSL’s Opium in 1979. It was a revelation to me, “ he says. “Suddenly a perfume embodied everything I loved, everything I was and wanted to be. The players of this world were called Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton. It was more than luxury, it was luxury of the imagination.”
Simmonds’ career began in the imaginative world of theatre and dance, an experience that gave him a taste for creativity and colour. “It was the early eighties; self-expression and punk-influenced exhibitionism were very influential,” he says. “I studied art and have always painted and drawn. My work is based on the principals of Chiaroscuro and classical drawing technique, and has always been very painterly.”
Sounds like the perfect foundations for his new gig. So what is his vision for YSL? “To use their fabulous heritage of style, beauty, innovation… and most of all the magical power of colour,” he says. And what won’t we be seeing on the runway?  “One of the things I would like to disappear,” he says, “is the fashion of overly lined lips. Never a good look.”" check out the interview here

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