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Desert Island Discs

Pat McGrath, makeup artist

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.413.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2019

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Pat McGrath is a renowned make-up artist. She works with the world’s top designers, photographers, editors and models, creating images for the pages of the world’s most glamorous magazines. She and her team also work at the most high-profile catwalk shows in Milan, London, New York and Paris. She born and brought up in Northampton by her mother, who had a passion for fashion and make-up, which she passed onto Pat. In the mid-1980s, as an art student, Pat was captivated by the London club scene – the Blitz club, Boy George, and Spandau Ballet. By day she took on a number of casual jobs, but her interest in make-up continued and her break came when she was asked to do the make-up for Caron Wheeler, a member of the band, Soul II Soul, on a tour of Japan. Her career took off and within just a few years she was working with John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Dolce and Gabana, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Prada, Lanvin, Calvin Klein and Balenciaga. In addition to her work at the fashion shows and photographic shoots, in 2004 she became the global creative-design director for Procter and Gamble, where she was in charge of Max Factor and Cover Girl cosmetics. She was awarded an MBE for her services to the fashion and beauty industry in 2013 and in 2015 she launched her own cosmetics brand – Pat McGrath Labs. In 2017 she became beauty editor at large at British Vogue and won the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator at the Fashion Awards. BOOK CHOICE: Andy Warhol: Polaroids - Richard B. Woodward LUXURY: Makeup CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: “La Vie en Rose" - Grace Jones Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:04.9

I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast.

0:08.3

Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take

0:13.0

with them if they were cast away to a desert island.

0:16.0

For right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.

0:20.1

I hope you enjoy listening.

0:30.0

Music Radio Music

0:42.9

My cast away this week is Pat McGrath.

0:45.6

Often described as the most influential makeup artist in the world, her creator vision sets

0:50.7

the bar for beauty trends across the fashion spectrum, from high art to the high street.

0:56.4

She is as famous for creating avant-garde looks as she is for her mastery of that devilishly

1:01.4

difficult beauty canvas, perfectly radiant skin.

1:05.0

A self-taught self-made beauty multi-millionaire, her influence on the industry she works in,

1:10.2

has been evident throughout her 30-year career.

1:13.1

She cut her teeth working for free for street style magazines and touring with music collective

1:17.8

solter soul, before going on to collaborate with designers including John Galliano, Alexander

1:23.0

McQueen, Dolce Ingebana, Javonshi and Prada and on hundreds of editorial shoots and magazine

1:29.2

covers.

1:30.6

She's widely acknowledged as the most prolific runway makeup artist of all time.

1:35.5

Known by the affectionate nickname Mother, she is famous for her indefatigable creative curiosity

1:40.7

and make it happen attitude, both of which must come in handy since her schedule includes

1:45.2

up to 80 major fashion shows a year and helping her business in a ponomous makeup range

...

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