Paying homage to the most iconic moments in beauty and the women who created them 

This is the definitive pop culture moment of my adolescence. The moment in which the two axis’ of my interior world – music and fashion - combined in the most animalistic, visceral and flawless way possible. Everything collided. Naomi Campbell’s turn as a wanton, writhing Senorita in Michael Jackson’s ‘92 Into the Closet video was like televisual napalm. It was also the singular moment in which Michael Jackson was utterly fit. 

A timeless, sepia-washed piece of celluloid perfection, there are no discernible colours shouting out like in all the other music videos of the time: there didn’t need to be. The 90s were about sexy neutrals and that transposed into the make-up of the time too. Did I mention it was directed by Herb Ritts? I know I sound like a curmudgeonly old granddad, but they really don’t make them like that anymore. 

Naomi was at the height of her catwalk domination, indicted into the canon of what was to become known as the era of the Supermodel, as championed by Gianni Versace and Peter Lindburgh. This was before phone-gate, before weave-gate, before Flavio Briatore and before blood-diamond-gate. 

All there was to do was stare wide-eyed at Naomi’s strident, jaguar beauty and the sort of poise that could only come from an acute awareness of just how beautiful she is. Everything about it is intended to emphasise the shapes, contours and bone structure of the face; the arch of the brow, the cat-almond eyes, the epicurean curve of the lips. 
And it’s full of sex. At one point, Naomi mimes such innuendo laden lines as ‘if it’s aching, you have to rub it’ (which was, peculiarly, later revealed to have been breathed into a microphone by Princess Stephanie of Monaco), Naomi prowled down the camera lens, flapping her lashes and directing her cheekbones to the light (this woman knows her angles). 

My own interpretation is no carbon copy and nor was it intended to be. I daren’t attempt the level of sculpting Naomi goes in for, as my pallor can’t cope with much make-up on my skin. It doesn’t sit right. And anyway, the real beauty of this look – and the one that speaks to me the most – is the winged eye coupled with the banging, intense nude lip.

Remember, 90s Naomi was never without her lip liner – she probably used Mac Spice – I used Lancme here, cautiously. Lip liner is forgotten for the unutterably sexy product it really is. It makes lips look like they’re throbbing. While I can’t profess to having been gifted with Naomi levels of self-assurance, there is something about a fierce mega winged eye that brings out she-devil in all of us. 

 

 

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1. Nars Eyebrow Pencil in Ipanema, £16.50 
2. Bobbi Brown, Long-wear Eye Pencil in Mahogany, £17.50 
3. Dolce & Gabbana The Pencil Brush, £15.50
4. MAC Bare My Soul Eyeshadow Quad, £38.50 
5. Lancome Precision & Long-lasting Lipcontour in 201 Beige Noisette, £18 
6. Giorgio Armani Rouge D’Arman in 101, £25

Photography: Hugo Yangüela