Nicola Formichetti on His New Collab With M.A.C (And Why Sometimes a Lipstick Isn’t Just a Lipstick)

by Isabel Slone February 27, 2018

Nicola Formichetti is one of the few rarified figures in fashion who deserves the mantle of “trailblazer.” As Lady Gaga’s fashion director, he was responsible for some of the most memorable fashion moments of the past decade, including the head-to-toe Alexander McQueen cyborg beetle look Gaga wore in her “Bad Romance” video, as well as the raw flank steak dress she wore to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. He then brought his outré sensibility to Mugler, where he recruited a former Montreal punk kid covered in zombie tattoos to star in an ad campaign, and Diesel, where he recreated a Pope’s outfit out of denim and revitalized the brand by advertising on Grindr and PornHub. Now, Formichetti is bringing his playful rebellion to the beauty arena, where he has collaborated on a M·A·C NICOPANDA Collection that will launch in stores and online April 11^th.

The collection is “very fashion and sophisticated, but it’s a touch of that youthful energy that you want to feel by putting makeup on, which I think is definitely missing in the market,” Formichetti says in his subtle Italian accent. “Sometimes we take things very seriously and we forget to have fun.” Full of chalky pinks, lavender purple, and midnight blue, the colours in the collection highlight Formichetti’s youthquake ideals.

Formichetti has latched onto the concept, also demonstrated by the wide shade range of Fenty Beauty and the aggressively vegan mandate of Kat Von D, that it’s the ethic behind a collection that moves product, and not necessarily the product itself. “No one just wants to buy a lipstick. It has to be more than that,” he says. “For me, NICOPANDA represents creativity and diversity and playfulness.”

While Formichetti’s message isn’t necessarily specific or urgently political, he was mindful to imbue the collection with the core values of love and positivity. “This idea of having something that makes you smile is very important,” he says. NICOPANDA is about “polar opposites colliding together”; the racial harmony of black and white, the fusing of Eastern and Western culture and the amalgamation of high fashion and street culture. In essence: a melting pot.

“The world is in such a strange place at the moment, that the idea of love and positivity can really move you and change you,” Formichetti says. And if you happen to feel the positive vibes that Formichetti did his best to imbue into the collection while putting on the makeup, “then I did my job,” he says.

The cartoon panda-themed packaging of the products looks like it would fit in seamlessly with the collectible toys that cover almost every surface of Formichetti’s home. (Seriously, in 2013 FASHION visited his New York home and found it a “wonderland of tropical plants, fuzzy shag rugs and colourful plush toys.”) His collection is full of Japanese toys including a Tarepanda doll and a Rilakkuma pillow.

According to Formichetti, the cutesy packaging of the collection “embodies [his] brain.” The lipsticks and the lipglasses, with their bulbous white plastic panda wands, look like collectibles themselves. Formichetti loves the packaging of the M·A·C NICOPANDA collaboration so much, he encourages people to buy multiples of the products just to keep them on display. “You know how sometimes you buy two of the same pair of shoes because you just want to keep one because they’re so beautiful? It’s like that,” he says.

But Formichetti’s desire for collectability doesn’t come at the expense of wearability. Even though the colours in the collection are…out there – Formichetti himself describes them “crazy and childish” – the application is far less garish than one would expect. The lipglasses, which look like KiraKira in a tube, are surprisingly sheer and glimmer without causing any permanent eye damage. The Barbie pink lipstick, a colour I normally I wouldn’t even fathom applying, went on bright and poppy and now it’s one of my go-to shades. Even the dark blue lipstick wasn’t moody so much as it was harnessed the power of playing dress-up.

Formichetti’s favourite part of the collab are face stickers, which he calls “face jewelry,” essentially just sticky sparkly bits to adhere to your face. The concept harkens back to the body glitter-infused days of my youth, but just being in Formichetti’s orbit makes me want to go for it, funny looks from passersby be damned.

From Born This Way to current day and the almost-decade in between, Formichetti has been a tireless champion for diversity and increased visibility of marginalized people. How does he feel now that the industry is finally starting to talk? “I think we should keep talking about it more and more and scream and shout about it,” he says. “It’s so important to include everybody in the world, and to have products and messaging for everybody. The most important message is positivity. It has to be a normal thing in the near future.”