Black eyes and split lips: Chinese designer label Sankuanz sends models down the catwalk with "beautiful bruising" in street fighter-inspired show When a make-up artist is required backstage at men"s fashion week, they"re more often than not in for an easy job. But beauty buff Maria Comparetto had her work cut out for her when she was called on for the Sankuanz show at London Collections: Men today. The make-up maestro worked with Chinese designer Shangguan Zhe, whose show was supported by GQ China, to give the male models black eyes and even split lips. "This is my second season working with Sankuanz and I love it because the show is always very playful and cartoon-like," Maria told MailOnline. The beauty buff was asked to create a beautiful interpretation of bruises, essentially a "playful edge on fight club". "We used obscure colours that you wouldn"t usually see in bruising and made them more cartoon-like. It was bright, vibrant and fun but the guys were still pretty macho," explained Maria. Maria deployed one of her artists to two male models and they spent around half an hour beautifying each man. "The night before the show, I looked through the roster of models and decided which section of the face we would play up based on their features. "So whether it was their forehead, lips, cheek or eyes, I told my team to take their time and make it look beautiful but hard at the same time," she said. The make-up aimed to complement the playfully sinister collection, which was full of woollen trousers, pink tailoring and spray-painted shirts. Chinese designer Shangguan Zhe established his label in 2007 after graduating from Xiamen Art College. Success followed for the fledgling designer, who received the Annual Best Fashion Designer award from Esquire magazine. He travels - along with his team - around China garnering inspiration from traditional textiles and art.
