Gareth Pugh's make-up line

With his fetish-inspired looks and creations that are often more costume than high fashion, it’s no secret that Gareth Pugh has focused more on creativity than commercialism. Now it seems that he’s come to terms with the fact that, if you want to survive in the industry, you have to find a way to make money. 'If you, as a fashion designer, you do shows but you don’t sell, it kind of becomes a bit of a vanity project,’ he admitted recently. ‘You know, that’s kind of how I started and that’s how I got going but kind of a more mature point of view it needs to obviously translate into things that sell and that’s a new challenge for me. The two need each other, business and creativity. It’s a weird mix but you need to have that balance, I think, now. Or I need to have that balance now, so I’ve made my peace with that.'

Perhaps a result of Pugh making peace with his business self, he’s now joining forces with beauty giant MAC to create a make-up range that will launch November. It will have 'special packaging' and is likely to focus on the designer’s more gothic palette of black and grey (although he has been known to use flashes of brights - red liner for spring/summer ‘10 and cobalt blue at his autumn/winter ’11 show, so fingers crossed). It is set to be unveiled at a cocktail party in New York next month, while the products will, of course, be used at Pugh's spring/summer ‘12 show in Paris this October - we wonder whether the catwalk beauty look will be more wearable (read: commercial) than ever before?