Backstage at Vivienne Westwood Red Label

Vivienne Westwood showed her latest Red Label collection at Kensington's Olympia and, in a freezing backstage area, lit only by movie-star bulbs surrounding mirrors, MAC's make-up artists were painting faces, applying false lashes and lining eyes everywhere we looked. Viv's theme for the show was St Trinian's and MAC's make-up artist Gordon Espinet took inspiration from schoolgirl cliques to create the beauty look. "It's about how young girls make gangs in high school – they all start wearing the same socks, or the same colour lipgloss or fancying the same boy, and that's what we've based these looks on." So, chez Viv this season, we have four groups of naughty girls: The Goths (white faces, rouge noir lips), The California Girls (golden tan and pink gloss), The Rock Chicks (Chrissy Hynde-esque smudgy black eye make-up) and the Grease Girls (all flicky black eyeliner and chunky mascara).
 
In keeping with the classic make-up rule, girls who got a lip didn't get an eye, and vice versa; so The Goths had wine-coloured lips and natural eyes, while The Grease Girls' perfect black liner and mascara was accompanied by nothing more than a slick of sheer pink gloss. Espinet told me, "It's all very deliberate with plenty of theatre and lots of fun; and, remember, this is Westwood so 'natural' is a dirty word!"