By Maria Comparetto - The Christopher Raeburn Show LFW Spring/Summer '12

Christopher Raeburn has made his mark on the fashion industry for his outerwear, this season he surpassed our expectations and surprised us by venturing into jersey dresses, trousers and adding much more to his signature pieces.

It is truly British and he prides himself on being ethically aware producing all his garments in the UK. He uses dead stock fabrics, such as parachute and military blankets & recycles them to make cool, wearable clothes for all ages.

The setting for his presentation was The London Museum, a first for the museum but a perfect choice for this designer.

The makeup room was bright and airy (Thank you!) and the presentation was sectioned in to 3 parts; a film showing a journey through his garments, an installation where sensors where placed inside the clothes and the collection hung on tent frames, beautifully lit. Touching the clothes would set off the sensor & would then play a sound. When the room was full of people experiencing/touching the fabrics etc. the room filled with abstract music...

My inspiration for the show came from the primary colours used in the collection.

I thought I would steer away from skin highlights and contouring this season as it’s so easily done for Spring/Summer.

The hair was very "real" so fresh clean skin without sheen was easily achieved with Mac Invisible powder.

Wherever possible the brows were erased using Mac concealer and brushed upwards for a fresh "outdoor" feeling.

A light grey opaque shadow was used to naturally contour the socket but no mascara was needed as I wanted to draw attention away from the eyes.

The face would now become a blank canvas but the edge would be the lip.

Using a new MAC spring summer colour called ‘Watch me Shimmer’ (I LOVE it!) I filled in the mouth using a brush then pressed in a pigment making the lips look  like they were covered in fabric.

The stylist Jane Townsend was amazing teaming cool socks and perfect shoes and just adding her touch of magic to the overall look.

Louise from MAC kindly showed me through the SS12 colours and worked very hard along with Naomi, Helen and Rebecca, all troopers!

The show received great reviews and was covered by style.com, Vogue and Dazed to name a few.