'TORONTO STAR'

MAKEUP FOR MEN?



Could mascara be macho?

Will lipstick ever be a guy thing?

Maybe.

Men, it would seem, are about to break through the final beauty taboo. They’ve washed their faces with expensive scrubs, exfoliated, moisturized and they’ve even taken to covering those dark areas beneath their tired eyes.

There’s really nowhere left to go but … makeup.

And we’re not talking bronzers, any more. We’re talking the whole enchilada, from colour foundations and lip glosses to mascaras and eyeliners.

There was so much buzz surrounding KENMEN this year that they’ve already had to redefine the collection, Lee Gilbert says. While she is reluctant to provide details, she will allow that an edited and repackaged KENMEN will be re-launched soon. Apparently there was “corporate” interest in the line. Subsequent research with various focus groups revealed men are ready to embrace the concept of men’s makeup. What’s more, it is apparently of more interest to young, straight men, than young gay men.

No one was more surprised than Gilbert, who admits her original intention was to market her product exclusively to the gay market, through gay fashion retailers.

The new KENMEN will include a SKIN FITNESS & BODY FITNESS SPA collection (the original collection didn’t) with about 12 new products for facial and body care, as well as a full colour line of about 30 products. Colours will be “natural,” says Gilbert, in beiges, browns and Flannel greys. “Certain pigments are not going to work with men. Certain intensities also won’t work. You can’t use reds, oranges or pinks. You must work with tawny bases. Men have a lot of broken capillaries with oilier skin and enlarged pores.

Gilbert insists the line will be edited but not diluted to appeal to straight men. She also promises KENMEN will not pander to nervous men fearful that wearing makeup will bring their sexuality into question.

Each product in the original KENMEN marketing scheme has a “playfully sexual” name. A mascara called 'Kink', translucent creams called ‘Money Shot’, eye contours called ‘Crusin’ and glitter called ‘Fetish’. It remains to be seen if those names will stick.

Large cosmetic corporations entice men slowly, painstakingly introducing “treatment” products with virile names. They want to pique their curiosity without scaring them off. “The major companies are comfortable with female cosmetics.” Says Gilbert, “and I think it’s difficult for them to make the transition. When you start out as a male cosmetics company it’s not such a risk.”

“This is very exciting. You’re going to be able to find it in more venues, more mainstream places. People will talk about it and it will lose its stigma,” she adds.

The market seems endless: from an aging demographic that wants to take advantage of products to enhance their vitality to young men - gay and straight – who want to participate in a ritual long denied them by societal conventions.

While traditional thinking suggests that men who paint their faces are displaying feminine characteristics, at least one U.S. academic thinks the opposite may be true.

Back in 1998, Harvard University’s Katherine Stern felt strongly that men who wear makeup are actually displaying character traits considered to be typically masculine. They are risk takers, individuals, courageous and trail blazers. According to Stern’s logic, Quentin Crisp, Boy George and David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust) are he-men. Stern suggests the modern man is at a distinct disadvantage because he has been excluded from beauty culture, socially rebuked for daring to experiment with his appearance.

While men’s makeup may be new, the tendency for men to appropriate female symbols of beauty has been building for some time.

Fashion designers have been pushing the notion for years. Jean Paul Gaultier made the male bra the centerpiece of a spring/summer 2002 menswear collection. Think David Beckham in a skirt and male models on the Prada runway carrying purses, and you get the drift.

In a recent salon.com article, writer Mark Simpson identifies this new, modern, urban male as the Metrosexual. He may be gay, straight, or bi-sexual, says Simpson. That’s irrelevant, because, “pleasure is a sexual preference” and “he is less concerned with his identity and more interested in his image.”

The sarong-wearing David Beckam is, according to Simpson, the metrosexual’s leader because he loves to be looked at and “because so many men and women love to look at him.”

Despite the efforts of fashion designers men may never wear skirts or bras or carry purses.

But makeup… this could happen.

Men will be ready for their close-up.