Firmly in fantasy land, beauty was an eye-popping parade of recycled garbage and clown-faces at the Alexander McQueen show, Tuesday night.

Using Chanel products, although the brand didn't sponsor the event, makeup artist Peter Philips created an “extreme image of glamor” with a very white face and a dark lip, drawn in a wide oval around the mouth. “We were inspired by clowns, divas and Pierrot, with a bit of Joan Crawford thrown in,” Philips said backstage.

For the white face, he liberally applied Poudre Universelle Libre right up to the hairline. The mouth shape came in three red colors, one with an orange hue, one true and one with a tinge of brown.

Hairstylist Guido Palau had his hands full with the look he designed for the night. To compliment McQueen's theme of recycling and garbage, he made head sculptures from a variety of everyday objects, including coke cans spray painted black or white. Palau taped these to models' heads, whose hair and neck had been wrapped with black or white stockings. Some of the sculptures were then covered with Saran Wrap, into which he cut random holes to let the cans show through. “It's a show, it's not real,” he quipped.