Night of glamour and a movie star makeover

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Emer Martin12 April 2012

Londoners who have dreamt of posing as porcelain-skinned Hollywood beauties of bygone years need dream no more.

A night of glamour where members of the public can release their inner Joan Crawford will be held at The National Portrait Gallery this Friday.

Make-up artists, actors, and stylists will transform visitors - who must dress in black and white - into the gods and goddesses of Hollywood's "Golden Age" among portraits of stars from the Twenties through to the Sixties.

Make-up artist Clare Lille from Illamasqua said: "Anyone can come down and choose a look and we'll do it. Vintage is really popular. It is incredibly striking and it is about creating beauty.

"Women in the Twenties were inventing new ways of being beautiful all the time. They used charcoal, goose fat, all sorts to create a look.

"There is a magic to glamour, and you can really see that in the pictures from the Forties and Fifties."

Men can also get a makeover at the Glamour of the Gods exhibition. Visitors to the free event will then be able to pose for a photograph having been briefed on how to recreate the Hollywood mystique.

Anna Berlyn, will be advising on how to imitate the career-defining poses of James Dean and Greta Garbo. She said: "The gallery will be inspiring. It will be about looking hot and smouldering."

A range of "departments" will provide different insights into the era, including a debate on the power of fashion and the concept of immortality.

The Glamour Factory evening begins at 6pm, and is the sixth in the Late Shift Extra series, where the gallery remains open until 10pm.

Model Erin O'Connor, who launched Late Shift, said it was "a brilliant way to encourage people to explore the arts in the evening".

She added: "Visitors can enjoy free talks and music and a great atmosphere over a glass of wine - as well as brilliant exhibitions and regularly changing displays."

I'm ready for my close-up: how I was transformed

As I sat in the make-up artist's chair with Claire from Illamasqua, I was firmly grounded in 2011.

I had my hair pulled back in a ponytail and my make-up went little further than mascara and a swish of the bronzing brush. Just over 30 minutes later I had been transformed by lashings of Forties glamour.

The process began with a foundation base and emphasising my eyebrows with a broad brush. Then a light powder was used to highlight the area under my eyebrows and eyeshadow was applied lightly.

So far, so 2011.

But the pink blusher and magnificent fuchsia lipstick completely transformed my face. Later a hairdresser, Nina Butkovich-Budden, from Nina's hair parlour whipped my hair into "victory rolls", invented by the women who went to work
in the factories during the Second World War.

Hello Hollywood glamour, goodbye London lady. I felt like posing, and luckily there was a photographer on hand to humour me.

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