Mariel Calara

the mercury collection

spec work for fenty beauty

due to rampant colorism, one in every two filipino women use skin lightening products, the cheapest of which are illegal creams that contain mercury. many filipino women turn to these creams and are unaware of their life-threatening danger. enter the mercury collection: a fashion project with fenty beauty to reveal the danger of skin whitening creams and champion the beauty of all skin tones.

philippine fashion week

fenty beauty will debut the mercury collection at the country’s biggest stage in beauty and fashion. models will wear shimmering mercurial fabrics and sheer cutouts with festering lesion designs. during the show, the models will be cast in red light, appearing normal at first, but the light switch will reveal the silver mercury and red-hot skin lesions that speckle and fester upon the skin.

mirrors of mercury

when the show ends, attendees will exit through a hall of mirrors which will have built-in ai tracking that projects lighter skin and lesions.

fenty swap shop

fenty will set up pop-ups in shopping districts notorious for selling illegal creams, like the divisoria, the most famous street market at the heart of manila. customers will be invited to trade in their skin whitening cream for a fenty beauty foundation in the shade of their natural skin tone.

taking on manila

fenty beauty will amplify awareness across the capital, everything from billboards to “jeepneys”, a popular form of transportation in the philippines. the messages will be in the two national languages: tagalog and english.

“how fenty beauty is exposing the poisons of the skin bleaching industry in manila”

made with andy zhao

special thanks to patrick horton and gabriel sehringer

work

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