Adele, he says, was the most challenging to date. “I had to re-sculpt the entire thing because I had overcompensated on the bone stucture to make up for the fact that I have masculine features,” he added. “The last thing you want to do when paying homage to such a beloved and beautiful woman is to make her look like something out of a Snickers advert.” A little help from Adele’s longtime make-up artist, Anthony Nguyen, and the team at Madame Tussauds soon put him on the right track. The cut crease, winged liner, retro hairdo and 3D-printed Grammy awards – not to mention the flip phone from that now-iconic image of a 20-something Adele back in her Marlboro Gold days – and trick-of-the-eye leg padding to create the impression of a diminutive silhouette completed the look. “It’s the production and fanfare people recognise,” Rentz says. “Celebrities are ‘people’ without that.”
Mateusz Sitek
Mateusz Sitek
But there was, for a brief moment, someone else on this season’s moodboard. “Demna originally asked me to do Taylor Swift,” Rentz says, with a sigh. “But I don’t think I can repeat my response here because, erm, there are some people I would just never want to inhabit.” The artist compares the button-pushing designer to a drag mum, adding that they’ve already decided on their next look-alike for his ten-year anniversary show in September. “Demna’s a true friend. We’re always texting each other ideas at ridiculous hours of the night. He just wants the best for those around him. The thing is: we were all raging homosexuals at one point, and if there’s one thing I can do, it’s help soothe our inner children. We all grew up wanting to design for Cruella de Vil and get insulted by Miranda Priestly, and blurring those lines between reality and fantasy makes it fun for everyone.”
