Donald Robertson Will Crash Parties at ABMB in Lipstick-Laden Art Car

Donald Robertson and Smashbox #BingtoBasel mobile art project featuring a 1974 Cadillac covered in red lipstick lip prints. Photo courtesy of Smashbox Cosmetics.

Illustrator and Instagram celebrity Donald Robertson was working on a collaboration with beloved beauty brand Smashbox and the uber-hip French store Colette when the idea for how to cash in on the Basel madness came to him over what he calls a “full-on drunky” dinner with the Smashbox team.

He will drive to Art Basel in Miami Beach in a 1974 Cadillac El Dorado covered in fire-engine-red lips with a trunk full of lipstick in “Bing,” the cosmetics company’s official shade for Art Basel in Miami Beach, to give away.

And, of course, there will be a custom hashtag: #BingToBasel. The lip-car has always been a common motif in his work, and well, who doesn’t like free lipstick?

Donald Robertson and Smashbox <em>#BingtoBasel</em>  mobile art project featuring a 1974 Cadillac covered in red lipstick lip prints. Photo courtesy of Smashbox Cosmetics.

Donald Robertson and Smashbox #BingtoBasel mobile art project featuring a 1974 Cadillac covered in red lipstick lip prints. Photo courtesy of Smashbox Cosmetics.

Robertson told Style that he sees the act as a “guerilla-style beauty campaign,” but the game plan is not all that different from most people’s ambitions for the week, namely sussing out where the hottest parties are and crashing them.

“We’re going to find out where the grooviest events are and just go pull up in front,” he said. “We’ll photobomb Art Basel. We’re going to low-ride with this art car and make a spectacle of ourselves, so we’re really excited.”

Smashbox's Be Legendary Lipstick in Bing, the official Art Basel in Miami Beach shade.

Smashbox’s Be Legendary Lipstick in Bing, the official Art Basel in Miami Beach shade.

Unfortunately, Robertson, who is the father to a new set of twins, will not actually be the one driving the car from Smashbox studios in Los Angeles to Miami.

“Very young people from Smashbox—who don’t have twins—will be driving,” he admitted. The car departs on November 29, and will make pit stops in Tucson, Marfa, Austin, New Orleans, and Gainesville before hitting the scene in Miami Beach.


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