Capturing the chaos: 46 beautiful, frenetic images from backstage at fashion week

by Nicole Livey September 21, 2015

Another seven days of glamazons gliding down runways in immaculate designer creations has come again. The front of house at a fashion show is a microcosm of hyper-controlled energy, where the discerning crowd is privy only to the flawless presentation (read: Givenchy, Marc Jacobs) before them. What audiences don’t see is the chaos backstage, where a whirlwind is raging right up until the very last seconds before models take their final walk. Make-up artists, stylists, assistants, and show runners are all sweating bullets, working at breakneck speed to perfect a designer’s concept down to the minutest details.

Prior to the show, models arrive at the backstage area unkempt and likely exhausted (a week of racing from back-to-back shows will do that to you) and are immediately whipped into a frenzy by awaiting glam squads. Hair is teased, sprayed, or slicked down under specially coiffed wigs, while faces are painted, contoured, and likewise transformed into whatever vision the designer has dreamed up. Racks of clothing are strewn everywhere, dotted with outfit cards bearing photos that prescriptively instruct how each look is to be styled and which model is to wear it.

All of that might sound pretty tense, but the great thing about models is that you can count on them to bring the party with them wherever they go. Suki Waterhouse danced to her own beat on the Tommy Hilfiger tropical beachfront with a pair of maracas as Gigi and Bella Hadid posed sultrily for photogs in matching white robes. At Tanya Taylor, girls with loose topknots and cockatoo-like tails kept the mood light by making silly faces of emoji-like proportions, while the models at Betsy Johnson were treated to rainbow eyes, crimped manes, and loads of licorice.

But the one thing that you were guaranteed to find backstage no matter which show you went to? Models clicking away on their phones and snapping selfies while being tended to by a small army of staff. Hey, they are millennials, after all.