FASHION Magazine

By Lesa Hannah and Sarah Daniel

It was sink or swim backstage, where wet hair and glistening skin were major beauty themes to surface this season. At Bottega Veneta and Diesel, Guido Palau crafted dripping chignons and misty ponytails. At Alexander Wang, models looked like they had just hopped out of the shower. The sopping effect wasn’t achieved with H2O but with argan hair treatment “until you really get it looking wet,” says Palau. Super-hydrated skin with a healthy sheen was reminiscent of an Olympian post-workout, or in the case of Missoni, a girl who had been up all night flamenco dancing—the models’ dewy complexions achieved through artful placement of metallic cream shadow. That shine could also result from plenty of Botox, according to makeup artist Val Garland, who simulated that supernatural skin for Giambattista Valli by strategically applying a pink-gold pigment on the planes of the face.

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By Lesa Hannah and Sarah Daniel

Liquid liner hasn’t lost its momentum, but makeup artists left last season’s ’60s mod influence behind and moved back a decade to the ’50s, with inspirations like Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor. At Jonathan Saunders, artiste Lucia Pieroni gave models a Stepford streak, inspired by a mid-century Miami housewife who likes her Valium, she says. At Marni, makeup artist Tom Pecheux applied a cinnamon-coloured flick instead of the standard noir, which was inspired by a terracotta clutch in the collection and brought “a sophisticated finish to the face,” he says. Hair-stylists also mined the past for ideas—from the ’20s to the ’70s, and every decade in between. At Diane von Furstenberg, teased ’60s French twists were “textured so it’s rustic and earthy, and quite simple in shape,” says coiffeur Orlando Pita. But at Jean Paul Gaultier, it was an old photograph that led to the loose wartime rolls that hair guru Guido Palau fastened to the top of the head. Our favourite was the sterile-looking ’50s faux bob at Jil Sander, in all its vacuum-sealed nurse practitioner perfection.

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By Lesa Hannah and Sarah Daniel

Hair accessories have been elevated beyond the basic bobby pin or pedestrian ponytail fastener. At Jason Wu, Odile Gilbert decorated updos with skinny black feathers for a punk touch. “We don’t want them to look romantic,” she says. At Chanel, pearls were pinned into wet-looking chignons; at Yves Saint Laurent, buns were encased in gold cage barrettes. Embellishment didn’t end there, though; faces were fully decorated too. To characterize “giant living dolls” at Viktor & Rolf, makeup artist Pat McGrath used thick, pink false eyelashes. At Givenchy, she responded to the designer’s request for “metallic flashes of light” by cutting sequins in two and placing one half above the eyes and one half below. When “[models] walked and blinked, it would capture the light,” says McGrath. But makeup maven Peter Philips wins the award for best showmanship: At Fendi, he affixed bits of gold and silver leaf from lash to brow. The look blew our minds.

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“The inspiration is Audrey Hepburn,” said makeup artist Diane Kendal backstage at Thakoon. But that didn’t translate into liquid liner, one of the beauty signatures of the screen starlet. “We didn’t want it to be too literal,” explained Kendal. Instead, she did a bold red lip using Nars lipstick in “Heat Wave” and added neon-pink pigment on top for “a bright, luminous quality.” (Later I heard the designer himself doing an interview in which he mentioned it was the first time they’d done a lip at the show.) Cheeks were enhanced with Nars Multiple in “Undress Me,” (launching this fall), while lids were treated to a bit of white shimmer in the form of Nars eyeshadow in “Tibet.”

Barely any makeup is par for the course at Alexander Wang, where his downtown girl is so cool she doesn’t need to wear much. In keeping with this recurring idea, makeup artist Diane Kendal created “a very sculpted look, keeping it almost kind of androgynous,” using M.A.C Pro Sculpting creams. With “Coffee Walnut,” she contoured the cheekbones, temples, and the side of the nose, and then added highlights in the same areas with “Accentuate.” Brows were kept straight and boyish, and lip balm was dabbed on models’ mouths. “He just wanted the girls to be strong and a little bit warrior-like,” said Kendal. Manicurist Jin Soon Choi applied “Bandage,” to the nails—a beige shade from the designer’s second collaboration with Sally Hansen.

By Lesa Hannah and Sarah Daniel

Bold, statement-making lips have legs: Witness the tomato-red mouth topped with neon orange powder pigment at Jason Wu, the eight acidic shades at Mary Katrantzou and the magenta mouth with a darkened centre at Prabal Gurung, meant to look like “an orchid coming out of the lips,” says makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury. Whatever the hue or texture, what’s important is that it makes a major impact. But this season, colour wasn’t confined to the face; it migrated to the head. It was first spied at Thakoon, where hairstylist Odile Gilbert applied powdered clay, either dry or mixed with water, to models’ heads in a nod to Holi. Then at Narciso Rodriguez, coiffeur Eugene Souleiman spray-painted conical twists in one of five temporary colours. Three weeks later, Souleiman was at it again at Issey Miyake, referencing the flowers in the collection with tinted, tulip-shaped hairstyles. We especially liked the ones that resembled Triple Rockets popsicles.

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When I arrived backstage at Jason Wu, the designer himself was receiving a touch-up from makeup artist Diane Kendal. These are the things you witness if you get to the venue early enough. Once he scooted out of her chair, Kendal proceeded to rhyme off all of Wu’s references for his Fall 2012 collection: the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese military, and ’40s Hollywood.

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That blue makeup you invested in during the fall? It’s about to get a lot more mileage. From eyes to nails, everything was as blue as the sky at Chanel’s haute couture show today. (Not to mention the show itself: guests boarded “Chanel Air”—a set staged to look like they were flying in a custom luxury jet.)

While we wait for confirmation on the products used backstage, let’s discuss two things:

Ready to try the kitten flick? We show you how to do it in 3 easy steps »

As seen on the Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2012 runway, the kitten flick is a shorter version of the traditional cat eye. It has the retro appeal of winged black liner without looking too overdone. All this means: it’s your best bet for looking bright-eyed and on trend, be it at the office or out with friends.

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The eyes were impossible to miss at Chanel’s Métiers d’Art show—dark black and deep set, they set the tone of Bombay decadence for the Pre-Fall 2012 collection. Chanel’s creative director of makeup, Peter Philips, created the almond-shaped eye with a new coal-black Illusion d’Ombre shadow, “Nirvana”—part of the exclusive Bombay Express collection due at counters in June 2012. Phillips built an almost-winged shape with the shadow and then used Le Crayon Khol in “Black” to completely line the eye, going from waterline to lower lash line and around the entire lid. The rest of the face was kept very simple, with Rouge Coco Shine in “Empreinte” (from the 2012 Summer collection) on the lips and Joues Contraste powder blush in “Brume d’Or” across the cheeks.

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Keeping on trend with spring’s no-makeup natural aesthetic, the look at Denis Gagnon was intended to be as basic as possible. “He said to me, ‘I want [the models] to look like they just got out of bed,’” reported Eric Del Monaco, L’Oreal Paris’s official hair artist and colourist, about Gagnon’s direction for hair. “Because the clothes already have a lot of things going on, we didn’t want [the hair] to get mixed up.” The result was a so-simple-it-hurts style: Del Monaco applied a touch of Studio Line Architect Wax, roughed up the hair a little bit, and then pulled it all to one side in a loose folded half-bun with—quelle horreur!—the elastic showing.

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Far from bug eyed, the direction for hair and makeup at Vawk focused in on specific parts of Sunny Fong’s “insects and architecture” inspiration. “For me, architecture is a lot of windows and reflection, so I went with a gold reflection, like the sun,” said Eddie Malter, official makeup artist of L’Oreal Paris, when describing the gold shadow (Wear Infinite Eye Shadow Quad “823”) he applied inside the eye and along the crease. Then, to capture the essence of insect antenna, Malter applied Lineur Intense eyeliner in “Carbon Black” to the lower lash line, extending the line out. However, the crowning moment was a pair of custom Maddox eyelashes made from paper—applied to just one model for the show.