FASHION Magazine

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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.

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The beauty at Pink Tartan was certainly ‘60s and sultry—we’re talking double-lined eyes, thick eyebrows, and “lots and lots and lots and lots” of mascara. Is it hard to guess that the inspiration was Brigitte Bardot? Eddie Malter, official makeup artist of L’Oreal Paris, applied La Couleur Infallible eye shadow in “Flashback Silver” inside the crease of the eye and then used a brush to smudge the shimmery shade down. Lineur Intense eyeliner was applied thick, and almost straight across on both the eyelid and under the eye, creating the perfect winged look.

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Natural, natural, natural—the word kept buzzing around backstage before last night’s Joe Fresh show. For hair, this meant sporty side-parted ponytails with barely any product or tools used. “If you were to do this at home, just a fresh blow dry,” said L’Oreal Paris official hair artist and colourist Eric Del Monaco. However, on the runway natural always becomes slightly enhanced—in this case with many mists of Elnett hairspray. (We swear one ponytail took on an entire can…)

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Is there a better inspiration than Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra? We thought not, until Arthur Mendonça set the vision for beauty at his Spring 2012 show: Cleopatra emerging from water. Eddie Malter, official makeup artist for L’Oreal Paris, used H.I.P. High Intensity Pigment Eyeshadow Duos “224” and “207,” blending layers of blue, turquoise, and silver to achieve the effect of water reflecting on the face—a look certainly worthy of modern Egyptian goddesses. Brows were left natural and lips subtle, done in a beige Infallible Le Rouge lip colour (“814”) and covered with gloss.

For fall, Line sent out their signature knits on what co-designer Jennifer Wells described as European settlers from the 1930s. With each model wearing a skull cap and/or headband, the hair was intended to look “wavy and distressed, not too perfect, like they’ve been traveling,” she explained. To that end, lead hair artist Eric del Monaco created bend in the hair using a similar technique he used at Joe Fresh earlier in the week: wrapping sections with a large barrel curling iron from midway down the shaft. A dab of Studio Line Mineral FX Modeling Gel-Cream was then rubbed to give it a slightly weathered look.

We’re still in love with the teal eye Gucci Westman created for Oscar De La Renta’s Spring 2011 collection. So when we ventured backstage at VAWK, we were pumped to find L’Oréal Paris Lead Makeup Artist Eddie Malter applying the cerulean hue on a model’s lids. “Sunny wanted a strong eye,” explained Malter. Fong gave him a swatch from the collection and asked him to match the shade. The fabric’s cosmetic equivalent? HIP Shadow Duo in Showy. Malter circled it around the eyes and minutes before show time, dabbed a clear lip gloss over top for a hit of shine. To bring more attention to the upper part of the face, he buffed a tawny blush high on cheekbones and kept the mouth muted, pressing a pale coral into the lips.

Joe Fresh may be beloved for its cheap chic take on trends born by high-end labels, but its models could have easily passed for trust fund babes with their polished blowouts and perfect complexions—a look created to tie-in with the brand’s ’70s-inspired collection. After blow drying hair and creating a clean middle part, L’Oréal Paris’ Lead Hair Artist Eric del Monaco added movement by taking pieces of the hair and wrapping the mid-shaft around a large-barrel iron, keeping the ends straight by holding it with his fingers. Continuing the pared down beauty theme, Lead Makeup Artist Eddie Malter stuck with a neutral palette. After applying a wash of gold shadow on the eyes, he created a strong brow to anchor the look and swept a shimmery champagne shadow along the top of the cheekbones to brighten skin. Malter finished the look by applying a creamy nude lipstick on the lips.

Topknots⎯the unofficial hairstyle of last summer⎯are alive and kickin’. It’s perched high on the head of the Pink Tartan lady for fall 2011 to be exact. “There’s lots of military pieces, so we wanted a hard/soft aspect to the woman,” explained L’Oreal Paris’ Lead Hair Artist Eric del Monaco. After spritzing hair with water, he made a high pony, split it into two sections and twisted one into a loop and wrapped the other one around the base. Creative director Veronica Chu called the style “organized chaos” saying it was “contained and controlled”. Surely the inescapable mist of Elnett that seemed to hang in a cloud over the area ensured that. Lead Makeup Artist Eddie Malter gave models a hard edge with a dramatic dark eye done in black shadow that extended out and was purposely done not to look “clean” and avoided mascara altogether. He used his backstage MVP product, Wear Infinite Eye Shadow in “Morning Light” to add highlights down the nose and on cheekbones and took down brows and lips with a bit of concealer. The final touch was gloss added to the lids right before the girls took to the runway.

I didn’t attend LG Fashion Week last night and therefore, did not poke around backstage 
at IZMA to grill the L’Oreal Paris hair and makeup teams about what they
 were whipping up to complement the ultra glam collection, but damn I wish I
 had.