FASHION Magazine

Beauty director Adriana Ermter breaks down fall’s biggest beauty trends. Get the lowdown on ’80s redux, mile-high pompadours, glam curls and more. There’s lots more packed into our Fall Beauty Guide: 5 ways to wear a crimson lip, runway-tested products, and the top hair and makeup on the catwalk. Videos after the jump.

This season, the archetypal red lip is exceedingly versatile. In many textural permutations, from matte to gloss, each crimson hue reflects a different undertone—be it berry, black, blue, orange or fuchsia. After its display of cosmetic dominance on the Fall 2009 runways, there’s no sidestepping this principal shade. Rouge is the right choice.

After the jump you can check out a slideshow of the new reds, find out our favourite shades and get makeup artist advice on how to wear them. {Back to FALL 2009 BEAUTY GUIDE}

Some of us in the office are mourning the end of summer (if indeed it ever arrived), but this reporter is always quite happy to welcome the nip in the air that accompanies the end of the silly season. After the jump, we round up our picks for the best fall jackets to buy right now.

Fashion market editor Sarah Casselman goes shopping for five pieces that will give your closet an instant update.

Video after the jump.

Fall 2009 runways were awash with colour-blocked eyes and Duran Duran hair, rocketing us Marty McFly–style back to the future, circa 1985. Why? Because everything ’80s is new again. Lipstick is bright, bold and iridescent. Fragrance is intoxicatingly opulent, steeped in history. And counterculture strolls down memory lane, redefining drugstore cool.

Though we’ve long loved Renata Morales (renatamorales.com), the Montreal designer came screaming back into our consciousness last October with her Spring 2009 show–full of ethereal dresses made of candy floss and the feathers of imaginary birds (we assume). The frocks in Morales’ Fall 2009 collection were inspired macro photographs of moths and rendered with feathers, sequins and knit metal mesh. The tough edge and handmade, demi-couture details make Rodarte an easy comparison, though Morales always seems to take it one step creepier. More images after the jump.

Photographer Gabor Jurina–one of FASHION’s BFFs–went to yesterday’s Chanel couture show and sent us this report. Check out his work at gaborjurina.com (or in the Summer issue of FASHION) and his blog at gaborgeous.com.

Last evening’s Fall 2009 couture presentation from Chanel was the perfect combination of French luxury with German precision. Kaiser Karl pulled it off yet again, to the pleasure of his devotees. There was a sea of Chanel bags, in every shape, colour and fabric. It was a virtual retrospective of past Chanel collections in the audience. The genius of Chanel is that even though we shoot it for our pages of FASHION Magazine on lithe young women, it works beautifully on ladies of any age.

Gallery Page and Strange (1869 Granville St., 902-422-8995, pageandstrange.com), located in Halifax’s historic Granville Mall, houses the best walls in the city. Encompassed by the sleek columns, stunning molding and sky-kissing ceilings of a bygone era, the building’s old brick walls have been slathered in a fresh, modern white that would make any artist salivate. These gallery walls, and the contemporary art that hangs from them, created the perfect setting for last Thursday’s unveiling of Katrina Tuttle’s (katrinatuttle.com) Fall 2009 designs—a collection that has painted classic ideas in a coat of modernity.

If there is one thing that gave me cause for celebration at Toronto Fashion Week it is the return of smoky eyes and bed head.  The ‘Whoops, I went to bed last night without taking off my eye makeup and there is no time to shower’ look is the only one I have ever been able to pull off successfully.

I had a chance to chat backstage at Fashion Week with L’Oréal Paris official hair artist Eric Del Monaco and official makeup artist Eddie Maleterre, and get the inside scoop on what they were creating for the collections.

Ever run into a friend’s younger sibling, after years, and spend the whole time grinning at how much they’ve grown and who they’ve become? That was the second Atlantic Fashion Week designer showcase for me—an evening of cheek pinches and head pats, or at least the seated, acceptable equivalent: much-deserved applause.

Local designers and boutiques are getting ready to show their Fall 2009 offerings at Edmonton Fashion Week (April 2 to 9, from $15, 780-420-1757, tixonthesquare.ca, or at the door. Visit edmontonfashionweek.ca). The shows at the Transalta Arts Barns (10330-84 Ave.) will feature new talent from the University of Alberta’s Textiles and Clothing program, along with EFW regulars like Stanley Carroll, Nokomis and C’est Sera.  

No need for asterisks or apologetic preambles: my city finally nailed down Fashion Week this season—or at least an abbreviated one—hitting a level of success that’s way off the small-town scale.