FASHION Magazine

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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We received some titillating news yesterday afternoon: the shimmering white-pearl polish seen at Chanel’s Spring 2012 show on Tuesday will be released as a limited edition colour in the Lèvres Scintillantes collection. Its name: Attraction. The dreamy shade and was created by Chanel’s creative director of makeup, Peter Philips, and was originally rumoured to be an exclusive mix just for the runway. It’s due out next year, so you’d better start plotting your rush to line-up at Chanel counters now.

But that’s not all the intel we have for the lacquer-obsessed: the other polishes Phillips used are part of a trio collection that will also launch next year. The warm shades—a rosy burgundy, pastel fuchsia, and a seashell-hued orange—are named for the spring months (that’s April, May, and June, respectively), which has us hoping—are polishes for all the other months to come? We’d love to have a whole calendar of Chanel colours on hand.

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Ciao, Milano! Now, it’s onto Paris. But before we turn our attention from Piazza Oberdan to the Grand Palais, we wanted to share some of our favourite beauty looks from MFW. Here are five we love.

Minx nails at Missoni
A departure from the nude nails seen on Milan runways last season, these custom-printed Minx nail appliqués were applied over an iridescent base. We’re praying that like Missoni for Target, these beauties make it to the masses, too.

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