“Guy Bourdin was a major inspiration in my life,” wrote beauty mogul François Nars when he launched his Bourdin-inspired makeup collection (2013). “I would tear his images out of magazines and put them on my wall.” A quick look at the Spring 2017 Ready-to-Wear shows, and one would think that all the makeup artists had Guy Bourdin’s Vogue editorials pinned to their mood boards. The French artist and photographer—who began shooting for Vogue in the ‘50s—set the stage for a new era of fashion photography in the ‘70s and ‘80s with his surreal, envelope-pushing photos. Along with his brow-raising editorials, Bourdin shot risqué campaigns that showcased models with intense swirls of blush draped from the cheekbones to the eyebrows, and swathes of prismatic eyeshadow—both have reemerged on the recent Spring 2017 runways.
At Louis Vuitton, Pat McGrath dipped into pots of punchy purple and blue eyeshadows to create the models’ eye makeup. While over at Chanel, models looked like they had just stepped out of a time machine with their rosy, flushed cheeks. Heavy washes of blush also reigned at Kenzo,and Adam Selman.
Meanwhile, models at Marc Jacobs and Jeremy Scott took to the runway with pastel purple, pink, and blue eyeshadow painted on their eyelids inspired by the decade’s colorful “more is more” makeup era.
Heavy, wraparound eyeliner also dominated in the ‘80s, and was spotted at Altuzarra, where models’ upper and lower lash lines were rimmed with black, smudgy kohl.
