When you’re Alexander Wang, you don’t bring Brooklyn to the fashion set; you bring the fashion set to Brooklyn. And when you bring the fashion set to Brooklyn, you better deliver something special—like heat-activated fabrics and a 360-degree final comprised of a dozen supers (including Karlie Kloss, Joan Smalls, Caroline Trentini, Anne V, Angela Lindvall, and Bridget Hall).
Diane Kendal and Guido Palau were tasked with creating hair and makeup that lived up to the spectacle across the river. For Kendal, that meant creating “monochrome” faces with bleached brows, light coverage foundation, a bit of contouring underneath the cheekbones and in the creases of the eyes, and a few strategic swipes of NARS Illuminator in Copacabana for sheen. “The head is very hard…so we wanted [create] an open feel to the face—almost like mannequins,” she explained of the androgynous look.
Palau married multiple references—the sixties, futurism, comb overs—into a lacquered style that swept across the forehead like a bang, and wrapped tightly around the sides. “[The idea] was taken from an illustration that Alex had done—I wanted to do hair that was kind of drawn on,” he said. To achieve this, Palau blew strands straight using a Mason Pearson brush, made a deep side part, doused hair from roots to ends with Redken Control Addict 28 High-Control Hairspray, smoothed everything into place, and blew it dry to lock in the shape. Any remaining length was pulled into a low ponytail, which would later be concealed by cravats. The twelve models dressed in head-to-toe black (revealing vibrant shades of pink, yellow, blue, purple, and green when rotated in front of industrial vents) had their heads blasted with black powder for a seamless finish. When asked about the venue change, Palau replied, “What do I think about Brooklyn? No, it’s great.” The masses might not be in favor of crossing a bridge to get to a show, but Über certainly enjoyed the ride.
