Borrowing from the boys—at least in terms of beauty—feels right for Spring 2015. Fingers were raked through ponytails and blow-outs at Proenza Schouler, Gucci, and Versace, while sideburns appeared at Prada and Marni. “It’s ’50s men’s grooming, but it’s not done in a retro way,” explained Paul Hanlon this morning at Marni. “I thought a lot about a [short film] by Bruce Weber called The Teddy Boys of the Edwardian Drape Society—it’s all about these rockers in the pubs of London who had these really bad sideburns that were all sweaty and stuck.” The cheekbone-grazing strands were employed at both Marni and Prada for much the same reason: Both houses wanted to lend an element of “toughness” to the girls. “It’s the nuances that you have to find, like texture or shine—that’s what designers are responding to at the moment,” explained Guido Palau. “At Prada, the little bits made quite a big impact in a funny way.”
To lend strands a “dirty, hasn’t been washed in weeks” feel, Hanlon blasted TIGI’s Superstar Queen For A Day through roots, blew hair dry (creating lift near the forehead), and flattened the sides with Fekkai Nonchalant Coiff Piercing and Forming Wax—melting the product with heat. The length was then gathered into a ponytail and tied off with tissue (which was later cut before models hit the catwalk) for bend. As a final step, bits of hair were pulled out and shellacked to the skin with L’Oréal Paris Elnett hairspray. At first glance, this masculine detail might not seem wearable off the runway, but I can attest that those rockabilly sideburns were the perfect complement to models’ own band T-shirts and aviators en route to the next show.
