After time spent in the trenches, a roundup of our favorite trends and backstage beauty tips from New York fashion week.
—Amber Kallor, Style.com
The Best Beauty Trends and Tips From NYFW
Sheer Bliss
After wiping the slate clean with various nude lacquers for Spring ’15, some designers dipped a toe back into color with sheer formulas. Deborah Lippmann custom-blended a veil-like black for Narciso Rodriguez; Gina Edwards whipped up an iridescent purple inspired by the aurora borealis for Thakoon; and even Jeremy Scott scaled back on brightness—asking Miss Pop to mix opaque pinks, greens, and yellows with top coat to create colors that mimicked the vibrant nylons stretched over models’ legs. Backstage at Narciso Rodriguez Photo: Mark Schafer
She’s Come Undone
Ladylike buns took a backseat to rumpled iterations that suggested that this season’s woman scraped back her strands on the go in lieu of spending time in front of the mirror. “She’s a bit of a double agent,” mane master Orlando Pita noted backstage at Diane von Furstenberg. “We’ve done the hair as if she’s had it loose during the day, and then at night she just picks it up quickly and slicks it back with her fingers.” For a “fractured” effect at Vera Wang, Paul Hanlon quickly tonged sections from root to ear before pulling them back into a “rugged” double knot. “I don’t want it to look like a twisted bun that’s been pinned in, I want it to look almost like they’ve slept in the hair and it’s gotten a bit squashed.” Similar disheveled chignons were spotted at Victoria Beckham and atop catwalkers’ foreheads at Marc Jacobs. Backstage at Vera Wang Photo: Michele Morosi/Indigitalimages.com
The Eyes Have It
There was plenty of classic black liner backstage to be sure, but some pros pulled out a few more unconventional materials to embellish models’ eyes. James Kaliardos employed Swarovski crystals adhered to silver string at Rodarte, Kabuki glued caviar beads along lower lashes at Ohne Titel, and Diane Kendal dotted beads of glitter onto faux fringe at Carolina Herrera. After all the bedazzling was complete, the effect was subtle but still caught your eye on the runway. Backstage at Rodarte Photo: Sonny Vandevelde / Indigitalimages.com
Smooth Criminals
Polished and pretty hair had its place this season at shows like Donna Karan and Thakoon. Backstage fixture Eugene Souleiman hit up “his lady” Helena (New York City’s mecca for hair pieces) to purchase $35K worth of weave for Donna Karan’s runway, washing the copolymers off the faux strands with a clarifying shampoo to allow for movement on the catwalk. After bluntly hacking off the ends and devising a deep side part, the pro gelled the front pieces in place and misted hairspray through the back to avoid a sharp delineation in texture. “It’s sharp, but still a very beautiful look at the same time,” he explained. At Thakoon, Odile Gilbert did a “classic blow-dry” with the help of Kérastase Keratine Thermique and a Y.S. Park round brush. “We’re not using a flat-iron because we don’t want something fake,” she said. On the runway at Donna Karan Photo: Alessandro Garofalo / Indigitalimages.com
Give ’Em Lip
Save for a few shows (and Rihanna in the front row), lips looked rather lackluster the past season or two. For Fall 2015, power pouts made a comeback in NYC, with brick and berry leading the way. Face painter Francelle Daly cited her favorite oxblood-colored Dr. Martens boots from the ’90s as the inspo for the shade employed at 3.1 Phillip Lim, while Charlotte Tilbury dabbed a combo of two bullets onto lips at Donna Karan. François Nars used a bold merlot (NARS Train Bleu Velvet Matte Lip Pencil) at Marc Jacobs to complete the designer’s vision of ’50s and ’60s “swans.” Backstage at 3.1 Phillip Lim Photo: Michele Morosi/Indigitalimages.com
Get Kinky
In contrast to the bevy of blow-outs and sleek strands, pros mixed things up with intentional crinkles and kinks. “I’m trying to do things that a pillow would do—not a hairdresser,” said Orlando Pita of the windblown ponytails at Michael Kors. He asked models to go to bed with clean, slightly wet hair so that they arrived for the early morning call time with the desired texture already intact. Guido Palau’s approach at Marc by Marc Jacobs was equally as easy: He spritzed all over with water, raked mousse from roots to end, and allowed strands to air-dry. At 3.1 Phillip Lim, Paul Hanlon drenched sections with Bumble and Bumble Prep and Thickening Hairspray, blasted with a blow-dryer until hair was damp, braided, and locked in the shape by clamping over the top with a flat-iron. Once plaits were unraveled, catwalkers were left with “waffled” waves reminiscent of Ali MacGraw in Love Story or supermodels such as Daria Werbowy and Freja Beha Erichsen. And who doesn’t want to look like that? On the runway at Michael Kors Photo: Gianni Pucci / Indigitalimages.com
Banded Together
Out of all the barrettes and baubles we saw backstage, it was the simple bands slipped over strands at shows like Proenza Schouler, Honor, and Richard Chai Love that we wanted to wear most. Always the minimalists when it comes to beauty, designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez were set on the leather accessory this season, said hairstylist Anthony Turner. “We modified it during the test to make it really tight, because what we liked was the pinch in the neck that created that gorgeous head shape in profile,” he said. Backstage at Proenza Schouler Photo: Michele Morosi/Indigitalimages.com
