Green glitter at Altuzarra, helmet hair at Alexander Wang: 9 beauty statements from the Fall 2014 shows

Date February 10, 2014

backstage beauty fall 2014 — Photography courtesy Nars

The eyes, hair and nails have been making most of the beauty statements so far on the Fall 2014 runways at New York Fashion Week. Here are our favourite looks and the top beauty trends so far:

Russet lipstick as eyeshadow at Helmut Lang
Helmut Lang’s textured, masculine collection was complemented with a simple, pared down face punctuated by a soft wash of lustrous burgundy on the eye. “It’s very minimal and clean but with a hint of punk,” said lead artist Hannah Murray, who painted Nars lipstick in “Deborah Audacious” (coming this fall) onto the eye and pressed “Heat” bronzing powder over it to set. She skipped eyeliner, mascara and brow colour, and kept the under-eye area clean to avoid a “pink-eye” effect.

Lime green glitter at Altuzarra
“Fashion should be fun, in the end,” said makeup artist Tom Pecheux by way of explanation for the lime green glitter he used on the eyes at Altuzarra. That it was: the subtle sparkle of M.A.C’s forthcoming Pro Glitter in “3D Brass Gold” was applied all over the eyelid but with more intensity by the lashes (six models received an extra “banana-shaped” swipe of hot pink lipstick over top of that). The effect was surprisingly subtle: “Just having glitter with nothing else breaks the rule of it being for a disco queen,” said Pecheux.

1960s Yé-yé inspired liner at Rag & Bone
Gucci Westman was inspired by the rebellion and style of the French Yé-yé girls of the ‘60s: Francoise Hardy, France Gall and Sylvie Vartan. “Everyone wanted to be them. I was thinking, ‘Who would a Yé-yé girl be now?’” Demonstrating on Georgia May Jagger, Westman layered different textures of Revlon eyeliner to achieve the sharp, graphic line: cream gel liner to set the shape, and the not-yet-launched Colorstay Skinny Liquid Liner to make the shape precise. “It’s a rather thick, straight line, and it finishes above the lashline at the end,” Westman said, explained the shape varied on each model to make it as flattering as possible. Mascara on just the top lashes finished the look. “I like that the look is one thing,” she said, “because real girls don’t have time for seven steps. I don’t.”

Alexander Wang’s futuristic helmets
“The hair inspiration was from a drawing Alex did when he was designing the clothes, and when he drew it and blocked it in it looked very unreal,” said stylist Guido. The extreme side part resembled a man’s combover, with hair going straight across the forehead like a bang, and the skin at the hairline and in the part was coloured in with makeup to make it look like a helmet. He used two products: Redken Control Addict 28, which he used to spray the hair, dry it and spray it again until it felt “quite fake”; and Shine Flash 02 spray for the futuristic, reflective finish. At the back, the ponytail was covered and tucked into the clothes, so it was about the small head shape.

Suno’s gold-painted parts
The Suno collection featured flashes of silver and gold material, so stylist Odile Gilbert painted gold powder mixture along the models’ centre-part after a late-night request from the designers the evening before. The hair was parted in the middle, blow-dried very straight and flatironed, and the silky texture was achieved using Kérastase Form Fatale and Ciment Thermique. “The inspiration is Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell—hippies but expensive and chic.” The late-breaking addition of the gold worked out, to Gilbert’s relief. “We didn’t do it in the test. So we just tried it right now, and they were like, ‘Wow.’”

DVF’s ballerina-in-rehearsal bun
Diane Von Furstenberg’s collection was inspired by the Ballet Russes, the Russian refugee dancers living in Paris at the turn of the 20th century, so naturally stylist Orlando Pita went with a ballerina bun—“but a ballerina in rehearsal, not a ballerina in performance.” He used Biosilk Strong Hold Hairspray on a brush to rake the hair back from the scalp to look like the girl had raked her hair back from her face. Models with dry hair were treated with BioSilk serum for moisture, those with textured hair saw an application of gel and a smoothing blow dry. “We make a bun and then we start undoing it and making it messy,” he said. “It should look easy.”

The “lunar eclipse moon manicures” at Ruffian
Cheryl Natoli applied one coat of pale metallic polish (Ruffian’s own line of lacquer in “Ambrosia,” “Relic” or “Rosary,” coming in March to birchbox.com) and painted on black moons of various sizes, to represent different phases of the moon. The ends were filed square to provide graphic shape contrast.

Three matte, chalky nail looks at DKNY
The three looks were meant to complement the collection theme of individual style—half the models were artists and club kids, not professional models. There was a chalky all-white nail, a “nothing” pale matte nail, and a grey and white “moon shadow” manicure with a ring of white at the base and a grey bed. The heather-grey shade was custom made with three Essie shades: two white coats of “Blanc,” two of soft grey “Smoking Hot,” another of the sheer-white “Allure” and a final top coat of Essie Matte About You.

Rich Nepalese colours at Prabal Gurung
Prabal Gurung’s collection was a tribute to his ancestral home of Nepal, and manicurist Jin Soon interpreted the rich colours and draping fabrics on the nails. Using the Fall 2014 Prabal Gurung for Sally Hansen collection, she painted two coats of “Himalaya,” an opaque beige with a hint of grey, and added a thin line of “Rupee Red” along the side of the three centre nails to suggest draped fabric in a subtle way.