Fashion

Inspiration: Dark beauty

There’s a dark underside to beauty this spring, and it’s not for the faint of heart.

It’s uncommon for a special-effects team to be called upon for runway beauty duty, but when prosthetics sit alongside makeup palettes backstage—as they did at Alexander McQueen, where we saw alien-like faces—you know this isn’t a typical season. We expect certain designers, like John Galliano, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto, to deviate from the pretty norms of glossy hair and a healthy glow. But whether it’s a way to embrace individualism at its most extreme or just a desire to experiment, Spring 2010 shows a real movement toward a sinister, weird and audacious aesthetic. Besides the extraterrestrial beings at McQueen, East L.A. gang girls inspired the look at Rodarte; Tim Burton’s movies served as an influence at Jason Wu; and Swedish vampire films were cited at Jonathan Saunders. The bleached-out brows, blackened lips, outrageous sculptural coifs, intricate body art and matted, texturized hair of this anti-establishment message provided a counterpoint to the undercurrent of optimism seen on many of the other runways.

Click to see products and more runway inspiration.

First published in FASHION Magazine April 2010

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