New York Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2017, Five Ways
By Laura Vogel
Where our fearless NYC-based correspondent tackles the scene, the looks, the insanity – and lives to tell the tale.
LUAR:
In a word, the hair and makeup at Raul Lopez’s show was ... bananas. Yet, however kooky, these faces won’t soon be forgotten.
His menswear looks included random hair-extension pieces plastered to the models’ foreheads, Klingon-style, or just asymmetrically affixed among the hair and on the features of the catwalking young men.
The most out-there face was a Surrealist-era Picasso-esque abstraction. The model’s right eye was unadorned, and at the top right of his forehead was an enormous rendering of an eye—complete with liner, brow, and blue eyeshadow. (He also had a garish, black-lined, oversized red lip painted on about 30 degrees to the right of his mouth.)
Designer Lopez said he was “Inspired by everything going on in the world right now. Financiers, entrepreneurs … and moguls” sparked his imagination. Indeed, the twisted machinations in the halls of power in Washington, D.C. and Wall Street can be considered well-represented by the chaotic hair and makeup in his show.
Back on planet Earth, Mimi Prober presented a show of loose, gauzy pieces set to a Stevie Nicks soundtrack.
The clean, pretty hair and makeup looks worn by all of the girls in the show were harmonious and minimal. Skin was matte, brows were combed through with a clear gel, and just the faintest bit of shimmery gold shadow was brushed on vertically, right between the inner corners of the eyes and the top of the nose. Pouts were coated with the very lightest coating By Terry Baume de Rose Lip Balm.
Perhaps most groundbreaking beauty moment in Prober’s show — but also in keeping with its subtlety — was the hair. It was, for the most part, long, blown-out, and straightened. However, just the faintest layer was crimped. But not ʼ80s-style, hard, half-inch zig-zag crimps, but a much more ethereal shaping that you might not even notice if you weren’t looking closely. It was a lovely touch that stood out in its softness in a very hard season.
Okay, once more down the rabbit hole, and this is an odd one.
About 70 percent of Xiomara’s models sported stunningly gorgeous looks: All 1920s-inspired Marcel-waved hair and darling pink cupid lips.
Then there were the other ones. The unfortunate models that looked as if they were the victims of a Sharpie-and-silver-glitter hazing ritual. Like the Luar show, the models’ features were shaded in such a way as to make them look asymmetrical -- which we all know is the opposite of beauty.
It’s not clear why the Portuguese designer and her makeup team decided to go with these pops of creepiness amidst an otherwise lovely show. Perhaps to shine the light all the brighter on what’s appealing and pretty versus what is dark?
This show was appealing to the eye, and not a bit dark or scary. It was, however, safe.
You know, the by-now-iconic runway look: Sleek, scraped-back hair in a high pony: Clean, minimal, and polished.
As in many of the shows this season, there was a pop of disco-blue shadow on each model’s lids or running alongside the bridge of her nose, but nothing inventive or terribly creative.
The most inventive parts of the looks were the manicures: Angled black-and-white stripes that harmonized well with the mostly monochrome menswear and womenswear presented by Vieira (who, like Xiomara, hails from Portugal, which is apparently having a fashion moment -- not bad for a nation with a population just north of 10 million souls).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKB212yHuHo
http://www.miguelvieira.pt/ss-2018-new-york-fashion-week
In keeping what has been hailed as a trend in the SS18 shows, Wu’s head makeup artist Yadim chose to go with an extreme rounded cat-eye as the centerpiece of his work. “It's supposed to look smudged with a finger,” Yadim was quoted as saying. And the eyeliner wasn’t even liner. Yadim pushed on a layer of dark green-black shadow onto the outer corner of the models' lids with a round brush.
Otherwise, the models’ faces were quite bare. He dotted freckles onto their faces using a pale brow liner and did a bit of strobing, and that was that.
And then there was the hair. Reportedly inspired by a “just-out-of-the-shower” look -- does anyone’s hair look good then? Anyone? -- instead it just looked loaded down with product and a bit wan.
The great thing was, neither the hair nor the makeup competed with Wu’s collection, which was spot-on, happy, and covetable -- and isn’t that really the point?
Vogue beauty: https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2018-ready-to-wear/jason-wu/slideshow/beauty
Further beauty info from P.R.:
MAKEUP INFO FROM PR:
