Inspiration for the beauty looks at New York Fashion Week came from far-flung sources this season, ranging from Capote’s Swans to eccentric subcultures.
Runway looks explored historical references and TikTok’s hottest trends. While balletcore dominated the runways last season, this time around, hair stylists and makeup artists were back to taking more individualistic approaches to beauty — think hair tattoos, punky black eyeliner and larger-than-life wigs.
From Marc Jacobs’ beehive bouffants to hair at Helmut Lang — “We’re doing beautiful blowouts, and then muddling them,” said Jawara, the Bumble and bumble hairstylist for the latter presentation — hair styles were just as varied as makeup. Standouts included smoked-out eyes at Christian Cowan and references to ’90s Latina pop stars at Willy Chavarria.
While each show’s beauty look had its own approach, it’s clear understated beauty might be on the way out.
Here, trends from New York Fashion Week.
Capote’s Swans
A reported source of inspiration across the collections, beauty looks also took cues from resurging interest in Truman Capote’s Ladies Who Lunch. While Marc Jacobs went for outsized bouffant wigs, Christian Cowan combined the iconic hair style with a “mob wife” update.
A face chart backstage read in Cowan’s own handwriting “The look is mob wives but not really cause she is not the wife — she is the boss.”
Makeup artist Lori Taylor Davis for Smashbox encapsulated the look with smoked-out black eyeliner, heavy blush and taupe lips, the latter of which were inspired by Sofia Vergara in the newly released Netflix series, “Griselda,” which details Griselda Blanco’s journey toward becoming one of Medellín’s most notorious drug lords.
“You want to place the blush high on the cheekbones because you want everything to be snatched,” said Davis, adding that the skin was enhanced, but not overly made-up, complimenting the subdued lip.
Subcultures of Years Past
Hair and makeup at Willy Chavarria paid homage to Latin cultures through the decades.
“There are some references to the Pachuco culture, references to chola culture, and there are references to the ‘90s, Latina pop sensations; it’s a mixture and a fusion of all of these,” said makeup artist Marco Castro for MAC Cosmetics.
Eyebrows, which Castro said “have always been important to Latin culture” were the focal point of the makeup look, drawn pencil-thin on many of the models, accented further by a frosty-white brow bone highlight.
At Anna Sui, hair stylist Garren used R+Co Bleu products to create a glossy answer to ’90s grunge — meant to highlight, not detract from, the myriad textures in the collection.
“I wanted to minimize the texture, and we haven’t seen shiny, cornsilk hair in so long,” said Garren backstage. “We wanted a bit of a Linda Evangelista moment back in the grunge days. It’s chic grunge.”
Hair Appliqués
Hair was also an avenue for standout accessories. While bows were everywhere last season, this time around many stylists opted for a fresh take with “hair tattoos,” pearls and gold leaf.
At Collina Strada, hair stylist and Bumble and bumble’s global artistic director Evanie Frausto created what he calls “hair tattoos.” To achieve the look, Frausto smoothed the model’s hair down and then placed colorful strips of hair on top in funky shapes, like stars. The geometric assemblages were a nod to the punk-inspired collection and metal music played at the show.
Hair stylist Lacy Redway opted for a softer approach to the hair accessory trend at Christian Siriano, applying gold leaf along the model’s parts and tight gelled buns. The lacquered gel combined with the gold leaf resulted in a high-shine look.
While the hair at Alice & Olivia, created by Aveda, featured everyone’s favorite balletcore accessory — bows — some looks also included pearl attachments, further cementing the hair appliqué trend this season.