On Friday we showed you some of the hair and makeup styles from New York Fashion week that we plan to translate and wear off the runway. We asked our community of bloggers to tell us the runway looks that are inspiring their real world fashion and beauty style. Here’s what three of them had to say:
Aling Z, What’s Last Call?
This week on NPotW (Nail Polish of the Week), I’ve decided to take some inspiration from the always fabulous New York Fashion Week. I came across this manicure on Nylon Magazine’s blog and just had to try it out. Learn how Aling mastered this mani on her blog: What’s Last Call?
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We fell hard for Natalie Alcala last fall, when the LA-based writer spent a week guest blogging for us. In fact, we loved her posts so much that we asked her to be a contributing editor. In addition to blogging for us once a week, she’ll also be writing for the Birchbox Magazine and keeping us up to speed on all things fashion, beauty, and fun.
Photos: Style.com
One of my favorite things to do at the end of fashion week is to thoroughly scan every show to round up the top looks. For fall 2012, I noticed that designers strayed from last year’s sportswear influence to produce pieces that played on both femininity and strength. Luxe fabrics, sheer elements, sharp layers, and fearless pattern-play all contributed to the season’s dressed-up approac. Here are fives runway looks that I’m dreaming of and a few tips on how you can rock the style at home.
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The Presentation: Chris Benz
Hair: Nick Irwin for TIGI
Makeup: Daniel Martin for Lancôme
Nails: Lancôme
The Vibe: A modern take on 1960s vintage. “The muse was Judy Garland at the end of her career, kind of trashy,” said TIGI lead stylist Nick Irwin. “There’s this famous TV interview with her in the late ’60s when she was quite drunk, so it was about that kind of quirkiness.” To get the crazy piled-high hair, Irwin and his team used wigs, which Irwin described as a “ballsy” choice on the part of designer Chris Benz. Apparently, working with fake hair can be more of a challenge than working with the real deal. “The wigs are inexpensive and come with this strong wave in their hair,” explained Irwin. “We’re completely deconstructing the texture, really sort of changing the fabric of the wig by basically using a full can of dry shampoo on each.” (Indeed, there was quite the graveyard of empty TIGI Catwalk Session Series Transforming Dry Shampoo cans.) Once faux strands had been sufficiently sprayed, stylists used load of pins to achieve a truly kooky and unique shape for each model. “It’s maybe the silhouette of a beehive, but the detail and the texture keeps it really modern and fresh and quite young,” said Irwin.
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No one knows cool manicures better than our good friend Taryn Multack of the sensational nail art blog, Miss LadyFinger. We thought we’d utilize her expertise this season and send her backstage at L.A.M.B. to see what fun look Color Club was whipping up. Like a pro, she got the deets on the presentation’s edgy design, which is surprisingly easy to replicate.
Retro-punk was the vibe backstage at Saturday’s L.A.M.B. presentation. Accordingly, nails were only half-painted to achieve a unique worn effect. “We wanted to emphasize the edginess of the L.A.M.B. collection,” said Alicia Torello, the lead manicurist for Color Club, “so we are going for a purposefully chipped look.”
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Presentation: Erin by Erin Fetherston
Hair: Nick Irwin, TIGI
Makeup: James Kaliardos, M.A.C.
Nails: Sheril Bailey for Zoya
The Vibe: Woodsy fairies. Erin Fetherston loves the ethereal nymph look, so it was no surprise to see models with very girly, whimsical hair. All in all, there were three styles: beachy waves, low ponys, and topknots. “The topknot was inspired by Tinker Bell,” explained Eric Gomez, a TIGI stylist who collaborated closely with the lead, Steve Irwin, on the looks. “[Erin Fetherston] didn’t want it too clean, so we distressed it a bit and kept it slightly off center,” he explained of the windblown, romantic bun. Only two products were used for all three styles: Catwalk by TIGI Session Series Salt Spray and Catwalk by TIGI Session Series Finishing Hairspray.
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Show: Prabal Gurung
Hair: TIGI
Makeup: Charlotte Tilbury for M.A.C.
Nails: Jin Soon for Sally Hansen
The Vibe: Good and evil; light and dark. Prabal Gurung’s collection was translated quite literally in this season’s beauty look: the line started all black, then transitioned to blue looks, and ended with ivory and gold pieces. Fittingly, Sally Hansen created four custom colors for the show, three of which were used on models: a black called Onyx, a lovely blue called Blue Rose, and a gorgeous chrome glitter gold called Gilded Lily. “Whoever is wearing black gets black nails, whoever is wearing blue gets blue nails, and gold polish is for the blonde girls wearing white and gold” explained lead manicurist, Jin Soon.
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The Show: Charlotte Ronson
Hair: Jeanie Syfu for TRESemmé
Makeup: Gilbert Soliz for Sephora
Nails: Fleury Rose for Color Club
The Vibe: Uber-chic women of the ’70s. “In that past, the Ronson girl has always had this natural kind of worn, gritty, edginess to it,” said Gilbert Soliz, lead makeup artist from Sephora. “This time, she’s a bit more polished, more refined.” Indeed, it was readily apparent that this season featured a more grown-up gal, complete with a sophisticated red lip and a gorgeous super-dramatic smoky purple eye (achieved using Ronson’s new Dani palette, of course).
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Show: Cynthia Rowley
Hair: Duffy for Amika
Makeup: Lottie for Make Up For Ever
Nails: Zoya
The Vibe: Individualized looks. For hair, that meant tailoring each style to the specific model. “Each girl is going to be treated separately,” said Duffy, the lead stylist for Amika. “Some may have their hair up, some might have it loose, but we’re working with their face shape and outfits.” The hairstyles themselves were centered around loads of texture, which was achieved through three different techniques. First, the models’ hair was rough dried with the hands and saturated with mousse, as well as styling products containing alcohol to dry it out. Next, small sections of hair were wrapped around hair pins in a figure eight and then set onto the pins using soon-to-launch Cynthia Rowley Amika Styler. Other small sections were then wrapped tightly around curling iron barrels the width of a pen to create tight ringlets. “I want you see the three different textures, but I don’t want you to see three defined sections,” said Duffy, who was emphatic about melding the hair together using only his hands once the pins had been pulled from the hair.
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Celebrity manicurist Deborah Lippmann is doing the nails for this morning’s Kate Spade presentation. Lippmann says she’s really into nail art these days and you heard it here first: she’s launching a line of magnets shortly. “I guess I spilled the beans,” she said of the exciting news.
—Meredith
Check out the rest of our fashion week coverage here!
