NYFW kicks off a month of shows which set the tone for fashion and beauty trends for the rest of the year. Despite the weather in February, the city fills with fashion insiders in their best gear, eye-catching prints, bright colors, sunglasses, and of course a stand-out coat and the dedicated photographers capturing it all. While the streets are busy, in the hours before the shows start, before the attendees even arrive, things are even busier backstage as everyone works together to complete the runway look. We headed backstage once again where hair and makeup teams walked us though the NYFW runway beauty looks, from products to techniques and a few tricks to try this season. Read on to see how they got the looks!
NYFW Runway Beauty Looks
Collina Strada – NYFW Runway Beauty
As everyone ducked inside to avoid the cold weather, Collina Strada had warmer weather in mind. The theme of the collection was “garden ho” and the look was glowing, gleaming and as the makeup artist Allie Smith put it “pollinated”, the models were moisturized, hydrated and dusted with pigments. Smith demonstrated with a fluffy brush and a mesh strainer. Standing on a chair she lightly dusted a model’s face with a vibrant pigment and asked her to muster up her best fake sneeze to remove the excess pigment. The look was a fresh face, natural and glowing with pink and yellow pigments dusted across the forehead, brow, and eye-like fresh pollen just finished gardening glow.
The runway hair was decidedly undone, hairstylist Eric Williams using a combo of Redken’s dry shampoo paste, Windblown hairspray, and Triple Dry texture spray to create an airy, lived-in look that he wanted to still have movement as the models walked and danced. Besides the bottles of hairspray, brushes, and other hair tools was a brown paper shopping bag filled to the brim with twigs and beside it, a small pile of moss-like greenery, the unexpected accessories to fit the garden theme were be added to the models’ hair with a bit of the paste. The perfect look to match the custom shoes covered in greenery and the floral print and vibrantly colored pieces the models danced in down the runway.
Bevza – NYFW Runway Beauty
Bevza’s luxe but minimal look of artfully draped silk shirts, dresses and skirts, relaxed suits, outerwear that resembled robes and heeled flip-flops screamed luxury comfort. To match the neutral tones of the collection and the overall relaxed but chic feel, the makeup was minimal but strategic. Inspired by the glow you have when leaving the spa, post-facial, makeup artist Tomomi Shibusawa and her team used Shiseido to achieve the overall natural look which focused mainly on base makeup. Skin was perfected with a matte powder foundation which she buffed into the skin with a kabuki brush and used a concealer instead of a contour stick or powder to shape the face. For the cheeks instead of a peach or pink tone they opted for a warm brown shade to define, using that same blush/highlighter this time in a shimmering champagne shade, they highlighted the inner corners of the eye, adding a bit of color and light without overpowering the look and matched the tones of the collection. The team skipped mascara altogether but used an old school trick to open up the eyes, a white pencil just in the waterline. To complete the look they did a natural brow and nude lipstick lightly tapped on the models’ lips instead of applied straight from the tube gave it that natural no-makeup look.
In the front, hair was shiny, slightly wet with a bit of texture and a center part, as models turned around you could see their hair was parted and combed along the back of the head and secured with bobby pins. Hairstylist Joseph DiMaggio explained that the hair was post-shower, relaxed, a bit wet and undone. Using Professional by Fama, hair was prepped and blow-dried with their priming nourishing mousse. They added a bit of shine and achieved that wet look with a shine spray and secured the look with a flex hold hair spray.
Jonathan Cohen – NYFW Runway Beauty
Bold prints and a mix of fabrics called for an even bolder beauty look at Jonathan Cohen. Backstage Grace Ahn and her team created a look for the girl they described as “effortless, stylish, and loves to make an unconventional statement.” The look was intense eyes with shimmering red and silver pigments winged out into a thick cat-eye like shadow across the eyes, Ahn mixed a bit of water with Inika Organics loose mineral eyeshadows and mapped out the shape with a crease brush. To pair with this intense eye, the base makeup was glowing and warm. Ahn and her team used the brand’s hydrating foundation with concealer to perfect and bronzer along the perimeter of the face to warm it up. For color, Ahn demonstrated her technique, grabbing a rosy pink cheek cream and using her fingers instead of brushes to gently buff it along the apples of the cheeks. On the lips, she lightly tapped on a similarly toned lipstick for a just-bitten lip. She explained her secret to a natural glow backstage, an easy layering trick, rosehip oil tapped lightly over a gold-toned cream highlighter on the cheekbones for an extra layer of sheen rather than shimmer.
The bold look paired perfectly with their hair, some models embraced their natural texture while others had a style that was tousled and undone. The prettiest hair look was the pearl embellishments added to a few of the models’ braids.
Images courtesy of Collina Strada, Jane Kim for Bevza, and Jonathan Cohen
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Backstage Beauty: How Makeup Artists & Hairstylists Get the Runway Look
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