“We approached it like any other collection,” Raf Simons’ longtime makeup collaborator Peter Philips said of the beauty look backstage at Jil Sander—the designer’s last as the house’s creative director. And while Philips’ handiwork abided by a set of codes that has long reigned here, nodding to mid-century themes updated with modern touches, it was [...]

After a few seasons of dewy skin with warm, highlighted contours, Donatella Versace and her longtime makeup collaborator, Pat McGrath, revisited a part of the house of Versace’s original DNA to create “a really kind of cool rock ‘n’ roll girl,” according to McGrath—requisite smoky eyes included. “It’s all levels of black,” the face painter [...]

There’s something that should be said about the lighting in most backstage areas at most fashion show venues from New York to Paris. It’s unforgivingly bright—and purposely so: the better for makeup artists to see their canvases. So what does this mean for the final beauty look? It can look drastic up close, yet incredibly [...]

A few gravity-defying stunts in New York notwithstanding, big, voluminous hair is being gradually phased out for Fall; in its place, the coiffing establishment is pledging its collective allegiance to straight, sleek, and “skinny” strands. “There seems to be a toughness going around,” Guido Palau admitted backstage at Alberta Ferretti yesterday, where he was adding [...]

While François Nars chose to counter the dilemma a hat-heavy collection presents to a makeup artist with a heavily rimmed lower lash line at Marc Jacobs, Dick Page made an equally strong statement by pairing a bold red lip with the tall, short-brimmed headgear at Marc by Marc. “It’s borderline cartoon-y,” the Shiseido artistic director [...]

The backstage scene at Marc Jacobs can get so harried, the designer instituted a new system a few seasons ago: If you don’t show up four hours before the show’s 8 p.m. start time, don’t bother showing up at all. Last season, he canceled backstage access entirely. But running a tight ship means that things [...]

According to Redken creative consultant Guido Palau, Victoria Beckham is still creating her image. “Her image has been her, but she’s really moving away from that, and over the next few seasons it will become more apparent.” There’s still a ton of Victoria in everything Beckham does, though—which is to say that her special brand [...]

If you ever managed to get your mind off the exceptional outerwear at Altuzarra (the coat in look 23 is the first thing we’re truly coveting this season), you may have noticed that Kasia Struss closed the show—and that she’s still a brunette. As a card-carrying member of the “Balenciaga blondes,” the group of girls [...]

“Did you see Gisele?!” came the flurry of questions when we arrived backstage at Alexander Wang before the designer’s Fall show. And while we hadn’t spied the Brazilian supe on our initial survey of Pier 94, we did see Frankie Rayder. And Carmen Kass. And Karolina Kurkova. Is that Shalom Harlow? (It was.)
Wang recruited a [...]

“When you have a brand with a signature feeling, you kind of just go with it,” Redken creative consultant Guido Palau said backstage at Rag & Bone, referencing designers David Neville and Marcus Wainwright’s signature style. And so, as she has in nearly every season past, the downtown cool girl reared her languid, texturized head [...]