4 posts tagged "Isabel Marant"
New Faces, Same Girl, Backstage At Isabel Marant
Isabel Marant is a favorite stop on our Paris tour, as much for the clothes as for the hair and makeup. With a casting like the one the reigning queen of Parisian cool typically commands—which this season garnered perennial French favorites like Aymeline Valade and Julia Frauche, as well as an international coterie of catwalkers cut from the same cloth, like Nadja Bender, Kasia Struss, and Caroline Brasch Nielsen—very little is needed to ensure that models are runway-ready. But it’s that deliberate, light-handed approach that is so impressive. For Fall, the face-painting reins were handed over to Estée Lauder creative makeup director Tom Pecheux, who knows a thing or two about channeling that special brand of effortless, French chic. “I’ve known [Marant] for a long time; I do a lot of her campaigns, and it’s a really good connection between Isabel and me—and me and Estée Lauder,” he explained, shouting out the beauty giant that picked up sponsorship duties here for the first time.
To ensure that skin looked flawless “but not too made-up,” Pecheux focused most of his energy on a pre-makeup facial treatment. “The massage takes 25 minutes, the makeup takes five minutes,” he joked, creating small, circular motions with a mixture of Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex and Idealist Pore Minimizing Skin Refinisher, as well as an emollient layer of its Revitalizing Supreme Global Anti-Aging Creme on top. If needed, Pecheux applied a minimal coverage of its Double Wear Light Stay-in-Place Makeup before giving everyone a subtle dusting of its Lucidity Translucent Loose Powder in Transparent for a “matte satin” finish. Working on a “friendly, not aggressive” contour, Pecheux used a mixture of Lauder’s Pure Color Blush in Sensuous Rose and Blushing Nude to sculpt the face with peachy hues, instead of sharper taupes and browns, before “flattening” eyes with a swipe of the light beige shade in its Pure Color EyeShadow Duo in Vanilla Pods. To lift lids back up again, he scrawled a barely perceptible stroke of shimmering gray shadow from its forthcoming Pure Color Instant Intense EyeShadow Trio in Smoked Chrome right onto the lash line to catch the light as models walked. “We’re doing everything but mascara,” he laughed, curling lashes and slicking on a nude lip while beefing up arches with Lauder’s Artist’s Brow Pencil/Double Groomer. “In France, you think of the eyebrows,” Pecheux elaborated of the face-framing touch. “It’s [our] version of the British rose [complexion].”
Paul Hanlon became another newly christened member of team Marant after shooting with the photographer David Sims on the set of Marant’s Spring ad campaign in Saint-Tropez. “I’m a big fan of her,” Hanlon said with genuine enthusiasm. “Every girl who sits in my chair says she wants to wear the clothes, which is a refreshing environment to be in.” Trying to work a bit of consistency back into the fold, Hanlon gave everyone extensions, not to lengthen but to thicken the hair, before applying Frédéric Fekkai Full Volume Mousse to add a subtle texture. “[Marant] wanted the hair to look more conditioned than it has,” Hanlon said, layering in its Silky Straight Ironless Smooth Finish Serum. “Like a young Carla Bruni or Jane Birkin—not so rock ‘n’ roll,” he explained of the barely perceptible shift in focus. Fashioning loosely centered parts, Hanlon proceeded to run lengths through a curling iron, just once, to create a very soft wave that he spritzed with a bit of water and shook out to “lighten the richness.” The Isabel Marant girl isn’t interested in a just-out-of-the-salon set, after all.
Catherine McNeil: Web Designer
We go backstage at Isabel Marant every season not so much to see the beauty look—which is a reliable mix of cool girl with a hint of natural grit—but to actually see the cool girls; the casting at Marant’s show is some of the best in Paris. Aymeline, Kati, Kasia, Nadja, Iselin—the gang was all present and accounted for on the runway there earlier this month, as was Catherine McNeil. McNeil is one of our all-time favorite models (that face!), and after a two-year hiatus, she returned to the catwalk with a recently trimmed, chin-grazing bob for a limited engagement at the Spring shows, where she walked at Saint Laurent, Kenzo, and Hermès, to name a few. But it was at Marant that we spotted her latest acquisition: an impeccably placed new tattoo. “I got it about six months ago,” the Australian stunner told us of the spiderweb inked onto her inner ear, which plays a starring role in her new, Benny Horne-lensed Vogue Australia cover shoot that also happens to feature the rest of McNeil’s, um, body of work (at last count, we tallied ten visible pieces of skin art). Needless to say, the story’s white wardrobe needed little accessorizing.
“Sexy, Cool” Isabel Marant Beauty, in Eight Easy Steps
While watching the magic unfold backstage at the shows is endlessly enthralling, it’s always nice to have a few palate-cleansing moments of real, natural beauty—which can be just as inspiring as a dramatic red lip or a slicked-back, side-parted ponytail. That’s why we look forward to Isabel Marant every season, where you can typically find “sexy, cool girls” like Carmen Kass, Anja Rubik, and Aline Weber congregating en masse. And we’re not the only ones (it’s worth pointing out that backstage beauty reportage is an American and British game. It’s rare to see the French editors in the interview hunt, but you can count on them to turn up for Marant’s presentations). Recognizing that it’s this kind of hair and makeup that is often the most enviable—and user-friendly—we thought we’d provide a how-to courtesy of makeup artist Karim Rahman and hairstylist Stephane Lancien, the latter of whom left us with these indelible words this afternoon: “When you feel comfortable, that’s beautiful.”
1. On a clean, freshly built dewy base, apply “a lot” of bronzer underneath the cheekbones, just below the hairline and under the chin to contour the skin. Rahman likes L’Oréal Glam Bronze, but any matte bronzer (read: sparkle-free) will work.
2. Apply a translucent powder to the T-zone (across the forehead, down the bridge of the nose, and on the chin) to manage shine and keep the warmth concentrated to the outline of the face.
3. Curl lashes (skip the mascara) and apply a very thin stroke of black kohl liner along the upper lash line, as close to the lashes as possible, for definition; use an angled brush to diffuse the pigment toward the temple, giving the illusion of an elongated wing without actually drawing one.
4. Brush brows up and fill in slightly if needed.
5. Moisturize lips with a clear balm and then use your finger to press a sheer, brick red lipstick into the center of the mouth, blending outwards. Rahman is a fan of L’Oréal Paris’ new Rouge Caresse Lipstick in no. 602.
6. Spritz sections of hair with L’Oréal Paris Elnett Hair Spray.
7. Apply heat, twisting individual sections as you hit them with the blow-dryer for a slightly textured, tousled wave.
8. Part naturally, pair with a new-era Western shirt, et voilà: chic, personified.
Daria And Her Hair Show Up Ready For Work
Daria Werbowy’s face has become synonymous with high-fashion glamour, but the go-to model for fashion houses like Gucci, Chanel, and Prada looks equally comfortable in Isabel Marant plaid and “hipster hair” as she does in couture dresses and sleek updos. The Canadian model’s perfectly separated, I-just-got-out-of-bed loose waves, shown here in Marant’s A/W 2008 ad campaign, reportedly came courtesy of Kérastase stylist Luigi Murenu, although it’s entirely possible that Werbowy did in fact actually wake up looking like this and just sashayed onto the set, ready to go. (We saw her out a few times during that frayed jean skirt-and-motorcycle boots paparazzi moment—sans glam squad prep time—and her hair pretty much looked exactly like it does here). Natural beauty indeed.
Photo: Courtesy of Isabel Marant