Jean Paul Gaultier’s tenure at Hermès may be over—the designer took his final bow at the brand’s Spring show yesterday—but Jean-Claude Ellena’s duties as the house’s exclusive perfumer show no signs of tapering off anytime soon. One of Ellena’s first acts of business when taking up the post six years ago was to reimagine Hermès’ [...]

For those of you wondering how the zebra-print shirt in the last look at Louis Vuitton could be so skin-tight on Kristen McMenamy that nary a fabric ripple could be seen as she traipsed down the runway, there was good reason for that: It wasn’t a shirt at all—it was painted on. Body art has [...]

While we’re on the topic of repeat runway appearances, please allow us to direct your attention to the Joan Jett shag, the iconic late-seventies/early-eighties style that has enjoyed not one but two moments of homage at the Spring shows thus far. Marios Schwab enlisted the wig-shearing services of hair stylist Luke Hersheson for his show [...]

With last season’s ode to that peculiar crossroads where Avatar meets Mexico out of his system, Jean Paul Gaultier gave his backstage team a somewhat simpler directive for his Fall Couture presentation. “A twist on iconic touches” is how makeup artist Tom Pecheux described the designer’s instruction yesterday, as he built a look that paid [...]

OK, OK. Forget what we said yesterday. Jean Paul Gaultier’s beauty look is now the least street-ready to come out of Couture week. The Mexico-meets-Avatar theme may have threatened to upstage the clothes, but it made for some memorable hair and makeup magic, courtesy of the backstage brain trust that is Tom Pecheux and Odile [...]

Francis Kurkdjian, the perfumer, is a genius among noses. As the creator of a host of iconic fragrances (three words: Gaultier’s Le Male), he has been that industry’s shining star since the ripe old age of 25. Kurkdjian the man is also something of a prodigy, albeit in an epically charming neat freak kind of [...]

Of all of the burgeoning trends we’ve seen backstage this month, pops of bright hair dye and body art were two of the more surprising ones. While New York’s hot pink, teal, and purple streaks didn’t seem to have legs across the Atlantic, hand-drawn tattoos did manage to make the trip. To properly accessorize his [...]

With a rampant series of braids showing up from Alexander Wang to Jean Paul Gaultier this season—not to mention the pigtail party at Prada—it was only a matter of time before the trickle-down effect of newly popular childhood hairstyles would start appearing off the catwalk as well. Elettra Wiedemann is therefore something of an early [...]

While actually slipping into one of Elie Saab’s couture dresses might be the subject of your wildest financial fantasies (we dream in tulle flowers and ostrich feather appliqués, too), getting a piece of his Maison will soon be a bit easier. Saab has signed a ten-year licensing agreement with Beauté Prestige International (BPI) that will [...]

For fragrance fanatics, the nineties were an exciting time. Designer perfumes were in their prime, and iconic flacons by some of the most influential talents of the day began to arrive in stores, each carrying with it the scent of social demarcation. Europhiles bathed in Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Male; arty, ambiguous types chose Calvin [...]