14 posts tagged "Lanvin"
“Illustrated” Eyes And Easy Hair, Backstage At Lanvin
“It feels amazing,” Pat McGrath said when she was asked how she felt to be part of team Lanvin on the eve of Alber Elbaz’ tenth anniversary with the brand, thus summing up the general emotion of everyone who was backstage for the momentous occasion. To properly complement the designer’s collection of rich colors and feminine silhouettes without overpowering it, McGrath added a single graphic detail to the face in the form of a thick, black winged eye. “It’s all about illustration,” she explained, “like a pen-and-ink sketch,” which inspired her to draw on a meticulously pointed flick that extended up through the crease of models’ eyes and out toward the temple. Using a small angled brush dipped in a black cream eye shadow, McGrath drew another “smudged” stroke very close to the lower lash line to further define the eye against a clean, natural base that boasted highlights down the bridge of the nose and on the cupid’s bow of the lips. “It’s almost like an insignia,” she said of the stark liner, a stamped-on badge of honor for every girl that can say she walked this runway.
Guido Palau took a similarly subdued approach when conceiving the show’s hair look, opting for simplicity over elaborate structure. Shampooing all 43 girls with either Redken’s All-Soft Gentle Cleansing Shampoo or its Extreme Shampoo and taking the weight out of the back of the head by braiding an under section and pinning it to the scalp, Palau coated lengths with Redken Extreme Anti-Snap Protective Treatment to help ensure smooth strands as he employed a light blow-dry—”just to clean the hairline up.” As a finishing touch, he tucked the front pieces behind models’ ears for a slight bend. “The ease of it is the beauty,” he surmised.
“Ultra Women,” Backstage At Lanvin
Brown, rather than black, smoky eyes continue to get a lot of traction this week in Paris—one of the many beauty holdover trends we’ve spotted from Fall. “I’m feeling really pared-down makeup for Spring,” Pat McGrath confirmed of the increased appearance of “raw, nude-y” lids layered with creamy chestnut pigment backstage at Lanvin—which was exactly what Alber Elbaz wanted. “Ultra women” is how McGrath described the designer’s directive, crafting clean, dewy skin, topped with smudges of Elizabeth Arden 8-Hour Cream, which she also blended onto eyes for a “greasy, urban” effect. Brows were groomed—if there were any visible hairs left to groom. “If they’re bleached, I’m keeping them bleached,” said McGrath, explaining that the differentiation from one set of arches to the next actually worked with the collection. “A lot of the show is about variation,” she pointed out, adding that the decision to re-dye or not to re-dye brows is also fairly circumstantial. “Sometimes, you’ve gotta look around backstage and see what you can do—and what you can’t do,” she joked as what we’re pretty sure was actual steam wafted out of the overheated hair and makeup tent at the Jardin des Tuileries.
“Go in there if you need a facial,” hairstylist Guido Palau deadpanned of the temperature at his station, which forced him to move his operation en plein air. To counterbalance Elbaz’ “rich” creations, Palau went with strands that had a “nighttime, cool” feel. “The girls are lady enough as it is,” he elaborated, saturating sections in Redken Shine Flash 02 glistening mist for an almost wet look that achieved what he called “a tough idea about glamour.” Tucking front pieces behind ears to create a slight bend, Palau put his stamp of approval on at least one big hair trend for Spring. “Leaving it down just feels right to me this season.” And just like that, the year and a half we’ve spent growing out our asymmetrical bob paid off.
A Braid For Uma
Braids have always fascinated the fashion set, turning up with regularity on the runway. This season alone, we spotted noteworthy plaits backstage at Viktor & Rolf and Lanvin. The simple style has become a favorite on the red carpet as well: Who can forget Sienna Miller’s Heidi-style coronet at the Golden Globes, or Blake Lively’s high and sleek interwoven ponytail at the Emmys circa 2009? Uma Thurman is the latest A-lister to adopt the easy yet somehow sophisticated style, which she wore to the L.A. premiere of her new movie, Ceremony, with wavy face-framing tendrils and a messy, texturized braid down her back. We’re of the mind that Uma can do no wrong, so we’re loving this. You too?
Braids And Bad Girls, Backstage At Lanvin
“The first looks out are pretty strict,” Guido Palau noted of the Fall Lanvin collection backstage at the show. “Alber [Elbaz] wanted to put ease and femininity back into the clothes. This is a case in point of downplaying extravagance with really simple hair.” So Palau created soft ponytails he gathered above the nape of models’ necks and braided them into long plaits. Prepping hair with Redken Wool Shake 08 gel-slush texturizer, the coiffing star rough-dried tresses, pulling pieces out around the hairline to avoid a look that was “too polished.”
Makeup artist Pat McGrath also shied away from precision. “It’s all about the imperfections here,” McGrath said of the squared-off eyeliner job she placed on the outer corners of models’ lids using CoverGirl’s SmokyShadowBlast Eye Shadow in Onyx Smoke. “Alber wanted the girls to look like they did it themselves—but these are bad girls,” McGrath suggested of the sultriness’ effect, which was completed by multiple whips of CoverGirl’s LashBlast Fusion mascara for a “cloggy” effect on both upper and lower lash lines. McGrath’s secret for pulling off this season’s nod to spider lashes? “Just keep going with the wand!”
Rachel McAdams Goes Retro
The press junket for Rachel McAdams’ new film Morning Glory is officially under way, and the actress chose a strapless, gray Lanvin number for its opening night in New York. She also opted for an interesting coif, which her stylist, Sebastian Professional Stylist design team member Thomas Dunkin, described as “a punch of rock star glam.” We will admit that McAdam’s voluminous, teased-out, rough-dried strands did draw our attention, but only because the style seemed oddly retro. (For the record, Dunkin did indeed employ large Velcro rollers to get the height at McAdams’ roots, which he topped off with Sebastian Professional Matte Putty to give her tresses a dull finish reminiscent of the sixties’ popular rat style). A soft gray cat-eye and a slightly asymmetrical parting added modernity—or “rock star glam,” as it were—but we would’ve preferred something a bit more sexy and sleek with look 39 off Alber Elbaz’ Spring runway. You too?