9 posts tagged "The Row"
Taking A Powder Backstage At The Row
Reporting the backstage look at The Row takes a certain level of dedication, what with that 6 a.m. start time and all. But Tom Pecheux’s siren call is hard to ignore—especially when he collaborates with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. “They want the girls to feel absolutely not made up,” the makeup artist said of the sister duo’s direction, which often results in gorgeous highlights, beautifully natural built-up brows, honey-kissed lips, and for Spring, an impressive English rose complexion. “British garden” is how Pecheux described the inspiration behind the velvet skin finish that was the result of some purposeful prep with Sunday Riley Good Genes treatment and its Juno serum, a precise wash of its sheer Liquid Light Foundation, and a dusting of its Soft Focus Finishing Loose Powder. Powder is key to creating this kind of plushness, but it can be hard to wield. “It can cause patchiness,” Pecheux admits of the mattifying agent, which frequently sits on the skin in a heavy, unflattering way if not applied correctly—and there is a correct way to apply it, says Pecheux:
Step 1: Don’t dip your brush into your powder and apply directly to your face.
Step 2: Do spill product into the cap of your powder tub.
Step 3: “Squeeze” your brush into the lid, pressing it down and twisting to ring out excess.
Step 4: Swipe onto the face in long strokes.
Et voilà—skin so fresh no one will be the wiser that you got up before sunrise.
“American Dream Beauty,” Backstage At The Row
Requesting “American dream”-caliber beauty from a makeup artist when the model call time for a show is 5 a.m. is asking a lot. But if any makeup artist is up to the task, it’s Tom Pecheux. “Fifty percent of good makeup comes with good skincare,” the face painter said in the wee hours of the morning backstage at The Row yesterday, where he was conducting facial massages with Sunday Riley’s Good Genes treatment cream and its Juno Serum for Body (it’s a bit lighter than the line’s similar omega oil-rich formula for the face). “It just gets rid of the puffiness and the lines,” Pecheux said of taking the extra step to stimulate the skin before starting in with foundations and primers. “And more than anything, it makes the girls feel well treated”—”girls” being the models, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and hairstylist Odile Gilbert, who all took a turn in Pecheux’s chair.
Going for a completely classic look, Pecheux alternated between Riley’s Light Foundation and its more opaque cream formula before building up brows and applying a slight shadowed veil to lids. Skipping mascara in favor of Riley’s Eye Shadow in Little Black Dress, a dark charcoal powder that he “painted” onto the roots of lashes for definition, Pecheux turned his attention to crafting “pinky, rosy, bronzy” cheeks, which he highlighted with Riley’s shimmering Eye Shadows in Moon Dust and Camille. “American dream beauty is not easy to get,” he joked, slicking on a coat of its Lip Gloss in Chameleon, a brownish berry pigment that the makeup artist applied three hours before the Olsen’s first presentation of the day so it left a natural stain on lips without all the shine. “It’s like what I do at Ralph,” Pecheux surmised, comparing the face to the kind of American, upper-crust look he’s become accustomed to whipping up for Ralph Lauren. “But this is a little more urban,” he insisted. “You could think of Gwyneth Paltrow.”
Or an “American girl aristocrat,” Gilbert chimed in, putting her stamp on a series of sleek side-parted updos by brushing hair up at the hairline and fashioning a mix of soft ponytails and chignons using Kérastase’s Double Force hair spray for slight hold. “For years, everyone was doing flat side parts, but here we’ve brushed the hair up on the side and suddenly, it’s not trying too hard—just like the clothes.”
NYFW Backstage Beauty Alert: Sunday Riley Takes Manhattan
Last season, we broke the news that skincare guru Sunday Riley had teamed up with makeup artist Diane Kendal on a new makeup line that debuted backstage at Maiyet and Vanessa Bruno in Paris. After a stellar performance for Spring, it’s perhaps unsurprising that we’ve got some more news to break for Fall: Style.com just learned that Riley has landed a few impressive makeup sponsorships in New York, where her full line of complexion perfectors will be used backstage at Helmut Lang, Victoria Beckham, and The Row. These last two shows are particularly of note, as they have previously been showcases for big-name brands like Lancôme and Estée Lauder. But now it’s Riley’s foundations, eye shadows, lipsticks, and the like that will be in the very capable hands of Kendal as well as makeup artists Lisa Butler and Tom Pecheux, when the shows commence next week. In a word, pumped!
Angels In America—And Backstage At The Row
A lot of designers are just starting to get on the skincare tip, inviting complexion-saving experts backstage to join their hair and makeup teams, but Tom Pecheux has always been a firm believer in a thoroughly cleansed, toned, and moisturized base. The Estée Lauder creative makeup director brings a selection of the beauty giant’s face salves with him wherever he goes. “You can see the difference,” he said yesterday morning at The Row, where he was layering the brand’s Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator and Idealist Pore Minimizing Skin Refinisher with its DayWear Plus Multi Protection Anti-Oxidant Crème for a dewy, refined canvas. Proper skin prep was particularly important for the bare-faced beauty directive Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen gave to Pecheux, referencing angels. “It reminds me of a Peter Lindbergh woman—slightly fresh, but a little moody,” Pecheux said of the luminous skin he created using a new Estée Lauder transparent liquid foundation and its new-for-Spring limited-edition Gelée Bronzer, which he brushed on in vertical swipes, rather than horizontally for contour, to “catch the volume of the cheekbone.”
“There’s a gentle power to it,” Pecheux surmised. “The only thing you can see is a strong eyebrow,” which he embellished with Lauder’s Sumptuous Extreme Bold Volume Mascara in either black or brown. Lids remained bare, but lashes were treated to a signature Pecheux trick, in which he applies black mascara at the roots to top lashes only and reserves brown pigment for the bottom. “All black is too dense,” he pointed out, before moisturizing lips with Homeoplasmine and topping them with Estée Lauder’s Pure Color Long Lasting Lipstick in Beige, a creamy nude.
Hairstylist Odile Gilbert received the same divine inspiration from the Olsens, which led her to a textural updo. “It’s a small head, a bit like an old statue of angels̶not Victoria’s Secret angels,” Gilbert clarified. Prepping strands with Kérastase Volumactiv Conditioning Mousse and its Mousse Substantive for guts and density, Gilbert sprayed on copious amounts of its Double Force Hairspray for a matte effect. Then, taking random sections, she twisted and braided the lengths, pinning them up onto themselves to create a concentrated mass of coils. “Everything is round—like the head and the earth,” she philosophized.
NYFW Backstage Beauty Alert: MAC’s Latest Coup
We’re waiting on a few key invites, but we’d say 60 percent of our backstage show schedule is already confirmed—and there are some noteworthy developments. Topping the list is news that The Row has signed up none other than Tom Pecheux and MAC for its September 14 show, replacing Lancôme, which sponsored the Olsens’ runway debut last season. If precedent proves correct, the Tom + Ashley + Mary-Kate equation will likely produce some makeup magic. MAC has an even bigger coup in the making, but we’re not presently at liberty to discuss it. When we are, though, you’ll be the first to know.