11 posts tagged "TIGI"
“No distractions,” Backstage At Dries Van Noten
While some backstage beauty is meant to make a statement all its own (gold foil eyebrows, anyone?), a lot of it is intended to be a muting tactic—to create a uniform neutrality so the clothes truly take center stage. Such was the case at Dries van Noten, where less was indeed more to put the focus on the designer’s heavy-on-the-prints collection. “Even a slight blush would’ve been a conflict with the clothes,” makeup artist Peter Philips explained. “So we’ve literally done nothing”—well, almost nothing. Switching back and forth between Chanel’s new Perfection Lumiere Long Wear Flawless Fluid Makeup and Vitalumiere Aqua Ultralight Skin Perfecting Makeup, depending on each model’s complexion, Philips was after a finish that was not too matte, and not too shiny—”it has to be pure,” he said—blending the velvety foundations onto lips, too. To further “eliminate any hint of color,” Philips lined the inner rims of eyes with Chanel’s Le Crayon Kohl in Clair, a pale peach, and painted two coats of its Le Vernis Beige Petale onto nails, adding its mattifying topcoat so there was “no distraction” from Dries’ creations. Final touches came by way of a slick of gloss across lids and slightly built-up arches, which were filled in with only ashen tones of Chanel’s Crayon Sourcils eyebrow pencils to prevent any stark, disruptive contrasts.
Hairstylist Paul Hanlon heeded a similar call, although he got the message slightly late in the game. “There was supposed to be really complicated hair but we made a last-minute change,” Hanlon said, prepping strands with TIGI Bedhead Superstar Queen For a Day Thickening Spray. He then simply added extensions, created deep side parts, and pulled the lengths into a low ponytail, which he coated with its After Party Smoothing Cream and wrapped around a curling iron for a bit of bend.
Backstage At Christopher Kane, “Really Pretty” Hair And Makeup
When we met up with hairstylist Anthony Turner backstage at Christopher Kane this morning, he voiced what everyone was thinking. “It’s really pretty this year,” Turner said of the overall feel of the collection—beauty included. Focusing on “something softer” to coincide with buzz words from Kane that included “naive” and “homemade,” Turner crafted side-parted, low-slung buns that he pinned just above the nape of models’ necks. “But what you see isn’t always what you get with Christopher Kane,” Turner was quick to point out, alluding to the fact that there was more to his “cute little knots” than met the eye. “I’m going to pull them apart,” he explained, coating his hands with TIGI Catwalk Session Series Work It Hairspray and jostling hairs out of place at the root so they floated as models walked. “It’s ghostlike,” he said.
Picking up on Kane’s fascination with “stickers and sparkly things” for Spring, Lucia Pieroni kept the makeup simple and duly sweet. “It’s a little bit ‘dear diary,’ ” she said of the rosy pouts and similarly pink cheeks that she painted on using Chantecaille Lip Sheer in Comet and its Blush in Joy, Emotion, and Laughter. Devising a “velvety” complexion courtesy of Chantecaille’s Future Skin foundation, which she applied on top of its Vital Essence serum, Pieroni brushed brows up and dusted lids with its Eyeshadow in Valerian, a shimmering light brown pigment that is part of the brand’s recently released New Classic Palette. And as it was not really a venue for her more outrageous stylistic leanings, nail guru Sophy Robson did something slightly out of character to complete the look: She christened “modern, clean” tips using Leighton Denny’s Trio Buffer—and not a stitch of custom-blended polish, Swarovski crystals, nail tattoos, or any other artful add-ons.
Bleach London Dip-Dyes Its Way Across The Pond
While New York showgoers may still be mourning the loss of the taco bar at Milk Studios a few seasons back, the West Side venue has a new collaboration up its sleeve for Spring. Bleach, British hair colorist Alex Brownsell and her partner Samantha Teasdale’s hip London hair haunt, will open its TIGI-sponsored pop-up on the first floor beginning today. After moving their homespun operation out of Brownsell’s flat and into a space in Dalston a year ago, the salon’s special brand of lightening, then tie-dyeing, ombré-streaking, and dip-dyeing locks has become a hit with U.K. cool kids like Alison Mosshart, Florence Welch, Pixie Geldof, and Alice Dellal. Now, Bleach has its eyes set on Manhattan. “We’ve really only come because people asked us to. We get so much attention here,” says Brownsell, who is also on the hunt for a permanent location.
Along with the custom-blended “stains,” as she refers to her preferred mix of nonpermanent high-pigment dyes and vegetable dyes that impart that coveted “worn-in texture,” visitors to Bleach at Milk will also benefit from Brownsell’s know-how, which has a wunderkind quality to it. “I didn’t train at a salon forever. All of my techniques are kind of from the kitchen, so I use my hands a lot.” She’s also very ready to suggest colors that complement individual complexions—and those that don’t. “If someone has a cool skin tone, you can’t put a bright orange with it because they’ll look green.”
While you may be tempted to just follow the lead of Kate Bosworth and the like and embrace the dip-dye trend that just won’t die, there are some new, as-yet-unproliferated ways to get your color on, too. “We’ve been doing a lot of pastel highlights, so painting people’s regular highlights with pastels—and colored fringes. I think people are getting a little more daring about putting the color at the tops of their head instead of just on the tips,” Brownsell says. The range of options is limitless, really, which is why Brownsell and Teasdale enlisted photographer Matt Irwin to shoot a ‘zine of sorts showcasing what exactly they’re capable of. “We’ve done two now,” Brownsell explains of the super-saturated, “not a cheesy hair magazine” shown above that debuted at Bleach’s Topshop pop-up-turned-permanent installation in Oxford Circus earlier this year. “The London one was a lot of cool girls we know. For New York we actually did the casting on Facebook,” which resulted in a mix of stylish scenesters, including singer Sky Ferreira and DJ Chelsea Leyland. Whatever you do, just don’t pick pink. “We did a lot of that in the beginning. At the moment people are doing mint green.”
At Unique, Beauty With A Bark
Last season, Topshop hit on the seventies trend. For Fall there was something a little more off-kilter afoot backstage. “It’s all about Katie Grand’s humor,” shear genius Paul Hanlon said of the super-stylist’s 101 Dalmatians‘ directive, which inspired him to employ Japanese geisha techniques for rolling hair into two dog ears and finishing them off with black ribbon bows. “We made the ear shapes no bigger than our fists; otherwise it would take away the chic element,” Hanlon said of the style, which he prepped with TIGI Bed Head Superstar Queen For a Day thickening spray. That element was decidedly diminished by the shiny black triangles makeup artist Hannah Murray drew onto ten models’ noses, but fun rather than fashion has been the name of the beauty game in London thus far (see face painter James O’Reilly’s confetti-clad faces at Louise Gray).
Almost a year after launching Topshop’s makeup line, Murray had the range’s vast selection of offerings at her disposal for playing. “This is a real Topshop girl who’s tough and cool, so I gave her a bold black, grungy eye,” Murray said of the Topshop Eye Kohl in Coal she etched along models’ inner and outer lash lines, asking them to blink to give the look an authentic smudge. Bleached brows were also on the agenda, with all 44 girls hitting the peroxide bottle. “I wanted the skin to be really creamy and by bleaching the brows, it gives this rich effect,” Murray explained of her decision to eschew Fall’s fuller brows.
To complete the Dalmatians theme, nail guru Sophy Robson painted spots onto nails. “It’s the new animal print,” she quipped of Topshop’s matte white polish topped off with glossy black puddles. Heel, ladies. We’re going to bet that Robson posts a tutorial on her well-read blog sometime soon with step-by-step instructions for duplication.
Models Get Dosed Backstage At Christopher Kane
For Christopher Kane’s “Princess Margaret on acid” collection, the clothes were heavy on the neons, in chartreuse, electric emerald, and hot pink; the beauty look, not so much. “I’m never into big hairdos, I like simple but beautiful looks. I feel the same about the makeup for the shows. So it’s not overly styled to soften up the severe colors in the clothes,” Kane said backstage yesterday of the soft, brushed-back coifs by Paul Hanlon and elegant, youthful makeup by Lucia Pieroni. This meant tresses with a bit of volume at the root, which Hanlon prepped using TIGI Catwalk Root Boost spray before slicking back the sides into the lengths of the hair and ultimately tucking them into Kane’s cropped jackets and cardigans. Pieroni kept things simple, too, applying MAC’s Blush Ombre in Ripe Peach onto the apples of models’ cheeks and directing her attention to brows, which she filled in with MAC Pro Brow Powder. A slim black line on the upper lash line and a stain of Clé de Peau’s Lipstick in T3, a mauve shade, finished what was by all accounts a very pretty, subdued look—and all the better for it. There’s nothing worse than having heavy makeup smeared all over your face when a serious trip—royal or otherwise—finally kicks in.