Punky Marie Antoinette, flower power and 'bitchy' hair – we round up the best beauty looks from backstage at Paris Fashion Week
Paris marks the end of fashion month and while it rained nearly the entire week, it didn’t dampen the fun backstage. Major looks included sky-high Marie Antoinette hair and powdered faces at Thom Browne, ginormo dolly lashes at Ralph & Russo and full-on flower power at Giambattista Valli where petals decorated the models’ faces.
In general, there was a return to what Tom Pecheux called ‘honest beauty’ – full coverage foundations and contours gave way to more natural faces with punctuations of colour at Paul and Joe and Balmain. Beautiful skin reigned supreme (looking at you Stella McCartney and Lanvin) and hair was kept soft and natural like the Givenchy woman.
An element of self-care was seen backstage. Skin prep and care was seen at several shows with mini facials and massages given before the show, ensuring that models, some who have worked all four cities, were given some much-needed TLC.
Here are some of the best spring/summer 2020 moments from Paris Fashion Week.
Getty ImagesDior: Double Dutch
Several models wore straw cloche hats at the Dior show and to compliment both the collection and the headwear, hair stylist Guido Palau created cascading Dutch braids that softly framed the faces. He parted the hair down the center and ran Redken Power Grip 03 through his hand for added texture before plaiting the hair towards the front, keeping it loose and dreamy.
‘There are hats at the show, but the softness in the braid and the profile feels very soft, very romantic, and a bit youthful,’ he said. To finish, Palau sprayed Redken Triple Pure 32 Hairspray to tame any fly-aways or frizz.
Getty ImagesLanvin: Glowy, luminous skin
‘For this season at Lanvin, because it’s such an early show and it’s outside in the garden (of the Musee du Quai Branly), I wanted the girls to be very fresh and gorgeous,’ lead makeup artist Diane Kendal told Glamour.
To give the models glowy, luminous skin, Kendal lightly evened out the skin tone using Code8 Radiate Beauty Balm and gave the cheeks a peachy flush by blurring out a bit of Code8 Colour Brilliance Lipstick in Cappadocia on the apples of the cheeks. She then dabbed a bit of lip balm around the sides of the face to create a dewy highlight.
Kendal added Precision Liquid Eyeliner in Carbon Black just on the outer corners and mascara to the top lashes, and finished with a light dusting of highlight on the inner corners of the eye and across the lids.
Getty ImagesMugler: Sleek bitchy hair
At Mugler, hairstylist Jawara created what he calls ‘bitchy hair’. “It’s really sleek, cute, sexy kind of hair. I don’t want to say mean because the bitchy girl isn’t necessarily mean but she knows she’s the shit,’ Jawara said of his hair muse this season.
‘She’s basically worn her hair for a few days and now it needs to be washed but she’s going to get another day out of it, puts in gel and gets a nice little ridge.’ For that oily, lived-in hair, Jawara loaded the top of one side of the hair up with Got 2 Be Ultra Glued gel and slicked it down.
To create the ridge, he pinched the hair between his fingers and gently pulled it back behind the ear, spritzed it with hairspray and dried it out with the Dyson Supersonic diffuser to hold the wave in place.
Getty ImagesAltuzarra: Golden Eye
Bourgeois, but make it contemporary. That was what Tom Pecheux channelled with the makeup at the Altuzzara show this season.‘The makeup is natural but natural makeup is owned by so many people and I really wanted this one to be owned by the Altuzarra woman,’ Pecheaux told Glamour backstage.
The focus was on prepping the skin using stylist Melanie Huynh’s skincare line Holidermie to give it a natural glow. Once hydrated with Harmonisation Concentree serum and Protection Urbaine crème, models were treated to some face yoga for additional toning before heading over to Pecheux.
Pecheux kept the skin natural and fresh with MAC Studio Fix Stick to cover any blemishes or dark circles. He defined the eyes with Eye Kohl in Smolder to create ‘cat eyes but in a very gentle way’ and a coat of Haute Naughty mascara on the lashes. ‘I wanted to have makeup that was the signature of Altuzarra,’ he explained.
For that Altuzarra edge, Pecheaux added a pop of gold to the corner of the eye using gold foil he cut into tiny triangles and glued on to make it ‘very individual and very Joseph’.
Getty ImagesPaul and Joe: Raw beauty
The look at Paul and Joe’s summer 2020 show was about individuality so makeup artist Inge Grognard worked with each of the models to create something slightly different using a palette of colours drawn from this season’s collection.
Each model had a splash of colour across the lid that Grognard applied using her fingers to give a raw, almost experimental vibe. Aqua blue eyes inspired by Paul& Joe Sparkling Eye Color 07 ‘ La mer claire’ featured heavily, as did a soft red lip. Grognard applied Paul & Joe Lipstick N ‘Poisson Rouge’ 301 in the centre of the lips with her fingers and blended it out for a ‘just bitten’ effect.
Getty ImagesRalph and Russo: Eye Spy
Backstage at the Ralph and Russo show, models were treated to express facial massages by 111SKIN before heading over to hair and makeup. The team customised each treatment based on the models’ needs and used products including the Sub-Zero De-
Puffing Eye Mask and Anti Blemish Bio Cellulose Facial Mask to calm stressed out skin from all the shows.Makeup artist Val Garland kept the skin flawless and focused on the eye, which riffed on the Sixties dolly eyes. They were like a modern-day Twiggy army with thin black liner painted across the crease or along the lash line, and lashes like spider’s legs drawn under the eyes to really open up the eyes.
Getty ImagesThom Browne: Marie Antoinette meets punk
There’s always an element of fantasy at the Thom Browne show and this season, makeup artist Mark Carrasquillo’s inspiration was Marie Antoinette meets punk star Jordan from the 1978 cult film ‘Jubilee’.
Carrasquillo created two different looks for the show, both played on a strong eye created using MAC Chromaline gel liner in Black Black. For some models, Carrasquillo focused on a leaf-like patch around the eye, pulling it up, filling it out and setting it with Carbon eye shadow for extra depth.
Other girls had a slightly softer look featuring a faded magenta shadow. Carrasquillo started by framing the eye using the same gel liner, keeping its natural shape, then blurred out Bright Pink shadow from the “It’s Designer” palette around the eye and spilt it onto the cheekbones.
To give the models the Marie Antoinette vibe, he powdered the entire face with Set Powder in Porcelain.
Getty ImagesBalmain: Watercolour lids and beachy hair
The hotly anticipated Kylie Cosmetics x Balmain collection made its debut in Paris at Balmain’s summer 2020 show and models backstage were given the coveted collection to test-drive. For the show, makeup artist Samira Goyette created two looks inspired by the brand and by Kylie herself.
Goyette fused shadows from the Kyshadow Palette in iridescent mint green City of Love, dusty rose Top Model and a shimmery peachy coral Close the Show and swept it across the lid. To make the eyes pop, Goyette dabbed gunmetal silver Model Type on the inner corners and finished with a sweep of nudey-pink Paris Matte Liquid Lipstick on the lips. Other models had a large swoop of silver shadow moonlighting as a liner across the lid in an exaggerated, graphic cat eye.
To keep the hair summery and light, Sam McKnight gave the girls lived-in waves reminiscent of ‘a moment in the summer when it’s hot and the girl just sweeps her hair over to the side’. He blew dried some mousse into the hair for volume and to keep the hair off the face and swept it over to the side. ‘It’s cool hair with a little gesture going off the face,’ McKnight said.
Getty ImagesVivienne Westwood: Rococo Rolls
The simple ponytail was given a Rococo twist at the Vivienne Westwood show. ‘It’s an echo of the 18 th century,’ hair stylist Sam McKnight explained backstage. ‘It’s historical punk.’
Working with each model’s natural texture, McKnight spritzed the hair with Easy Up-Do Texture Spray from his eponymous line before pulling it back at the nape of the neck. Sections of the hair above the ear were kept out for the rolls, which were created by twisting it around his finer and pinned just above the ear. To finish, McKnight tied a piece of silk into a loose bow around the ponytail.
Getty ImagesGivenchy: French tomboy
At the Givenchy show, Guido Palau channelled the effortless French tomboy vibe in the collection and translated it into the hair with natural textures with a side or centre part.
He enhanced the models’ own hair texture by running his fingers through the hair while blow drying it, then tousled it and let the hair fall naturally into its part. Right before the show started, Palau sprayed Redken Triple Pure 32 Hairspray to tame the fly-aways and
keep the frizz at bay.
Getty ImagesStella McCartney: Flawless skin
Stella McCartney has always championed a green lifestyle. McCartney called on Tata Harper whose eponymous line follows in the same green philosophy to come to Paris to give models mini-facials to create a natural glow.
Harper softened the skin with her her Nourishing Oil Cleanser then using a gua sha, she massaged the cheekbone, jawline and under the eye to diminish bags. ‘There’s very little makeup and skin care is the main character,’ Harper told Glamour. ‘So we’re creating the look of the show with just skin care. We’re trying to activate the circulation inside of the skin inspired by the facials we do at the spas.’
She then mixed Regenerating Cleanser and Resurfacing Mask for the perfect buff and polish concoction, removed it with a warm towel then finished with Elixir Vitae serum to give the skin ‘a daily dose of injectables.’ It uses the latest neuropeptide technology to give a Botox effect to the skin but is completely natural.
McCartney told makeup artist Pat McGrath she didn’t want any makeup so models could be seen for who they are. McGrath used foundation as a concealer only where needed and left the cheeks, lashes and lips bare.
Getty ImagesGiambattista Valli: Flower Power
When Giambattista Valli told makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench he wanted the girls this season to look like ‘they just came out of the pool’, she created gorgeous healthy skin illuminated with MAC’s Mixing Medium Shine on the cheeks and Lipglass onto the lids.
To really make the cheek and eyes look wet, she powdered where needed to keep the skin looking more natural. Then Ffrench adorned the face with an array of fresh-cut flowers in shades of ivory, lilac, egg yolk yellow and crimson adhered using a mix of eyelash and special effects glues.
Some of the models wore their petals on the edge of their eyes framing their faces, arched over brows or across the forehead.
‘It’s this idea of a girl taking a fresh morning leap into the lake and as she rises, the flowers are caught on her face,’ said Dominick Skinner, senior makeup artist with MAC who worked alongside Ffrench.
