On the last day of Paris fashion week, which is really the last day of the four-city fashion month, everybody is trying to figure out what the takeaway will be. Maybe it boils down to three or four trends, tracked from New York to Paris. I like to look at the two final shows, though—Louis Vuitton (at 10 AM, to which, for two seasons, I’ve taken the bus and nearly missed each time) and Miu Miu—to see what’s cooking because it’s none other than the Beauty Dream Team, Pat McGrath and Guido, who crank out those last two hair and makeup ideas.
And on Oct 3rd, retro was in the air: a slightly naughty '60s girl (Vuitton) and a subversively sexy '50s girl (Miu Miu), both with a helluva lot of hairspray and a serious thing for a statement eye. Before hopping on a chauffeured scooter and saying au revoir to the shows, McGrath told me: “There’s been a lot going on with lines, and shapes, around the eye. At one point, the lips were about to take over, and then it went back to the eye.” And the Vuitton eye, not unlike the Chloé eye, triggered an immediate I WANT TO DO THAT reaction. The top lid was coated with a glossy peach “paint” that McGrath whipped up (but wouldn’t share the recipe for…at least for now), saying that Jacobs was “obsessed” with it, and the kicker was what she called a “baby cat eye”: black pencil under the eye only, flicked up and out at the edges into an almost imperceptible “3 mm” tick. “It’s just a hint of cat eye—it makes the girls look chic and cool at the same time,” she explained, and it’s so true… black liner on top, into a wing at the outer edge, is such a look. But a reverse cat eye? Has it ever been done??? I’m genuinely curious. Because it looked so new, and so cool, that I’m about to grab a mirror and do it now. At ten AM.
As for the gloss, this is another giant question mark and something I’m fascinated by, in terms of ‘runway to reality.’ A few hours after Vuitton, I was sitting next to Leigh Lezark at Miu Miu and we got to talking about makeup, as we tend to do, and she told me about the black, glossy smoky eye she did for Carine Roitfeld’s bal the night before. “Did you just rub some lipglass over your eye shadow?” I asked, because, hey, I’ve seen what goes on backstage sometimes. “No, I used that Chanel quad with the eye glosses that came out a few years ago. I knew it was limited-edition, so I hoarded them.” Well, lucky Leigh, but I’m wondering how I’m going to walk around with a homemade glossy lid and not feel like my eyes are fighting a losing battle with rubber cement. Also, doesn’t it move around? “Well, not if you use hair spray,” Leigh said.
“No, I'm not talking about your hair—your eye makeup,” I huffed.
“Yeah—hair spray. It’s an old trick. Sets your makeup.”
Whoa.
As for hair spray on your head, Guido must have gone through a crate of Redken that day, between the bow-tied bouffants at Vuitton and the combed-over, era-defying 'dos at Miu Miu, the latter of which called to mind two of my favorite pop-culture (or would they be indie? Alterna?) style icons: Yolandi, the epithet-spewing South African sprite in Die Antwoord, and Grimes. Microbangs and pseudo-mullets never looked so good with pink, elbow-length gloves, fur stoles and kitten heels. Actually, they’ve probably never been in the same room before…
So, food for thought… beauty look, 2013: a Home-Ec haircut, glossy lids, and eyeliner where you wouldn’t normally think to put it. Discuss.
—Emily Weiss
