“Women say they want their skin to look ‘natural’,” says make-up artist Pat McGrath, sipping a post-show cocktail at the Hospital club in Covent Garden, “but what they really mean is they want to look HDTV natural.” She’s got a point. Our idea of natural has been tied to film ever since Max Factor created the first ‘Pan-Cake’ make-up for Hollywood. Now close to 100 years on, we expect naked perfection, as played out at the London shows. Read more
“It’s mad back there,” shouted nail artist Sophy Robson over the music at Topshop Unique. She’s come out of the backstage area for fresh air and to offload the morning’s angst. “Three of my team were meant to arrive from New York on Sunday, but they didn’t get into Heathrow till 11 this morning, so I didn’t sleep a wink!”
“Of course I’m here for the shows, but actually I have an equally busy cultural agenda, too,” explains make-up artist and Visionaire co-founder James Kaliardos. Read more
Report by Anna-Marie Solowij
Big head or small head? That’s the key question that hair stylists ask designers before they start prepping the hair for a show.
The decision hangs on the degree of detail around the neck and shoulders. “When the neckline is busy, designers prefer to keep the head small, so as not to detract from the design,” says L’Oréal Paris session stylist Alain Pichon. Despite this, for Eun Jeong’s show, Pichon sent the girls out with huge, frizzed manes. “We did a tiny head last season, so it had to go the other way,” he laughs. Read more
Report by Anna-Marie Solowij
There’s just one beauty company showing at London Fashion Week and that is the organic aromatherapy brand, Alexandra Soveral. Alex is showcasing her scented wares as well as running a competition to create your own fragrance with the prize of a bespoke scent. Lisa Armstrong is one of the judges and, at the time of writing, Vogue’s Harriet Quick is tipped to win.Fragrance and fashion is something of a recurring theme: the halls of Somerset House are heady with the aroma of Comme des Garçons scented candles; John Richmond launched his first fragrance last week, and in New York the Halston collection was inspired by a recently revived house scent. While perfume sales continue to underwrite ready-to-wear collections for many big name designers, you know scents make cents. Jasper Conran, too, understands the sweet smell of success: he always spritzes the catwalk with a favourite fragrance before the audience arrives. This season it’s Moroccan Rose by True Grace.
Report by Anna-Marie Solowij
Photography by Anna Bauer
Book make-up artists Val Garland, Pat McGrath or Alex Box for your show and you’re guaranteed an eyeful. Of make-up, that is, because so far this week the eyes have been getting all the attention.
Val’s creation for Mary Katrantzou was based around the show’s theme of colourful Murano glass. Complementing all the kaleidoscopic prints of Katrantzou’s dresses, Val mixed a rainbow of striking shades onto a base of violet to recontour the eye, underlining the colourful statement with a graphic black tick below the lower lid. “It’s painterly,” says Val of a trend that has also surfaced in the clothes this week.
Report by Anna-Marie Solowij
Photography by Fabio Boraso
“White is the equivalent of a week at a spa: the ultimate clean sweep”
With its focus on frills and flounces executed entirely in white, Eun Jeong’s show on the first day of London Fashion Week forged an unlikely cross-Atlantic link with Marc Jacobs, who had also championed white with ruffles. That wasn’t the only connection, as both designers chose make-up looks themed around the colour white, too. Read more
Grans and grandads, lock up your husky jackets, outerwear is having a moment. Our old friend the coat does, of course, make up the flavour of winter but this season London designers have played the cover up centre stage.
“Designers are especially concerned with jackets and coats this season,” Harrods’ Fashion and Beauty Director Marigay Mckee told The LFW Daily. “Bombers are the particular favourite along with the military style jackets,” she said.
Burberry based an entire collection around aviator jackets while Charles Anastase layered knitwear on top of overcoats. Daks took the husky and gave it an up to date, eccentric spin via leggings, capes and bonnets from the traditional fabric. Design duo Basso & Brooke weaved Trompe-l’œil goretex anoraks into their ensemble and at Aquascutum Michael Herz transformed tailored jackets into full-length dresses. Meanwhile, at Mens day today [Wed], E Tautz featured the ultimate in deluxe outerwear courtesy a cashmere fit for a prince. Luckily one [HRH Prince Michael] was sitting front row and was seemingly rather taken by it.
The make-up inspiration for Ashish was Eastern European girls from an imaginary country called Ashishistan.
The models had to look very natural, with bare skin, just using M.A.C Face and Body Foundation.
The only feature of the face that was enhanced was the eyebrows, using M.A.C Impeccable Brow Pencil in a mix of Taupe and Dirty Blonde, to make them look dramatically unkept.
Lashed were just curled. And on the lips Prep + Prime Lip was applied to condition them without any glossy finish.
The final look was innocent raw beauty with a tough look in the eyes.
Christopher Kane has become masterful at delivering a clear, concise message, season in, season out. This time around, it was all about tailoring. In wool, or black matte or patent leather – much of it decorated with vibrant embroidery – it was contrasted with lace blouses or lace panels that were spliced across skirts and dresses. There was a folkloric feel to the colourfully embroidered pansies and wild flowers that started out gently running up the sleeve of a chiffon blouse or a black cashmere cardigan with artfully slashed sleeves, or across the hemline of a skirt, and ended up dancing all over short leather dresses. Later in the show, Kane traded the flowers for crystals with glittering starbursts appearing on matte leather mini-dresses or shell tops, or circling a deep black patent cummerbund that cinched a black wool jacket with crisp patent collar. There was a nod to his homeland in the neat (and super-short) black wool kilts and a gorgeous black patent biker jacket with lambskin collar that was embroidered with a cluster of Scottish thistles.
If his first season at Halston was a distraction for Marios Schwab, he definitely didn’t show it in the strong, polished collection he sent out yesterday. He kicked off with a flesh-toned dress that was cut away at the bodice and edged with a waffly trimming. A series of pinafore dresses followed, all of which had a strict schoolgirl feeling (a nod, Schwab said, to being “the only boy at fashion school”), but were cut with curvilinear collars that dipped away to reveal crisp white shirting. Other jersey dresses were topped with beautifully cut, sculptural little jackets or pulled in at the waist with decorative corsetry. Schwab reinterpreted the dirndl, but there was nothing school-marmish about his full, short skirts and dresses that came out in loden wool, duchesse satin or richly coloured brocades. Later, he continued with the week’s yearning for embellishment, as crystals outlined the bodices of dresses, while textural coats in smoke grey or forest green, neatly belted at the waist, added to the plush, tactile feeling of this collection.
From the voluminous crimped hair and glossy Seventies make up to the upbeat disco tunes, Roksanda Ilincic was in a New York state of mind for autumn, giving us a super-polished collection that was, she said, “all about the beauty of winter fabrics, their textures and the way they can be sculpted around the body.” There was plenty of Ilincic’s signature cocktailwear, including a parade of killer charmeuse dresses in deep olive green, raspberry and smoke blue. A highlight was a pale pink charmeuse tunic that fanned into an air-filled cape at the back to a stunning strapless oyster silk column with a sculptural asymmetric peplum. But she developed her day wear, too, showing a beautiful charcoal jersey dress draped elegantly across the body, and a series of clean-cut shift dresses in black bouclé and charcoal wool. Some tailoring came heavily embellished with crystals and beading. On a lighter note were the sheer flesh-toned voile blouses and fluid pants, all of which were topped off with sumptuous fur stoles and gilets – perfect for a well-heeled New York city girl.
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