For most of us, couture shows are an aspirational event meant to evoke desire and creativity, rather than any sort of real opportunity to plan next season’s wardrobe. The elevated hair and makeup looks that often accompany these one-of-a-kind pieces, however, are much more attainable. For Paris Fashion Week’s Fall 2016 presentations last week, design houses like Versace and Christian Dior showed off everything from red glitter lips to exaggerated feline flicks – beauty looks that would look just as good with jeans and a killer pair of heels as they would with, say, Fendi’s rose-colour Persian lamb dress, which featured 5,000 impeccably hand-cut holes.
Whether you prefer extreme cat-eyes or regal hair accessories, here are 7 beauty trends from Paris Fashion Week’s Fall 2016 Haute Couture collections. Hint: Don’t wait until fall to try them out!
GLITTERING RED LIPS
This season, Versace took a classic makeup staple – a simple, scarlet lip – and transformed it into a show-stopping beauty look. The unlikely ingredient? Glitter. The look was simultaneously young and chic, packed onto lips for a high-fashion statement. The key to keeping glitter from looking a little too young is to isolate it in a single, high-impact makeup statement. This will maintain the balance and beauty of the face.
GOLD HAIR BANDS
Why have one hair accessory when you can have 10? That seemed to be the question that came to mind when metallic accents were used to create a symmetrical frame around models’ faces at Valentino’s Fall 2016/17 Couture show in Paris, which joined a sectioned-off blunt-cut ponytail that grazed the middle of the back.
SLEEK DOUBLE KNOTS
While the low and messy bun has become a major fashion must-have for spring/summer 2016’s lazy-girls, Giles made it haute at his debut couture collection in Paris. Centre-parted and slick – and paired with unblemished and completely unadorned complexions – the hairstyle was made into two knots at the bottom of the head, making for a more grown-up, and chic appeal.
FUR HAIR RIBBONS
In previous years, satin bows have held a special place on the runways. But this season, Fendi’s full-on fashion fantasy at Rome’s Trevi Fountain, where hairstylist Sam McKnight spun models’ hair into fuzzy, centre-parted ringlets, introduced us to a new method for securing a centre-parted half-up-do look: fur ribbon. Individual pieces of pelt were used to secure hair into a half-ponytail – another hairstyle of the moment.
EXTREME CAT-EYES
While the feline flick has long been a standby of the haute couture shows, makeup artist Peter Phillips gave the iconic eye accent a modern interpretation this week for Dior’s 2016/17 presentation, drawing it on with exaggerated thickness across upper lash lines; rimming the entire lid with inky black pigment before extending the line toward the temples; reserving it exclusively for lower lash lines; and even rendering it in a shade of gold.
SUPERNATURAL SKIN
This season, if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that less is more. And while we’ve seen the no-makeup, makeup look around all summer, this was especially true at Giambattista Valli’s 2016/17 Haute Couture show, where makeup artist Val Garland decided that Valli’s looks were so spectacular, models needed little else beyond even complexions and statement brows – bleached arches alternated with a brushed-up, elongated dark version for a subtle hint of contrast.
HIGH-FASHION FRIZZ
Chanel’s spectacular set – a series of working Chanel ateliers in the Grand Palais – was part of the inspiration for the towering, curly bow-tied coifs that models wore down the runway. Karl Lagerfeld created a look that had enough height and weight to lengthen models necks as they walked through the structures, while a soft halo of frizz made for an attention grabbing addition to the style.
