5 Things I Found out at London Fashion Week
Stories from the fashion front… by @elliebalfe - Make-up is getting its colour on! Get ready to go rainbow bright – there’s a whole lot of technicolour coming? to your face. We saw jewel-coloured eyes, bright lips, lashes and more. Metallics and textures were also incorporated to beauty looks; this winter is going to be fun beauty-wise.
- Hair trends for Autumn/Winter 2015 are one of two things; teased upwards with intricate details or super-natural and sleek with barely-there product and a focus on easy-going sheen.
- Nails are like weapons – lots of shows featured manicures that had one or two crazy extensions that we’re sure wouldn’t be allowed through airport security. Not the most wearable of ideas, but we liked that they showed an added fierceness to the look. If there’s one thing the models of LFW had in spades, it was a strength and attitude.
- Backstage, the creative leads, i.e the chief make-up and hair artists, are like gods. Surrounded by crews listening out to any cues, be they visual or vibe, these people are true artists and treated with the utmost respect. I had the honour of watching Duffy, the Global editorial ambassador for Vidal Sassoon at work at Issa and Val Garland (at Issa too) and also with MAC at the very avant-garde Vivienne Westwood. We also watched as Alex Box created the amazing looks (again for MAC) at Gareth Pugh. These creative crews are as admired as the designer themselves, showing that the beauty looks are such a vital element in expressing the designer’s vision.
- The chameleon-like quality of these models is a truly amazing thing to witness. As they sit backstage huddled up with their phones, plugged in to Spotify they look young (and vaguely bored), but as soon as hair, make-up and the clothes are in place, they literally transform. They adopt this fierce attitude and swagger when necessary, an elegance where appropriate and a sexiness when that needs to be portrayed. The chameleon comparison is an over-used clich?, yes, but it’s the only one this writer can find to talk about these fabulous fashion shape-shifters.