During a week of Parisian haute couture, it’s refreshing to find details that the layperson can recreate. While Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Dior collection of angelic feathers, liquidy pleated silks, and sheer pieces twinkling with hand embroidery required thousands of hours and an entire atelier, the beauty was intentionally attainable. “We decided to go for a very simple makeup thing that almost every girl has tried once in their life—a black kohl liner,” says makeup artist Peter Philips.
Within the Musée Rodin, artist Isabella Ducrot’s installation “Big Aura” lined walls and shaped discussions. Philips and Grazia Chiuri touched on themes of metamorphosis, along with the idea that the reproduction of an original is never the same. “I thought, Okay, it’s what we should actually do for makeup in the show—take one element and put it on every girl, and every girl makes it her own,” says Philips. He motions to a few of the 60-some models prepping within the backstage tent, noting that sometimes it reads punk, sometimes elegant, sometimes moody, and on and on. “Aura is what you project.”
After the morning demo, Philips made sure to “destroy” any element of too-perfect makeup. Once eyes were traced in Diorshow on Stage Crayon 091 Black, he instructed models to squint hard to smudge it into every crevice. “It applies really smooth, but it sets and it doesn’t move,” he explains. “I like when it’s lived a bit.” He pressed in a bit of Diorshow 5 Couleurs Eyeshadow in 539 Grand Bal, brown pigment to cut the inkiness, and a bit of metallic shadow in the center of the lids to create a sheen “wet look.” Brushed up brows and a clear Rouge Dior Balm in 000 was enough to finish the effect. “There’s no contouring, no highlights,” Philips says. “If you want to translate it to the street, I would add a bit of mascara.”
A few steps away, hairstylist Guido Palau and his team are braiding models’ hair into low, elongated buns and headbands fashioned from black velvet ribbon. “Women love braids,” he says of the “very easy hair to recreate” that he notes is a lovely element of the beauty. “I think that’s the success of Maria Grazia’s beauty at Dior, she really touches what women want to look like.” Palau adds that, for many of the models, the hair isn’t brushed. It only requires a “little bit of texturizing spray,” he says, “It’s just two braids, and then you kind of twist it around and pin it—it might not be as exact, but it doesn’t matter. It’s not about being exact.” Even the bow can be something you already have on hand. “It can be any bow, which has a kind of edge to it.”
Work with what you have, the artists say. “It’s about individuality, but at the same time, taking the same reference and giving it a new life again,” Philips says. When couture beauty is comfortable for the model, “she forgets she’s wearing something, and then it becomes part of her.”
The original article can be found on Vogue UK.
