“An army of empresses whose divine purity is imbued with celestial power,” read the show notes at today’s Fendi couture show inside the La Bourse. It was an apt description of the models that glided down Kim Jones’s runway with veils of face crystals and slicked, high-shine hair.
Riffing on the show’s themes of space, astrology, and heaven, makeup artist Peter Philips and hairstylist Guido Palau each crafted a retrofuturist look bound for another galaxy. “Kim likes to be surprised, he gave us a playground,” said a delighted Philips, who conceptualized the ultimate starry makeup statement: A constellation of monochrome, multi-size crystals in one of three different shades—jet black, champagne, or silver. To offset the shine of the hair, skin veered demi-matte, yet still “luminous” with a soft swirl of blush, pearlescent lids, and taps of iridescent highlighter.
“The set looked like it was from the film Tron, that sci-fi movie from the early ‘80s, and then there was this beautiful temple,” says Palau. “There were all these great references to the past and the future, and I wanted to replicate that with the hair.” For Palau, a jumping off point was studying pictures of monks, priests, and Joan of Arc, getting inspired by their “severe, short-fringed” crops. From there, he dreamed up a series of sleek, close-cropped hairstyles–some a clear nod to Joan of Arc with the 15th-century French heroine’s wispy micro-fringe—and drenched them in shine for a light years-ahead effect. “I wanted it to feel like today, but with a feeling of the future,” he explained. “It’s a new classicism.”
Playing beautifully off of the spiky amethyst and crystal geode ear cuffs designed by Delfina Delettrez, the combination of stellar skin and glossy, sculptural hair was a stunning beauty strategy for Jones’s ethereal fantasy.
This article was originally published on Vogue US.
