Beauty
Beyond the Tents: Crazy Color on Runways More Punk
Andrea Kiliany Thatcher
The tents may be the center of fashion week, but it would be unfair to say that they are the heart. Beneath the shiny, glossy, exterior of done-yet-undone beauty looks we see on Style.com and in Allure beats the heart of a fashion community under the radar – the street stylists and independent designers who create the trends and wear the colors that inspire the makeup artists and designers who distribute style to the masses.
One such young designer, the effervescent Cassie Kogler, the face of the fledgling New York Couture label, kept the passion in fashion during her New York Fashion Week Show and Party on February 8, at The Grand.
Stepping backstage was a bit like falling down Alice’s rabbit hole, if Alice’s rabbit hole were lined with pink tulle and sparkles.
“We decided to be very pixie, a lot of pinks and whites, all the makeup is from MAC, we love MAC.” Cassie said before her show. “It’s vanillas and we’re going to make the lips very bright red and very glossy and the faces are very pale.”
It’s a look that mirrors the vivid energy of her collection, best likened to Heatherette if comparisons must be made.
“The clothes are very crazy, they’re bright colors, neons, it’s not very pixie but it’s punk rock pixie.” Cassie said. “I’m punk rock, so I kind of make stuff that I would wear. Some of the pieces are really crazy in this collection, but most of the pieces are very wearable, no matter who you are.”
The pale faces were reminiscent of geisha girls and Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku tribe. But if the Harajuku girls are created as an army with one face, it was not so at the hands of Kogler’s crew where individuality was key.
Color was the cause celebre in makeup and fashion alike. If other fashion designers and makeup artists follow the dictum of one strong look (either eyes OR lips) Kogler went for one strong statement: Have fun! This truly was a beauty look about having fun with your shadows again, wearing the bright lipsticks in the sea of nude glosses.
The MAC Barbie Loves MAC collection follows the same philosophy and has everything a girl needs to become a punk rock princess – the aquavert eye shadow and ultra chill softsparkle eye pencil that made their way into gift bags across town are a great start to your own color-crazed look.
If you thought the makeup was wild, don’t forget about the hair.
“The hair is also very pixie with braids and craziness,” Kogler said. But, there is a method to the madness.
“I want it to be urban, I want it to be magnificent, I want it to be disheveled, I want it to be elegant,” said Khris Wilson, freelance hairstylist at the New York Couture event. “I want it to be like what the hell’s on her head, but damn, it looks hot.”
If this all sounds a little too out there for your particular taste (or your particular employer) then play it safe by calling that mainstream beauty rule back from the oblivion – wear only one bright color at a time. The lips are probably the easiest feature to play up with punched up color, especially in spring.
Keep checking back to Papierdoll.net for more spring beauty throughout the month.
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