Hundred-dollar bills and Dalmatian-printed Minx: See Vogue Italia’s blingtastic nail art up close!
See all of nail stylist Lisa Logan’s behind-the-scenes pictures! »
The hotly anticipated Haute Mess editorial from Vogue Italia dropped today and it’s a glitter lover and nail-art fanatic’s dream. Photographed by Steven Meisel, the shoot includes some of the most familiar faces in modeling. But thanks to makeup artist Pat McGrath and hairstylist Jimmy Paul, it takes a keen eye to identify Joan Smalls, Jessica Stam, Karen Elson, Abbey Lee Kershaw, Lindsey Wixson, Daphne Groeneveld, Guinevere van Seenus, and Coco Rocha underneath the wigs, gemstones, and pencil-thin eyebrows.
According to Meisel, the main source of inspiration was “messy drag,” but for nail stylist Lisa Logan, the over-the-top manicures—including decals of candy wrappers and hundred-dollar bills—were all about street style turned upscale. Yes, lacquering actual money to your nails was once (and given the trend of duckbill nails, likely still is!) a thing. Logan explains: “First people would cut up dollar bills, then it was five-dollar bills, and inevitably someone would show up with a hundred-dollar bill to cut up. […] The fashion was all about displaying your wealth.”
But back to the nails at the Vogue shoot! Custom Minx decals were blinged up with the addition of gemstones and glitter, then applied to fake tips filed into excessive lengths and borderline-gruesome shapes. There were even fake toenails—which deserve a disclaimer of “only enjoyable as art but would make us convulse if seen in real life.” Needless to say, the whole thing is certainly a hot mess.