Spring beauty report 2012: Retro influences

By Lesa Hannah and Sarah Daniel

Liquid liner hasn’t lost its momentum, but makeup artists left last season’s ’60s mod influence behind and moved back a decade to the ’50s, with inspirations like Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor. At Jonathan Saunders, artiste Lucia Pieroni gave models a Stepford streak, inspired by a mid-century Miami housewife who likes her Valium, she says. At Marni, makeup artist Tom Pecheux applied a cinnamon-coloured flick instead of the standard noir, which was inspired by a terracotta clutch in the collection and brought “a sophisticated finish to the face,” he says. Hair-stylists also mined the past for ideas—from the ’20s to the ’70s, and every decade in between. At Diane von Furstenberg, teased ’60s French twists were “textured so it’s rustic and earthy, and quite simple in shape,” says coiffeur Orlando Pita. But at Jean Paul Gaultier, it was an old photograph that led to the loose wartime rolls that hair guru Guido Palau fastened to the top of the head. Our favourite was the sterile-looking ’50s faux bob at Jil Sander, in all its vacuum-sealed nurse practitioner perfection.

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