TFW backstage beauty: VAWK

Photography by Jenna Marie Wakani
Photography by Jenna Marie Wakani

We’re still in love with the teal eye Gucci Westman created for Oscar De La Renta’s Spring 2011 collection. So when we ventured backstage at VAWK, we were pumped to find L’Oréal Paris Lead Makeup Artist Eddie Malter applying the cerulean hue on a model’s lids. “Sunny wanted a strong eye,” explained Malter. Fong gave him a swatch from the collection and asked him to match the shade. The fabric’s cosmetic equivalent? HIP Shadow Duo in Showy. Malter circled it around the eyes and minutes before show time, dabbed a clear lip gloss over top for a hit of shine. To bring more attention to the upper part of the face, he buffed a tawny blush high on cheekbones and kept the mouth muted, pressing a pale coral into the lips.

This girl is a Mongolian beauty, explained Lead Hair Artist Eric del Monaco about the low ponytail with a twist that nodded to VAWK’s use of wintery fabrics like wool and lambskin. “The women [in that part of the world] normally wear braids, but we didn’t want to be that literal so we did a twist instead.” He side parted the hair and secured a low ponytail, leaving out a piece at the front. Then he twisted the loose strand, pulling it across the forehead to the other side, weaving in other pieces as he spun, eventually wrapping it around the side of the head and tucking it into the ponytail. To finish the look, del Monaco lightly roughed up the perfect tendril with a cream gel and the heel of his hand to make it look like the hair had been exposed to the elements.

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