New York Fashion Week backstage beauty: Rodarte goes rock chick with Zebra print hair extensions, gold shadow and more!

Rodarte Spring 2014 Beauty
Photography courtesy of NARS
Rodarte Spring 2014 Beauty
Photography courtesy of NARS

See the Rodarte beauty looks up close »

“Today we’re doing an ‘80s intention,” said hairstylist Odile Gilbert backstage at Rodarte. What that meant was a side part, a hair flip, and lots and lots of mousse. And she added a very Rodarte touch: zebra-print extensions: black-white, black-gold, blonde-black, all hand-painted.

Add some graphic eyeliner and serious contouring, and you’re instantly transported to the Sunset Strip: “The [Rodarte] girls were very inspired, since they grew up there, by L.A. This is a kind of wild LA girl. The real L.A., not the red carpet L.A.,” said Nars artist James Kaliardos. “She has brushed-up brows, and they’re quite wild and animal-like. It’s that feeling of a rock chick from L.A.” Are you getting the sense that the look was inspired by Los Angeles?

And on the nails, Tracylee for Sally Hansen created a tortoise-shell look, that she applied using an ordinary makeup sponge and two shades of polish: a terracotta shade called Clay and an reddish-brown one called Cinnamon, available in March next year. “The Rodarte sisters named them,” said Tracylee. “And this was an image that they sent us and said, ‘Can you do this?’ I had to play around with it, and with the sponge, the color gets on the cuticle, but we prep those with cuticle oil first, so extra polish comes off easily.”

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