The Marc Jacobs show might have gotten off to a late start, but the beauty prep had been underway for days.

When colourist and Redken global creative director Josh Wood arrived at the venue to talk to editors hours before the show’s scheduled start time, he had just finished colouring the last of 37 models’ hair in custom “antique pastel” shades. Achieving the hues required five to six processes per model: bleaching the hair (using Redken Flash Lift with bonder), laying down a pearlescent base (either “opaline or titanium or platinum”), adding a shadow to the root (which makes the colour look less “punk-y”), applying the colour and then sealing it with a glossy top coat. It was a three day undertaking, and the biggest hair colour project Wood said he’s ever worked on. “Marc didn’t want a fun, fairground pastel,” he explained. “We were trying to make the colours look vintage, like they had history to them—it’s grown-up pastels.” 

 

When it came to styling, hairstylist and Redken creative consultant Guido Palau created three distinct looks: buzz cuts (more models than ever were down for the chop, said Palau), hybrid ponytail chignons inspired by Jackie O.’s younger sister Lee Radziwill, and dome-like “egg-shaped” cuts inspired by Barbra Streisand. Overall, he said, the vibe was “happy hair.”  

Makeup artist Diane Kendal used lab samples of pastel O!Mega Gel Powder eyeshadows from an upcoming Marc Jacobs Beauty collection to create either sheer or opaque washes of colour from eyelid to eyebrow in shades that matched the models respective outfits. To ground the look, brown or black eyeliner was added in a way that complemented each model’s eye shape. Eyebrows were slightly arched “in a nod to the fifties,” said Kendal.