What kind of makeup does a modern female CEO wear? What do they do with their hair? Their nails? Such were the questions on our mind backstage at Alexander Wang’s fall/winter 2018 show (and his last at New York Fashion Week), held at the former Condé Nast offices at 4 Times Square, where models-cum-employees of “Wang Inc” served “executive realness.”
The answers, of course, should be whatever they want.
Makeup artist Diane Kendal interpreted the “powerful female figures” look with strong, defined brows (she used a matte eyeshadow) balanced with a strategic—read: not excessive—use of highlight.
While some would expect to see a bold red lip or two in the mix, “it’s not very ‘the Wang girl,” says Kendal. (It’s true—we can’t recall the last time an Alexander Wang show featured a lip of any kind.) Still, it was slightly more considered, made-up look than we’re used to seeing from Kendal at Wang.
Nail artist Rita Remark—who told us her idea of a modern CEO is Rihanna and Emily Weiss—created a “chromatic, icy sheer nude” on the nails using a polish from Essie’s Wild Nude collection, followed by a coat of Essie’s Au Natural. “It has a finely milled pearl, which makes the nails look wet and shiny, and under the right like, makes them reflect silver,” she says.
On the hair front, not a single blonde walked the runway. (Not that Wang is opposed to blondes, if you’ll recall this moment at his spring/summer 2016 show.)
British hair colourist Josh Wood, who brought us rose quartz, “the colour of glamorous angst” last season, took Korean model EZ from a peroxide blonde to a rich, notice-me shade of “penny red.” Her hair was already buzz-cut short, but models with longer hair had it slicked back and clipped up with debatably named banana clips.