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Bouncy, squeaky-clean, cheerleader-esq ponytails are replaced with edgier interpretations at Lucian Matis’ Fall/Winter 2012 runway show.

After Lucian Matis’ runway show I was unsure if I could pull off the figure-baring LBDs, but I was sold on was the braided ponytails that walked down the runway. For the third season in a row, Schwarzkopf Professional worked with the avant-garde designer to create an intricate hair style that would reflect his detailed collection. “Lucian’s pieces include a lot of lace and feathers, ” said hair stylist Paul Pereira, of Solo Bace Salon. “There was a lot of great texture in the clothes and we wanted to incorporate the same idea in the hair.”

We went backstage to discover exactly how you can create this braided hair style:

Photo courtesy of Biserka Livaja

Styling step 1: Create a centre part from the front of your head; when you reach the crown of your head, divide your hair into a triangle formation along the back. Further divide the triangle section and braid hair from the crown of your head down to the nape of your neck.

Photo courtesy of Biserka Livaja

Styling step 2: Add a serum with high shine (Pereira applied OSiS AquaSlide) to the triangle section of your hair to create a smooth and sleek braid. Read the rest of this entry

Grace Lee surrounded by media backstage.

Things are behind schedule backstage on Day 4 of Toronto Fashion Week. And it’s hot, buzzing with energy, with models running from hair to makeup to fittings. Then there’s the slew of flat irons and blow driers working overtime. Managing to keep their cool, Grace Lee, lead makeup artist for Maybelline, and Jorge Joao, lead hairstylist for Redken, still create two flawless looks for Pink Tartan and David Dixon. Here are the details on how to get the looks.

1. Dark lips and gold eyes at Pink Tartan
With Kimberley Newport-Mimran going back to her Pink Tartan beginnings (think lush fur coats, and gorgeous fitting blazers ideal for work wear), the designer wanted something very classic and clean in beauty and hair and the focus to be on a deep, berry-red lip.

MAKEUP: “Kimberley really wanted to emphasize a strong, ox-blood lip,” says Lee. “So we used Wine & Forever 14-Hour Lipstick. It’s like that perfect rich burgundy red lip.” With such a statement lip, the rest of the makeup was kept soft, but the eye was nearly as gorgeous as the lip. Lee created a dewy, shiny glossy lid by mixing Bold Gold Colour Tattoo eye shadow with clear Baby Lips lip gloss “I think they should patent this for me! I’ve been doing this [mix of Baby Lips and shadow] for everything!” she exclaimed. “It’s almost like a 24-karat gold on the eye.” The outer corner was dusted with a touch of nutmeg-hued shadow for definition and a couple of coats of mascara. “That lid is just perfection. It’s really about the lip and beautiful glow.”

HAIR: Hair was soft and simple—and as an added bonus—super easy to DIY. Newport-Mimran wanted a center part, so Joao created a super sleek, yet soft look by flat-ironing for pin-straight, Gwyneth Paltrow-esque locks. “We wanted something that was really timeless. We didn’t want it to look too contrived,” explains Joao. The team used Redken Argan-6 Oil for shine before ironing, then worked in a texturizer for a bit of grit. “It’s not just that soft, mushy hair, it gives it just a little bit of an edge.” After finishing with some shine spray, the models were set to walk the runway with their newly smoothed hair tucked into Newport-Mimran’s chic coats. Read the rest of this entry

Gothic-inspired beauty at Chloé Comme Parris.

Backstage at Toronto Fashion Week, in the midst of clouds of hair spray, cameras and double-kisses, two key people—the head makeup artist and hairstylist—are busy working their magic. I caught up with Grace Lee, Maybelline’s lead makeup artist, and Jorge Joao, Redken’s lead hairstylist, to get the scoop on two of the most coveted looks that went down the runway yesterday.

1. Gothic grunge at Chloé Comme Parris
MAKEUP: Designers Chloé and Parris Gordon “have a bad ass, rebellion feel to their collection,” explains Lee. “It’s like a rich girl gone grunge.” Lee painted models’ lips  a matte rich burgundy to underscore the ‘20s, Gatsby inspiration. She created a pale porcelain finish by taking skin one shade lighter than the models’ natural hue, and added a soft touch of blush.

To enhance the doll-like effect, she kept the brows natural and played with a delicate wash of colour over the entire eye. “We actually used the same lipstick on the eye that we used on the lips [Colour Sensational in Mauve-lous] mixed with the Color Tattoo 24HR Cream Gel Shadow in Pomegranate Punk and just made a light saturation of the colour of the lips on the eye.” Lee swept the sheer colour over the entire eye, wrapping it around and along the lower lash line, and then added just a touch of dark brown mascara. “It’s soft but it’s powerful, just because the lip is so powerful and paired against that pale skin and the hair with the soft braid – a little bit of rebellion but with that ‘20s vibe feel.”

HAIR: The look was reminiscent of the Valentino braid we saw for spring, but with a more roughed-up feeling. “We didn’t want anything too put together, too structured,” explains Joao, “but we wanted it away from the face. We went with a knot twist, which is a little more organic, what you see on the street.” Joao also backcombed and centre parted the fringe then pulled out some pieces to create a softer look. “Very elegant, very beautiful and a lot of texture.”

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The pony is bucking the trends at Paris Fashion Week! Chanel went with a no-part, mid-head version, while Issey Miyake went with a bold, architectural diagonal side part. Under the direction of Guido, creative director for Redken, Loewe opted for a left-sided, deep part with a low pony and seriously flatironed hair. I chatted with Guido backstage—moments after he arrived from doing the Jean Paul Gaultier show. (No pony ride there!) He looked a little frazzled—blame that on a two-day grizzled beard growth—but his demeanour was chill. What’s his secret? “You can’t let this get to you,” he says. “That’s why I make sure I get a good night’s sleep and meditate twice a day for 20 minutes.” He then quickly slips into PR mode. “Here’s what we’re doing tonight,” he tells the assembled beauty-editor tribe that has gathered around him. “It’s a pony—but it’s really important that a pony has a bit of a personality,” he says. “Every time I do one, I try to give it character.” In this case, his “character” is a ’20s-influenced, slightly mannish but very chic woman. “I mean masculine in a very simple, modern way, with a deep side part, swept over, covering the ear,” he adds. “And then it’s low and pinned over simply, making it elegant and sophisticated. It’s really important that you blow-dry the hair dead straight. I used Redken Satinwear 02 and a large bushel brush before securing the hair with an elastic and cleaning it up with Redken Forceful 23.” So, why is the pony so hot? “I think it marks a return to simple hair,” says Guido. “It’s still dramatic but so very simple.” (It helps if you have a professional wrangler on the reins!)

Want to see the final results? Click here.

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I knew it was going to be a different kind of interview when I asked Hanne Gaby Odiele if I could ask her some questions backstage at the Giambattista Valli show in Paris today. 

“Me? For what?” answered the Belgian catwalker as she was getting a pre-makeup massage for her next runway outing. It turned out to be one of her more loquacious responses.

To wit:

How many shows have you been in this season?

“I don’t know. I don’t count.”

What has been the highlight so far here at Paris Fashion Week?

“My facial massage backstage.”

What has been the low point?

“Waking up at 5 in the morning.”

Then she kindly offered…

“I’m the worst person for interviews. I really don’t know.”

Where are you going after Paris?

“I really don’t know.”

Where is home base?

“I don’t know.”

Thankfully, the makeup artist who was preparing her for the show stepped in:

“She lives in New York, and she is from Belgium.”

Odiele: “Oh, stop it!”

Makeup artist: “And she’s very cool. She wears very cool outfits. She wears this Jil Sander hat a lot.”

Odiele: “I wore it once.”

What are you wearing today?

“Some clothes. A jacket. A bag. I am wearing a bag. I found it. And that’s about it. Thank you.”

(Let’s just say she doesn’t live up to her middle name.)

Here’s how she looked on the runway!

Houndstooth overlays in pink and blue are prepped backstage at House of Holland. Image: Casey Gillespie

From a beauty POV, House of Holland always are a stand out show at London Fashion Week. The hair and makeup is either outrageous, inventive or just plain wacko, and definitely a welcome place for an OTT nail. I’m of the school of thought that nail art has quite firmly jumped the shark, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate – or even covet – creative, fun and innovative designs.

Image by Nicole Cormeau (theionfashion.com) exclusively for ELLE Canada.

I love the giant houndstooth print nails featured at the HoH show this weekend. Models sported short, rounded nails (the shape you should be wearing right now, btw) painted in either pink or blue with a patterned overlay placed on top.

I know we’re only midway through London Fashion Week, but these Sophy Robson creations sum up everything wonderful about England’s capital: quirky, eccentric, a little bit in your face and routed in tradition.

It’s been a busy few days at NYFW and already some key hair trends are starting to emerge for fall. One of the most interesting ones is a return to super straight, flat hair – usually with a dramatic centre parting.  The ’90s are clearly back, but without the grunge and the recession! Oh, no. Wait, scratch that. Well, at the very least, the sleek, pin-straight styles that caused hair straightener sales to fly through the roof are back.

So far, the look has emerged at Prabal Gurung, where Paul Hanlon (working for TIGI) added extensions to create his piecey, slick look (seriously, look at this hair!), Victoria Beckham, where Guido Palau (for Redken) created a glossy, “uptown, rich girl” style, and at one of my favourite shows — Alexander Wang — Palau (again, using Redken products) added hair extensions to the models so that hair could have a clean line cut straight across the bottom. It looked like classic Wang to me — modern and minimal with an edge. Read the rest of this entry

Day 3 at MFW included some looks that went for more drama, including the unique hairstyle and heavy eye makeup at Samuel Dong.

To go with the theatrical, royal collection from Samuel Dong was equally extravagant makeup look. The eyes were the main focus; Amelie Ducharme, Cover Girl Makeup Pro, created the look using Cover Girl Liquidline Blast in blue to draw in the shape. The line comes to a rounded outer corner, as though done with a blunt pencil so the look appeared as though the models had done their own makeup. Once the shape was penciled on, she applied eyeshadow in Shimmering Onyx overtop; it was also used on the outer third of the lower lashes, too. Lashes were played  up with 24 Hours Lash Blast mascara in black (top and bottom lashes). The brows, however, were downplayed by washing them out slightly using Simply Ageless concealer.

On the lips, Ducharme applied Lip Perfection lip liner in Sophisticated 220, followed by Lip Perfection lipstick in Embrace 335. Then to give the lips the look of more volume, she added a highlight in the middle of the lips in Lip Perfection lipstick in Hot 305.

As for the hair, Denis Binet explains that Dong often likes there to be two textures in the hair look, in this case controlled and sleek. To start this look, Binet applied Pantene Classic gel directly from the tube onto the scalp. Then, using a comb, he combed the gel from the roots into the first few inches of hair then pulled the hair into a high, smooth ponytail, leaving a triangular section of hair at the front out of the ponytail. Using a large barrel curling iron on low heat, he wound this section of hair around the iron and left it for 60 seconds. Releasing this curl from the into into his palm, he then sprayed the piece with Sebastian Shaper Zero Gravity, then inserted the plastic cap from the top of a can of mousse into the curl and bobby pinned it into place. It was placed there simply to hold the curl, but the label’s stylist saw it and insisted Binet leave the plastic tops in the front bang for the runway show, which had the hair team MacGyver-ing the hair product caps, slicing off the closes ends of mousse and hairspray covers.

What do you think of these looks? Would you wear your hair or makeup in this way?

Day 2 of MFW had us coveting everything from loosely swept up hair and icy cool makeup.

Martin Lim

The hair at Martin Lim was inspired by Egypt, with the hair pulled up into a loose swirl so as to highlight the profile of the chin and jawline. “The look is chic and glossy in a high updo but with the ends left natural,” says Denis Binet, Pantene Consulting Stylist.  The overall shape of the swirl, though, is not round, but more contemporary and loose. Using Pantene gel and hairspray for fine hair, Binet  pulled hair into a  high ponytail and then swirled the hair up and casually tucked in the ends, less fixed and precise than a bun.

For makeup, Amelie Ducharme, Cover Girl Makeup Pro, looked to the 50s for inspiration and gave it a sportier twist. “We wanted a strong lip, so we kept skin pure and very natural using Cover Girl Tone Rehab and Simply Ageless concealer adn the lashes just have some NatureLuxe mascara on the top lashes,” she says. On the lips, you can get a similar almost fluorescent coral-y shade by combining Cover Girl Lip Perfections lipsticks in Fairytale. Read the rest of this entry