Direct from the Runway: Barbie Fall 2009

What little girl doesn't want to be like Barbie? Well, for the iconic doll's 50th anniversary, there was a huge fashion show on Saturday, February 14. We're talking 50 models and 50 little girls in tutus inspired by three very distinct eras -- past, present and future. Sarah Lucero from Stila and key makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury were on hand to discuss the makeup, while Orlando Pita from T3 shared his thoughts on hair. Get all that and more after the jump!



First up, I met with Sarah Lucero from Stila, who was working on a girl from the present as she went through the looks with me. "The present day Barbie is very feminine, very pretty," Lucero told me. "There’s a little bit of Sharon Tate vibe in there. It’s about really clean, shiny, glossy skin and a bright pop of cheek color. The new lip color we’re playing with is a lip vinyl, a long-wear lipgloss called Giggle. It’s very pink, very pretty but not too plasticky. So it’s totally wearable, you can translate it to every day."



The eyes were a bit more exaggerated in all three looks. For present, Sarah told me, "I’m using as white eyeshadow, you can use something from Stila like Moonlight. We actually have a pencil that’s really creamy. You can use that with a brush and create a paste almost." She finished with a bit of pink in the crease, created by using a new blush Stila is working on. She finished with Stay All Day Liquid Liner, a new liquid liner that looks like a fine-point marker. And then added tons of false lashes."




"Future is a little bit more exaggerated with feathers, gemstones, rhinestones and sequins," Lucero told me. "But you know, it’s Barbie future! And she’s hip, she’s pretty, she’s fun, she likes to kind of like stretch it out a little bit. The lip is really soft in that. So I think the balance with the heavy eye and the clean skin and the light lip is so pretty.

"And then for past, it’s really classic past. It’s bold, glossy red vinyl lip, Strawberry Lip Glaze. A really contoured cheek with Stila Sun Bronzer. And then that black liquid liner to really accentuate and create the shape and do a false strip of lashes. Really classic Barbie. Full-on the epitome of Barbie.

"It’s really Charlotte [Tilbury]’s vision. We’re all putting our twist on it and making sure it works for the model. Barbie is the ultimate beauty glamour icon, so that element has to be in every makeup look."



To that end, Charlotte Tilbury was unbelievably sweet as she went through her inspirations for the three looks. "The past is a little bit of a 50s cat eye, pillowbox red lip, that late 50s early 60s red lip with silver highlights on the face, a little bit contoured," she told me. "Present is the classic Barbie doll with lilacs and pale pinks. Big false Bambi lashes. The pink is a much more of a lighter pink. Glossier. Futuristic Barbie –- it's like a mask, like she was going to the opera or a ball in Venice and she was wearing a fabulous mask. All these bright colors like cobalt and electric blues, wonderful purples and pinks. [We] used feathers and glitters and sequins and a very beigey glossy lip with this kind of contoured cheek."



To get the look, Tilbury told me, "Barbie is such a kind of beauty icon, she really is. When you think of it, you’re like, okay. There were these three different sections. We were told, future we want you to be wild and crazy ... and I was thinking I want to be wild and crazy but it has to retain that Barbie beauty. So I just imagined the world of a fabulous mask stuck to her face with sequins so someone could recognize her eyes like butterflies.

"Present was just like let’s kind of do a Sharon Tate kind of doll version. The past, you gotta make her look a little retro. I love that kind of slightly S&M red lip with that very great Barbie eye. So it became pretty obvious, it kind of led me there, in a way, where you can put yourself inside the Barbie world."

And as for translating that crazy futuristic look into every day? "Eyeshadows are like these great, great cobalt blues," she said. "If you could just do like a blue smoky eye with black eyeliner at night it would be fabulous. I feel like this season it’s all about color again, you’ve got some eye color, you’ve got some lip color. You put the fun back into the makeup." But be sure to keep the lip simple in this look! "The lip is glossier, a beige glossy lip. Gorgeous with a cobalt blue sparkly black smoky eye, it would be heaven. It’s a very wearable look."

Next it was onto Orlando Pita from T3, who used some of his own products to create the three looks. The past was a classic high ponytail with bangs, the present was "voluminous curls, sort of that modern take on 80s kind of curly, lots of hair Barbie. Valley of the Dolls, Sharon Tate," he said. And the future was a high bun with side bang and the braid. "The other two sections are down, so we thought we’d do the future up," he said.




Pita got each look by blowdrying models' hair with the new T3 hairdryer created by Mattel, complete with pink accents! (It will be available in September.) He also used new T3 Dry Conditioner, which added shine and glossiness to the hair, and both Plump and Control Hairspray to obtain the volume.

Nails were done by Creative Nail Design. I had the opportunity to stop by their suite at the Courtyard Marriott (more on that in a later post), and got to see all 50 sets of tips for the show! The past was done with Wildfire, a gorgeous red, while the present was done with Hot Pop Pink. A custom blend of Negligee and Serenity, layered over each other, was done for future.