Sunday, February 15, 2009

Direct from the Runway: Ruffian Fall 2009

"She’s confident, she’s hip, she’s young and kind of transparent," M.A.C makeup artist James Kaliardos told me at the Ruffian Fall 2009 show on February 14. "I think it’s kind of that cool thing in the 90s, that girl who’s kind of like, oh it’s a big deal to wear red."

And when you think of American royalty, who comes to mind? The Kennedys, of course. And no one was more chic and polished than Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, who laid the inspiration for the collection. A simple blowout and subtle shimmery makeup were offset by a bold red lip in -- what else? -- Ruffian Red, a color created by M.A.C just for this collection. Get more details on the look -- including one of the most innovative manis I've seen in quite some time -- after the jump!



"We thought Carolyn looked like she really always wore the red and not much of anything else," Kaliardos told me. He created this using a mix of Sculpt and Shape Powders, with a pale reflective one on the cheekbone. "It's not sparkly," he said, "it's more of a satin sheen. They all have a bit of a satin thing to them so it’s not totally matte, but it looks matte. But if you flashed it, it wouldn’t look matte. So it’s got a little bit of a hyperpigment to it."

Kaliardos worked to bring out each model's individual skin colors, rather than making their skin look uniform, using a bit of powder on the temples, eye creases and lids. He then used another on the browbones, cheeks and top of the nose, and one more on the lip before he applied the lipstick. "It’s just about sort of shaping and contouring but very subtly playing with these different skin shades depending on the girls’ color," he said.

Ruffian Red "is this great red that has a little bit of reflect in it," Kaliardos told me. "Something Helmut Newton would have liked. A really good, deep red. I think a woman who does her makeup like that ... you have to be quite artistic because it’s not so easy to do. To do it where it looks not too campy. We’ve done it so that the edge is soft, that’s a big deal too, it’s not a hard line. There’s a lot of pigment on the center and when you get to the edge, it’s defined but it’s soft. That’s hard to do because you do the shape but then you have to cotton swab it a little bit and make it stainy at the edge and then it just looks more natural."

Kaliardos finished by brushed the brows with Brow Set and applying a beige eyeliner on the lower waterline, which he said wakes up tired eyes. "The nude liner really cleans the eye when you’re not wearing a lot of color. You don’t look so tired," he said. He then curled the eyelashes and applied a very delicate sweeping of black mascara.

The team at Bumble and bumble created a gorgeous blowout that was almost perfect with just a bit of undone texture and feel. "The collection is about the American woman’s ideal of how a French woman would be and the French woman’s idea of how they think the American women dress," the key hairstylist told me. "Carolyn Bessette was the perfect example of the typical American beauty in a way, like American royalty really. So it was really like those pictures where she always looked so amazing, but she was always that kind of woman that blew her hair out, but then it looked like it was worn for a couple of days. It was never immaculate and perfect."




To achieve the look, stylists applied Bumble and bumble Prep to the hair before blowing it out with a round brush for added volume. After the hair was dry, stylists created a subtle center part and then used a flat iron on the middle sections and ends to make it a bit more piecey, giving it a subtle undone texture. They finished with Bumble and bumble Shine at the ends to give it even more of a piecey, broken texture.

"It’s easy hair, it’s quite effortless," I was told. It’s not too tricky, it’s easy to do."



The nails may very well compete with the red lip in my opinion as the piece de resistance of this entire look. A gorgeous purple hue, which was about 3-4 shades deeper than the lips, was custom-blended by Creative Nail Design. "The inspiration for the nails was a cover of Vogue in 1935," Wanda Ruiz of CND told me. "The lady had a Lucite extension. We wanted to bring it back to this day and age and make it tailored and short but a deeper color as well. The one on the cover had a rose kind of color. We chose this color because it accents this collection. Sexy, Parisian, very elegant, a very socialite kind of person."



But this wasn't just any manicure. The reverse French was created with deep moons to really catch the eye. Ruiz finished with Air Dry topcoat, which dried very quickly and left a high shine on the nails.

1 comment:

  1. I love the makeup, but the model looks a bit ill, like she has a vitamin deficiency!

    Feed her!!

    ReplyDelete