Much fashion, very New York.
Love [for fashion] was in the air at the Jonathan Simkhai show this past Sunday on Valentine’s day.
The stunning fashionista, Olivia Culpo, was at the show!
The Knockturnal got exclusive interviews with the geniuses behind the hair, makeup, and nail looks. Ooh la la! Our first interview was with Thomas of Catwalk by TIGI hair.
Tell us about the hair look today.
We’ve called the look “the Frozen Goddess,” – I don’t think it could be more fitting on a day like today (chuckles). The idea was a windswept look. Jonathan’s girls are polished but not prim – he’s not precious about their hair. We’ve loaded up the hair with probably about a half a bottle of modifying spray, just to give us a nice grip to the texture, and blow dried it loosely back away from the face. The idea with this windswept feel is that she has frozen pieces. It’s this goddess who has been foraging through the arctic. We’ve created these knots in the back, but we started with a braid to set up the base of it. After that, we changed the look just slightly. The knot at the back is simple, and we are keeping the ends loose. The idea is that the ends are frozen pieces from her journey. You’ll see it mirrors the clothing perfectly.
How long before the show did you plan the look?
Let’s see – I think about two weeks ago. Jonathan talks about the things that he’s inspired by and the look and feel that he wants to go for. And then for us, we’ve gotta interpret that vision and make it come to life. We do a hair test the week before on Wednesday – we had a little less than a week to finalize the look. We have to make sure he’s happy and everything works with the clothing, and that we are capturing the look and inspiration of what he’s feeling. If he changes it on a whim we have to go with that, which is cool.
For someone who has fine thin hair, what is a way to recreate the texture?
For one, the modifying spray – don’t be shy with it. I think for a lot of people, you’ll see the key is almost wetting the hair with the product. Because we don’t put elastic around the last little knot that we do, we put a couple of pins in it to keep it steady. But when the hair is really soft – that’s when that knot falls out. Having enough product in the hair so that it’s viable and has enough support is really key for the look. So as far as that goes – using your fingers rather than a brush is best. A lot of times with finer hair, when you are going through with a mason which really grips the hair, it tends to flatten texture. So the idea is to keep it loose at the roots area.
We also got the DL for the makeup look by Maybelline New York:
Basically the look we were discussing with Jonathan is that this woman is shy. She doesn’t have her makeup on – she’s just moisturized. I had the idea that she came off a ski slope and looks very flushed, which we will show later on. She’s going to have this beautiful flush on the checks and on the temple. We basically took the lipstick and used it as a blush, which you start applying at the apples of the cheeks and flow downward. It’s very romantic and subtle. As far as the eyes go, you need two to three things. The pencil, which you rub on the hand, and just pick up a little product with a brush to create a tone in the crease of the eye. On top of that you place the taupe shadow from our nude palette because you don’t want it to look like she’s actually wearing makeup. Then under the eye you add a little of the same tone. The main star of the show is the master highlight stick – I LOVE this. We highlight her cheek bone, under the brow, on the lid, the inner corners of eyes using a small brush, the bridge of nose, cupids bow, and then we wipe off so you get that crystalized gorgeous glow affect. Then at end, you take moisturizer and just dab for that extra glossed skin. She looks dewy and not too done – just fresh. The clothes are so beautiful, and they have a feeling that you’re a woman in Aspen and you just run in from the cold. The look uses very little mascara, and the brows soft. The main feature is the glowy skin.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BB2nuecEtU1/?taken-by=maybelline
Right before the show, we caught up with the global lead educator for Essie, Rita Remark, about her inspiration for the nail look. Check it out.
What inspired the nail look today?
R: The whole collection is cozy and comforting: It’s like she’s going on a winter’s walk. You’re going to notice it’s very textured and very warm. So for the nails, we wanted to recreate that. The trend this season is that the designers actually want the nails to match the clothing – it’s not an accent to the clothing. Have you noticed in other seasons where the nails will actually be a contrast – gold on white or white on black? This season I’m noticing designers are very specific about how the nails match the clothes – it’s almost an extension of the garment. So we chose four colors and they are going to match the colors of the collection. We have “midnight navy,” “find me in oasis” – our ice blue, “marshmallow” – opaque white, and “all eyes on nudes” – part of our cashmere collection. What I’ve done is polished with two coats on top of a base coat, and then finished with a matte top coat. That’s what gives it that very dry, velvety finish. And then as an accent, I’m having the team recreate a cable knit design. We are recreating that on the nail with a gel coat because gives it gives the model a three dimensional nail – it’s very textural. It’s something you want to touch. We are only doing that knit design on the ring and middle finger. You’re gonna notice texture and color perfectly.
