Five Beauty Looks We Loved at Paris Fashion Week
From boldly bound ponytails to the return of the once-banished acrylic nail, Paris Fashion Week proved yet again that the French really know how to pull off effortless polish and laissez-faire beauty like nobody else.
Photographed by Kevin Tachman1/5**Guido Palau’**s cinched ponytails at Valentino were superlong, lean, and rigorously bound with thin black bands. They made us pine for the hip-grazing hair of youth—all the better to wear with one of the house’s diaphanous dresses.
Photographed by Kevin Tachman2/5With an approach to craftmanship and fabric innovation that, at times, seemed to border on couture, the fall ready-to-wear collections called for rich embellishment above the neck. At Christian Dior, it arrived by way of an unexpected—and literally brilliant—medium: glitter. “It’s about dimension,” said makeup artist Pat McGrath of the electric-blue glimmering eyes she created backstage at Dior by pressing tiny sparkling pigments into liquid Latex.
Photo: Marcus Tondo/Indigitalimages.com3/5The surplus of pretty young things sporting bangs on the Saint Laurent runway called to mind sixties icons, from Jane Birkin and Penelope Tree to Betty Catroux—not to mention modern-day It girls like Alexa Chung(who, come to think of it, would look right at home in one of **Hedi Slimane’**s Peter Pan collars). The beauty message: You’re going to want to wear your fringe wispy and easy come fall.
Photo: Marcus Tondo/Indigitalimages.com4/5Just when you think acrylic nails are dead, along comes Hussein Chalayan, who flipped them on their head by turning them into the most weirdly beautiful sartorial embellishment we saw this week.
Photographed by Kevin Tachman5/5Bringing a season’s worth of supermodel sightings to a head, Freja Beha Erichsen made a surprise appearance on the runway, opening **Nicolas Ghesquière’**s first show for Louis Vuitton with a resounding bang. With the designer’s razor-cut leather coat, cream-colored minidress, and low-heeled boots, the Danish model’s clean skin, rumpled waves, and incomparable cool felt totally right. We loved it.