The Marc Jacobs show was always going to be an interesting one. Remember last season? All the smudgy blue lids and dishevelled mouths and piled up textured hair? The security at this show is strict too, since the backstage area is crammed full of creative celebrities in their own right. Marc Jacobs aside, superstylist Guido created the hair concept and is there to oversee each girl getting their hour in the hair chair. That lengthy intricacy alone explains the 5 hours backstage allocation, rather than the usual 2 or so. Then there is Francois Nars (Mr. Nars to you and me) talking through the six different beauty looks. ("Do not take his picture, do not crowd him, do not look him in the eye" - I made that last one up, but the other two, we were told on the door). Oh, and add Lady Gaga into the mix and the Marc Jacobs show just knocked everything else out of the park. (She also happened to look amazing in the gothic look created by Guido and Francois Nars, scrtoll to the bottom)
The Makeup
Francois Nars; 'The inspiration was black. Really like black black. The whole show is black, all the clothes are black. '
So the mood was dark, with Mr. Nars creating different characters in line with Marc Jacobs' vision. They had a chat beforehand. 'He always has a strong theme in his head, so Guido and I know what ot translate. The inspiration was like Alice Cooper. A touch of punk, the New York underground scene. Six differen't looks was enough to really tell a story about the girl Marc had in mind.
Every girl had bleached brows 'to create a blank canvas really so we could repaint everything any way we wanted.' with a variation on a black there. Be that dark lip, a dramatic smudged eye, a painterly black eye, and all with the same intricately gelled finger wave hair.
Mr Nars decided who should wear what by printing out a picture of every girl, then painting over the top of them to work out what would look best on who.
The hair
Hairstylist Guido created a perfect fingerwave, close to the head to deliver the dark side, with softer textured ends. The whole look is slightly raw to give the effect that the girls could have done it htmeselves. After an awful lot of practice, granted, but there was nothing too perfect about the hair or makeup.
Guido said 'Finger waving is very old fashioned technique from the 20’s, even earlier, Victorian days. We modernised it by leaving the ends out so you get these two textures, the natural ends give it a kind of gothic mood which feels a little strange. We used Redken Hardwear Gel (best UK alternative is Velvet Gelatine) which we finger waved into the hair and strong hold hairspray to set it in. She’s a darker character this season but still done whimsically. The whole silhouette is very extreme.' He used
The end result was a beautiful piece of theatre, perfect for the vast show space and pretty arresing guest appearance in the form of Lady Gaga. Black beauty is going to be big.
