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Cyber Punk Vs Neat Goth - LFW SS19 Was Feeling The Alt Beauty Trends
With a dash of emo in between.
Forget bronzed eyes, barely there make-up and big, bouncy blowdries, London Fashion Week was all about being a total beauty badass.
From '90s PJ Harvey and Tim Burton's Nina Ricci, to a Baby Spice/supermodel punk mash-up, the subculture beauty references seemed to be converging around two tribes: punk or goth.
Take Gareth Pugh, where make-up artist Val Garland created a cacophony of 80s punk icon Judy Blame-inspired beauty looks, or Ashley Williams, where backstage Thomas De Kluyver recreated emo teenage angst via smudged black eyeliner.
The question is: to mohawk or moody bob? You decide.
Punk - Nicholas Kirkwood
The Pro: Sam McKnight on hair, Andrew Gallimore for NARS on make-up.
The Look: Post-apocalyptic computer hacker complete with silver circuit board face transfers and braids woven with light up neon wire.
The Notes: Taking a punk sensibility to a tech-obsessed future, make-up artist Andrew Gallimore combined greasy oil slick black eye make-up (using NARS Full Vinyl Lip lacquer) with silver foil circuit board transfers so models looked like they were adapting to become 'a little bit robot'.
On hair, backstage legend Sam McKnight transformed traditional dutch braids into an updo worthy of a dystopian tech warrior. Think dayglo loops of woven neon plastic not dissimilar to the tangle of wires at the back of our TV.
The Product: NARS Full Vinyl Lip lacquer in Everglades - £23 BUY
Goth - Ashley Williams
The Pro: Alex Brownsell for BLEACH on hair, Thomas De Kluyver for MAC on make-up
The Look: 90s PJ Harvey teenager with layered black and red pencil eyeliner and glossy goth bobs.
The Notes: Reflecting the teenage nostalgia purveying Ashley Williams' SS19 collection was the suitably emo hair and make-up look. Think angst-ridden eyes ringed with messily applied black and red pencil eyeliner, 'I wanted her to look like she was sitting in her bedroom applying her make-up, getting it wrong and just layering on more'. For hair it was all about high-shine bobs that wouldn't look out of place in a throwback post of The Horrors.
The Product: MAC Kohl Power Eye Pencil - £15 BUY
Punk - Molly Goddard
The Pro: Luke Hersheson for John Frieda on hair.
The Look: Baby Spice meets 90s John Galliano-esque anarchy via spiky knotted mohawks.
The Notes: Making a slight diversion away from her usual girly girl on acid tulle confections, Molly Goddard's SS19 collection introduced structured tailoring for a tougher twist. Mimicking the feistier Goddard girl, Hersheson took the sweetness of Baby Spice and gave it a 90s supermodel androgyny. The result? A five-part knotted faux-hawk with spiky ends 'that's almost a fringe but feels more boyish'.
The Product: John Frieda Root Booster Blow Dry Lotion - £6.99 BUY
Goth - Halpern
The Pro: Sam McKnight on hair.
The Look: Jet black goth beehives with super straight slicked-down sideburns.
The Notes: Continuing AW18's love of bigger is better hair, Halpern turned to hair maestro Sam McKnight to give the classic 60s up-do, a tough gothic twist. 'We're using wigs so the girls have an eerily uniform look,' he explained. 'Then I'm spraying tons of my modern Hairspray and Easy-Up Do to create height and a bit of Cock Grease on the front so it looks stuck down. It's a masculine take on a classic beehive with serious goth vibes.'
The Product: Sam McKnight Easy-Up Do Texture Spray - £25 BUY
Punk - Gareth Pugh
The Pro: Val Garland for MAC on make-up, Syd Hayes for Babyliss PRO on hair.
The Look: 80s club culture punk meets 2018 drag. Everything from Boy George eye make-up and Madonna-esque skinny brows, to Instaboy highlighter and Judy Blame button mouths.
The Notes: Gareth Pugh's SS19 collection was an homage to his late friend, fashion stylist and punk icon, Judy Blame, and the beauty look didn't disappoint. With no less than six different make-up looks, Val Garland adorned models with Sink The Pink levels of outrageouness in the form of pink skinny brows, safety pin transfer tattoos through mouths, prosthetic Amanda Lepore-style 'botox' lips and Blame's signature button placed on pouts. We didn't even mention the model whose head got half-covered in plasters.
Adding to the punk drag theme was Syd Hayes on hair who styled wigs into Sid Vicious style spikes, 'aggressive' fin-like mohicans and Marcel waves finished with a matte black version of his own Syd Pin hair clip.
The Product: Anything MAC (and a few plasters).
Goth - Ryan Lo
The Pro: Sam McKnight on hair, Miranda Joyce for MAC on make-up
The Look: Nina Ricci circa Sleepy Hollow with eerily perfect bobs and childlike ribbons.
The Notes: Ryan Lo's frothy pastel pink girl got a gothic update for SS19. Drawing on Grimms' Fairytales for heroine inspiration, make-up artist Miranda Joyce gave models smudged kohl-lined eyes and glossy red lips for a badass Margot Tenenbaum meets Snow White vibe. Finishing the Tim Burton-inspired look was McKnight's perfectly curled under bobs adorned with doll-like black ribbons. Unsettling at the least.
The Product: MAC Retro Matte Lipstick in Ruby Woo - £17.50 BUY
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