New York Fashion Week brings star-studded parties, memorable front row celeb sightings, and an exorbitant amount of street style inspiration. But it’s backstage where the beauty trends take form. The best hairstylists, makeup artists, and nail designers in the business team up with fashion’s most influential names to ideate and usher in a new era of glam. Take the Spring/Summer 2024 season, for instance. It was there that bow-adorned braids signaled the explosion of ribbon-core and simple, strawberry makeup made a foray into the beauty space.
Despite the fact that the current season has just started (NYFW kicked off on Friday, February 9), it’s already abundantly clear that the coquettish fixation of months past is being slowly, but surely, retired. In its place, we’re seeing what’s essentially a complete 180. The soft and feminine chignons accompanied by loose tendrils are being swapped for stark and angular parts; hair bows are being tossed to the side for hair tattoos (take a peek at Collina Strada’s hair breakdown), and soft-pinch, pinky glam has been substituted for deep and dark smoky eyes like those seen at Helmut Lang.
To get a full breakdown on the beauty looks taking over the runways, keep scrolling. The Marie Claire beauty team spent quality time backstage watching the most notable hair, makeup, and nail moments come to life. From the products you’ll need to recreate the looks to insider secrets from the pros themselves, everything you need to know about the best beauty looks from New York Fashion Week, ahead.
Gold-Plated Scalps at Christian Siriano
Last year at Christian Siriano, celebrity hairstylist Lacy Redway spearheaded ribbon-core with a dainty, pink ribbon-embellished braided chignon. This year? She kicked off the first show of the season with quite a different vibe: a square-shaped bun with gold flakes lining a stark center part. “We’ve been in ballerina-core for so long and I want to move past it. Now, we’re updating our traditional bun into this square shape. I’m hoping to see more decorative parts and hair jewelry. It’s an update to a hair accessory. We ignore parts all the time, so I really wanted to highlight that,” she tells me backstage. “Christian has a lot of reflective fabrics—so I really want the hair to shine through, literally.”
The makeup for the show was also metallic thanks to Charlotte Tilbury’s genius work. The “futuristic, sun-drenched look” featured the brand’s new Pinks collection, with models getting a swipe of Icon Baby lipstick.
Hair Tattoos at Collina Strada
Leave it to Collina Strada to bring a bit of beauty excitement to the catwalk. Teaming up with the amazingly talented Evanie Frausto, Bumble and Bumble’s Global Artistic Ambassador, the models wore hair tattoos on their slicked back hair. “This is my sixth season of Collina and we normally go for this organic, dry, messy hair. Now we’re flipping the script and doing a complete 180. We’re going very sharp and tidy and edgy,” he shares. “This Collina logo, which is a star on one side and a fairy wing on the other, has been made out of hair—we’re calling them hair tattoos.” The Bumble and Bumble BB Gel was the hair tattoos secret weapon. The gel doubled as an adhesive between the wig hair and the model’s own hair.
Intense Eyes at Helmut Lang
Windswept grunge was the name of the game backstage at Helmut Lang, where lead MAC makeup artist Daniel Sallstrom wanted the models to look like they had taken time to execute a perfect makeup look, only to be attacked by the elements (namely wind) the second they stepped outside; hence the messy black eyeliner. To achieve the look, the team of makeup artists actually used a MAC's MACximal Silky Matte Lipstick in shade Caviar to paint feathery strokes across the models' lids.
