Where once the womenswear shows were the home of extreme beauty, with mega make-up looks dominating the catwalks, the past few seasons have instead celebrated a rawer, more real kind of beauty. But if extreme is still your thing, then look to the menswear schedule, because designers seem to be serving it up in spades. In fact, the LFWM autumn/winter 19 shows have been a spectacle of surreal, experimental make-up maximalism. It could be changing gender and beauty norms sparking the shift. Or, perhaps it’s all thanks to the new class of boundary-pushing make-up artists like Lucy Bridge and Daniel Sallstrom. Either way, we’re here for it.
Here are nine of our favourite extreme beauty looks from the LFWM shows.
Thom Browne
At Thom Browne, make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench gave models the full eye shadow and lipstick get-up, before vacuum-packing each face in a kinda makeshift cling-film mask. Perhaps this is the best way to get that “glass skin” the Instagram beauty-set loves.
Versace
Buzzcut art is taking off! Remember this Coach logo collage atop Finn Buchanan’s head? For Versace, hairstylist Guido Palau and colourist Davide took the trend to another level, turning João Knorr’s hair into a leopard print masterpiece.
Art School
The Insta caption for Art School’s collection, its first solo catwalk show, reads: “The weather outside is heavy, the wind and rain won’t let but ART SCHOOL don’t turn back. They belong. Their community is evolving, continuing to push forward notions of otherness.” And it’s an ethos that totally extended to the beauty choices. There were fuchsia beards, grunge-y fluro eyeshadow that dripped from the eyes and dishevelled hair that looked like it had been caught in a downpour.
Charles Jeffrey Loverboy
Make-up artist Lucy Bridge may have described the defining look of the Charles Jeffrey Loverboy show as “the art of being a wallflower”, but take one look at the face covered in hundreds of crystals and dramatically-winged, eye-engulfing eyeliner and it’s clear she was being sarcastic. On other faces, Bridge added overdrawn features, like angular eyebrows and fake facial hair, but a particular highlight was the look she dubbed “lord of the flies” — an illustrated face dotted with life-like sketches of flies.
Kiko Kostadinov
Long dark hair hung over the models’ faces at Kiko Kostadinov, like itchy, sight-obstructing balaclavas, accented by strings of glimmering beads.
Liam Hodges
At Liam Hodges, the beauty message was fixated on the eyes. Make-up artist Jenny Coombs covered some models’ eyes with blurred-out contact lenses, encircled others with hypnotising Cheshire cat-style spirals and painted some faces with one, two or three extra sets of weirdly realistic-looking peepers.
Chalayan
Most of the models on the Chalayan catwalk had a decidedly pared-back make-up look, but the few that wore neon lipstick — to compliment the fluorescent shades of the collection — served as a welcome surprise.
Xander Zhou
Things got pretty freaky at Xander Zhou, where werewolf fangs grew from mouths and foreheads dripped with slimy-looking icicles, all courtesy of make-up wizard Nami Yoshida.
Mowalola
And, for stand-out star Mowalola’s debut appearance on the Fashion East catwalk, make-up artist Daniel Sallstrom made full use of MAC’s kaleidoscopic shade range by painting models’ faces in colourful camouflage, with bright paint splodges and splatters. Fun!