New York Fashion Week: Donna Karan, Fall 2009

Backstage at Donna Karan, I chatted up lead makeup artist, Charlotte Tilbury about the vision and aesthetic. “The look today at Donna Karan came to be because we were looking at these 1920's and 30's sepia-toned photographs, and I just loved that there was something modern about it. So we wanted to translate that to a modern Donna Karan girl," Charlotte explained. "We put gloss on the eye, which has a little bit of sepia and black in it, with flecks of gold through it. And it’s wet, so it’s a modern texture. It goes all the way up to the eyebrow and there’s no form to it…it’s just a great big shadow with a wet, modern texture. We’re brushing up the eyebrows. We’re highlighting the top of the cheekbones and the nose with an iridescent cream (Cream Colour Base in Pearl), which brings a wonderful light to the face. And we’re putting a little bit of a beige-y kind of lipstick (Half And Half Lipstick) - very neutral, quite light on the lips. And a tiny bit of the Reflects highlighter on the bow of the lips.”

I ran into my old pal Victor C, Senior Artist for MAC - who provided additional insight into the inspiration and products. "There is a mushroomy shade on the eyes, Cream Colour Base in Dusk. And on top of it, Charlotte put a gloss. The gloss is actually intended for the lips and it’s going to be coming out in a collection focusing on the color black. So this gloss has an emerald green pearl in it and it enhances the mushroom color of the Cream Colour Base. Dusk is kinda silvery and gives the illusion that there’s a shadow on the eye. I think it’s what’s kind of interesting about shadows is sometimes shadows are meant to enhance bone structure or bring out the prettiness. But in this case, the shadows are giving the face a more grown-up look. Not just on this show - there are a lot of shows that are using grays and mushroom tones. Not the blink blink, wink wink kind of pretty. It’s a lot more like the 1930’s Hollywood pictures where the girls might have been 21 years old, but they look really mature - like they’ve had life experience.”

Cream Colour Base in Dusk

Victor let me play around with and swatch the Bling black gloss from the upcoming black collection.

Victor continued, “We’re also doing really beautiful skin; skin that just shines with the light, no matter what direction you turn. It’s like, again, 1930's Hollywood headshots. On the lip, it’s lightly natural with a little bit of shimmer on the bow of the lip.”

When I asked Victor about trends for fall, he replied, "I see a lot of black being used. I'm calling it 'perfect penmanship.' I’m going to try to create that as a trend, myself, because a lot of the lines have been perfect and very graphic. Last season, the look was Kate Moss, rock and roll - like she slept in her makeup. Now it’s all about graphic precision, which I think is going to be an emerging trend."

I didn't get an opportunity to interview lead hairstylist Eugene Souleiman (working with Wella Professional). His styles were so intricate and laborious, he had absolutely no time for idle chit chat. The finished look was architectural and breathtaking. I've seen a lot of pretty hairdos at Fashion Week shows...but this was simply inspired. Each models' hair was adorned with over 100 u-shaped hair pins! Can you even believe such things are possible?

Finally, I spoke to Creative Nail Design's Lulu Cooper about nails. As she applied CND Serenity to one model's nails, she explained that it was chosen for its "clean, buff look." The nail shape was a slight almond. "Not too pointed and definitely not square," she said. "The square shape is for a younger girl. The almond-shaped nail is for a more mature, more sophisticated woman."