5 beauty trends from Paris Fashion Week spring/summer 2020 to know now
Image credit: Jamie Stoker
Paris Fashion Week spring/summer 2020—what a way to end the month. Just as you think you can’t take any more shots of the catwalk flooding your Instagram feed, Paris Fashion Week—in all its pure fashion genius—resurrects the love of spring/summer beauty. From slicked-back hair to sci-fi metals with a romantic twist, the hairstylists and make-up artists on the backstage beauty scene give the rundown of spring/summer 2020’s biggest trends.
Here are the five key beauty trends you need to know from Paris Fashion Week spring/summer 2020.
Image credit: Getty Images
Click Here: Spain Football Shop
The trend: undone cat-eyes
Where we’ve seen it: Saint Laurent, Celine, Isabel Marant, Elie Saab, Koché, Lanvin, Zadig & Voltaire, Chloé.
What you need to know: from layered lockets and tiny vests at Saint Laurent to the slashed denim at Celine, Kate Moss’s iconic style—especially circa early 2000s—was all over the Paris runways this season. And her influence infiltrated beauty trends, too, with dewy skin and don’t-care hair in abundance—a throwback that was especially fitting at Zadig & Voltaire, where Moss herself was a guest designer.
The standout look? A perfectly smoky eye; and all it takes is one staple item in your make-up bag: the kohl pencil. “Being a make-up artist who originated in the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, if I were to have one product in my kit, it would probably be a black eye pencil,” says Terry Barber at Koché. “It’s that idea of a knowing smudge, but we’re not talking some cliché of rock ’n’ roll or grunge. It’s about the wearer and feeling the right way. You’ve been out all night and you’ve sweated away [your make-up] on a dance floor—and [it] looks a certain way, but you like it.”
At the opposite end of the scale, make-up artist Alex Babsky worked an alternative cat-eye for Givenchy: “[Model and actress] Hunter [Schafer] and I were both keen for the shape not to be pointy at the ends, to avoid turning it into a traditional cat-eye. I wanted to avoid the shape touching Hunter’s actual lash line, so that it didn’t resemble regular liner in any way.”
Recreate the look: the kohl pencil is king here. Take a dark, true-black pigment that is easily blurred, using your fingertips to smudge under the lower lash line. M.A.C Eye Kohl eyeliner has the perfect soft pencil for smudging.
Image credit: Getty Images
The trend: heavy metallics
Where we’ve seen it: Altuzarra, Balmain, Dries Van Noten, Off-White, Lutz Huelle, Valentino, Mugler.
What you need to know: while shining faces might sound like an old cliché, it became a literal modern mandate this season. Make-up artists (including Fara Homidi at Off White) and hairstylists (including Jawara Wauchope at Mugler) brought metallic accents in the form of loose glitter, liquid-silver liners and chainmail barrettes that weighed a reported 10 pounds (approximately 4.5 kilograms) each, bravely sported by Bella Hadid to open Mugler.
At Dries Van Noten, make-up artist Peter Philips used gold dots inspired by model Chai Maximus’s actual face piercings; while Pat McGrath went for a more gilded, galactic look at Valentino. At Balmain, where Kylie Jenner debuted her make-up collaboration, signature products were packed with silver and rose shimmer, applied with a wet brush to the lids and shaped into sharp, super-shiny cat eyes. “The collection is the perfect blend of our personalities and visions, with one goal at the heart of it: to make everyone who wears it feel confident, beautiful and authentically themselves,” said Jenner.
Recreate the look: get excessive with shine and layer up to create solid tones. Pat McGrath’s new Nocturnal Nirvana Blitz Astral Eyeshadow Quad and Kylie x Balmain City of Love Eyeshadow are the ultimate shades for this trend.
Image credit: GoRunway.com
The trend: Wet-look futurism
Where we’ve seen it: Loewe, Hermes, Elie Saab, Lanvin, Haider Ackermann.
What you need to know: the wet look was splashed across New York, London and Milan fashion weeks and now it’s soaked Paris with ultra-smooth, gleaming hair. The strict precision of this look is such that it almost appears plastic. Whether used to counteract floaty, ethereal clothes, as seen at Loewe, or playing into the general feel of futuristic machismo, cue Haider Ackermann, it’s efficiently cool—and especially useful on rainy days. (Models Adut Akech and Selena Forrest at Lanvin walked an entire catwalk during a full downpour.)
“These super-sleek looks, such as Loewe’s ponytail from this season, have a very deep side-part for a masculine, almost 1920s feel,” says hairstylist Guido Palau. “She’s very strong and isn’t going to let anything get in her way—her hair is out of her face, but deliberate, calculated. It’s simple because the clothes are more complicated, but it still shows the strength of each model.”
Recreate the look: use a comb and then fingertips to run a finishing product through clean hair. Got2B Glued Ultra Gel and Redken Triple Pure 32 Extreme High-Hold Hairspray are your go-to wet-look products.
Image credit: Getty Images
The trend: Brushed-up brows
Where we’ve seen it: Mugler, Haider Ackermann, Junya Watanabe, Balenciaga.
What you need to know: remember the panic earlier this year, at the rumour of skinny brows—à la 1990s Drew Barrymore—coming back into the beauty-sphere? Perhaps it was a false alarm. MVP models such as Meghan Roche and Kyla Ramsey brought full brows into full focus; plus major runway moments starred huge, exaggerated brows that referenced everything from vintage Hollywood to gender-fluid ideals. In every case, the message was clear (and arched, and bushy): put down the tweezers.
“This make-up is based on the beginning of glamour,” says make-up artist Inge Grognard at Mugler. “We brush up the eyebrows and then think about blading [them]—that’s the perfect contouring. A sharp, thin line in the same colour of the eyebrows. The line goes up a little bit—very sharp. Everything should be sharp!”
Recreate the look: shape and economical grooming has been the siren song for great brows for years now. The best of the best is still M.A.C Shape and Shade Brow Tint and a spoolie brush.
Image credit: GoRunway.com
The trend: Sculptural hair
Where we’ve seen it: Comme des Garçons, Dries Van Noten, Junya Watanabe, Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood, Yohji Yamamoto, Rick Owens, Thom Browne.
What you need to know: fashion shows have always been a cinematic affair, but with the rise of social media and its pressure to translate style into spectacle, hairstylists are throwing down the gauntlet. Comme des Garçons saw Queen of Hearts couture, with red sculptural headpieces; at Dries Van Noten, it was Crayola-punk creations. By the time session-stylist Eugene Souleiman debuted Thom Browne’s massive wigs—dubbed “1980’s Marie Antoinette”—it was obvious that more isn’t just more, it’s now
“Its inspiration is historical punk, but the look is present day—especially because you’ve got to do it with a blow dryer and hairspray,” explains hairstylist Sam McKnight.
Recreate the look: Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer coupled with Sam McKnight Modern Hairspray—or just get a wig and call it a day.