Today’s Valentino show inside Paris’s Carreau du Temple was a rendezvous between the past and present, the atelier and the street. “It’s a mash up of Valentino and street style,” explained make-up artist Pat McGrath backstage, in reference to the overarching beauty attitude for this season. “We’re mixing every era together…’70s, ’80s, ’90s…”
With her work cut out for her, McGrath supplied individual looks with a directional slant to all 96 of the models in the lineup. There were graphic wings of black eyeliner, sweeps of draped blush, and bold lips in shades of plum, brick red, and burgundy, among many other head-swiveling looks.
“It’s about creativity, reality, and reflecting the street,” echoed hairstylist Guido Palau, who also had his hands full bringing to life a breadth of different hair looks that ran the gamut from intricate, thigh-skimming braids to punkish shaggy mullets and a swooped, sculptural New Romantics updo. Carrying on the parade of fantasy color seen earlier in the day at Loewe, there were also neon-bright hair color treatments, including an ultraviolet bob and dip-dyed, blue-green shaggy strands. As far as aspirational runway beauty goes, it doesn’t get more real-world wearable than Valentino’s above-the-neck celebration of individuality. It’s all about what suits you…in the most striking sense.
