Porcelain and crystal – Style

“Kommersant Style” – about the most memorable images of the spring-summer 2024 couture shows.

Maison Margiela

The most sensational show, which is already recognized as a masterpiece and a revival of Fashion: John Galliano for Maison Margiela showed the underside of Paris, as if he had brought to life the paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec. Models (including actress Gwendoline Christie) walked through the dimly lit space under the Pont Alexandre III in stunning dresses of sheer fabric and tight corsets. Along with dramatic silhouettes and wigs, special makeup was used for the pubic area, which turned each model into a doll with glossy, glass-like skin. “The makeup for the show is a modern take on porcelain-and-glass skin,” said the show’s head makeup artist, Pat McGrath. And this makeup literally went viral, and the cosmetics needed to create it were sold out months in advance (in fact, no one fully knows how exactly McGrath was able to achieve this effect). In addition to working with skin texture, she bleached the models’ eyebrows and replaced them with “thin, arched lines drawn in neutral shades.”

Jean Paul Gaultier by Simone Rocha

Simone Rocha’s first couture collection for Jean-Paul Gaultier (held at the designer’s Paris headquarters, which was once a ribbon factory) is full of recognizable elements of Gaultier’s style (vests, corsets and headpieces). Among the bright and completely new details for the designer are rhinestones glued by makeup artist Thomas de Kluyver to the eyebrows, eyelids, hands and lips of the models, and hairstyles, accessorized and fancifully styled – the idea and embodiment of stylist Holly Smith.

Christian Dior

Transparent pale skin and black wings are an unmistakable Dior style. The hair was woven into careless braids, gathered into light buns and decorated with elegant black ribbons.

Alaia

The designer and his team showed “soft glamour”. The models’ makeup was overseen by the ubiquitous Pat McGrath, who put smooth, radiant skin at the center of the looks to “emphasize each model’s individual beauty.”

Armani Prive

Pastel dresses with peplums, crystal bodices and late 1980s style makeup with complex shadows, bright lipstick and side swept bangs and thin braids.

Chanel

The main message is youth and youth: pink glossy accents in makeup, and in the models’ hairstyles – flying bangs, bows, skillfully collecting strands to give the hairstyle a girlish elegance and lightness.

Schiaparelli

Bleached eyebrows, light pinkish-sand shadows – everything that does not distract from complexly cut clothes and accessories like a robot baby.

Valentino

The faces of the models are devoid of any hint of makeup, with the exception of a thin colored veil that illuminates the lips: a radiant complexion and natural, but perfectly groomed eyebrows – everything to focus on the play of light and shadow and become the frame of complex outfits.

Fendi

The futuristic show featured slicked-back, aerodynamic hairstyles, diamond-encrusted glasses that covered the models’ cheekbones and noses, and almost no makeup.

Giambattista Valli

A collection of color and layering. The models’ faces have hypertrophied eyelashes glued on them, and their hair has elegant bows and black ribbons.

Victor & Rolf

Tall, tight, glossy buns embody the timeless simplicity and flirtatiousness of this hairstyle from the world of ballroom dancing. Almost every one of them is finished with a flirty curl or complemented with satin ribbons. Makeup is minimal.

Irina Kiriyenko