In case you missed the memo, fashion is BACK baby, as is all the glamour and hustle and bustle and shows full of incredibly well-dressed people, both on and off the catwalk. Packed (vaxxed and masked) rooms, inspiring runways and - our favourite - a peek at future beauty trends. Of course, Dior never fails to tick all of these boxes.
This season, the brand's Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri took us on a little time warp with a sixties-inspired Dior Spring-Summer 2022 Ready-to-Wear collection, full of bright mini skirts and thigh-skimming shifts, all displayed on a multi-coloured disco dance floor setting. With such a vibrant, dare we say, groovy, collection you might think the make-up brief would be equally as funky. But Dior are never ones to do the predictable.
'Maria Grazia wanted a sixties-inspired look, and of course she loves a black eyeliner,' Dior's Creative and Image Director for Dior Makeup, Peter Philips, told ELLE backstage, referring to Chiuri's signature kohl-rimmed eyes. 'There was a black and white picture from the sixties of a woman in profile, looking down with thick, thick lashes and a classic eyeliner. But she didn't want lashes, no mascara: she liked the space created with the liner. She didn't want something retro, she wanted something raw.'
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Playing with that idea of space, Philips came up with idea of a double-liner look. 'On the bottom is a half-down line (starting from almost the centre of the eye), and then on the top it's doubled,' he explained of the cat-eye look. 'Then the space in between is filled in. Not to keep it crisp, but to create contrast between the two lines.' The result is a cool-girl take on a classic: 'It's not too neat: too neat means ballroom, too neat means cabaret. We like it a bit more raw.'
Letting the eyes do the talking (a signature of Philips' Dior looks) the rest of the face was pared back. 'There's no colour on the rest of the face,' he told ELLE, 'Once you add colour, it can start becoming "cute", and we didn't want that. Colour also can make it more retro and vintage. The minimalism makes it modern.' Think the exact opposite of Instagram face.
Shop Dior's SS22 Make-Up Look
Skin was prepped using a hydrating face cream, then evened out with a light foundation, model's with oilier eyelids had a 'little cloud of soft eyeshadow' to mattify. Brows were filled 'but in a very sheer way, just filling in a where they were sparse' and elongated ever so slightly. 'I don't like it when a brow stops short of the liner' says Philips, 'so we've kept them in the same alignment, which also helps to pull out the eye.'
Sounds simple right? With a steady hand, yes. The tricky part might be showing restraint, holding back from adding your usual mascara, blush and even the sheerest lip tint. Our tip: remembering that for cool-girl 'raw', less is more.
Every High Fashion Make-Up Look From Backstage At Fashion Week SS22
Jennifer George is Beauty Editor across both ELLE UK and Harper's Bazaar, creating content for print and online, from zeitgeisty features to conceptual still life and make-up shoots. Despite a career that's focused mainly on luxury (from events to editorial), her ride or die hair product is a £4 bargain. With a Little Black Book of London's clinics, doctors and hotels, she's the team's resident 'Tweakment' and spa expert.
