My next Fashion Week challenge is to interview Ayako, International Makeup Director for Nars and personal makeup artist to Naomi Campbell, Alicia Keys and Jennifer Lopez. She’s busy running around supervising the final touches on the models who arrived on time and getting her staff started with the latecomers, so we keep it short and sweet.
Ayako is known for concentrating color on eyes or lips while keeping the skin as natural as possible. I ask her if she’s doing a matte face, and she says, “I’d call it semi-matte. I don’t want it to be flat but I don’t want it to shine either.” She preps the face with makeup primer and follows up with Oil Free Foundation in shades that lean pale. Instead of powder, the final step in this case is Perfecting Powder Sheets, allowing her to eliminate shine without making the face appear chalky.
Since the look at Abaeté is medieval/militaristic, Ayako follows up with a gold eye shadow (Isolde, a new shadow duo that will be part of the fall collection), which she buffs to make less shimmery, and neutral-toned berry lipstick, applied lightly so it’s more of a stain. Her goal is to make the features stand out rather than give an impression of color, and it’s a serious look, as is fitting for this collection.
She creates a strong brow with the help of the Nars Brow Pencil plus some dark powder eye shadow to set it. Finally, she moves on to the cheeks, causing great excitement by showing us the blush compact she’s holding. “This is new, it’s part of the fall collection and it’s Dolce Vita, the same shade as the lipstick and lip gloss.”
Dolce Vita Lipcolor The color looks amazing on every skin tone, natural but deep, like what would happen if a cute guy caught you staring at him and winked at you, and I want one so badly I almost embarrass myself by asking her if I can buy one from her kit. Fortunately I come to my senses and realize that it’s more important for me to get invited back again and I’ll just have to wait like everyone else. (I can see my entire makeup budget this year is going to be spent on Nars, though.)
After chatting with Ayako, I wander around backstage a little bit checking out the clothes, which is heavy on grey with accents of black and white, and features large cross patterns similar to the logo of the Swiss Army knife.
Abaete, NY.com, Imaxtree.com
As David Cruz suggested, many of them are accessorized with a detached cashmere hood that lends them an odd post-apocolyptic feel, like they’re some kind of inventively chic gas mask.
I’m indifferent to the clothes but I feel like that hood is going to be the must-have accessory for fall, and I’m trying to figure out how they’re constructed when an irate PR person sweeps through the backstage area and announces, “Press is no longer allowed back here, I have to escort you out RIGHT NOW.”
This marks the first time I’ve ever been kicked out of a fashion show, and I’m more amused than upset, but now I have several hours before my next show, Verrier, so I head off to Takashimaya to check out their new fragrance section, which has been moved to the ground floor.
At Takashimaya, a nice man holding a jar of Ambra di Venezia body cream tries to politely push it on me and when I keep telling him I already have it at home, he doesn’t quite believe me because it’s a very niche fragrance.
It turns out he’s Montgomery Taylor, the perfumer who created it, and I reassure him that I really do own it and love it (I got mine at Aedes).
He extracts a promise from me to make all my friends try it and then I move on to the Fragonard counter, where I find a fragrance with the same name as my daughter.
I spend more time wandering around Fifth Avenue window-shopping, and before I know it, it’s time to go back up to Bryant Park for Verrier.
Next–Sneaking Backstage At Verrier!!
Thanks to Nancy Lichtenstein for her wonderful 411 on the makeup from NARS and her lovely visit to Takashimaya!!
Wait till you see Verrier
Stevie Wilson
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