New York Fashion Week A/W 2013-14

NONE OF THESE IMAGES ARE MY OWN. FROM VARIOUS INTERNET SOURCES.

It’s Fashion Month again! As I hope will become a regular feature on this blog, I’ll be putting together my beauty favourites from each Fashion Week. Kicking off in New York, it has certainly been a fascinating week for fashion and for beauty. I was personally most excited about Victoria Beckham’s collection, I love her structured yet fresh and modern aesthetic, and her brand certainly seems to be going from strength to strength at the moment.

Makeup trends seemed to focus on dark lips; these were mostly a glossy, bitten lip such as at Sally Lapointe, Vera Wang  and Cynthia Rowley I think this is an incredibly wearable look, with flawless skin and minimal mascara it could easily be worn day to night. If you wanted to vamp it up, soft smudgy eyeliner and more lashings of mascara would give it a bit more strength, while still remaining feminine. Plum lipsticks also make brilliant cream blushes even on the palest skin tones.

Sally Lapointe

Vera Wang

Cynthia Rowley

My favourite red lip was at Costello Tagliapietra, which speaks for itself I think! Matte and Gorgeous.

Makeup trends also saw lots of smoky eyes, however these have a squarer shape this season. Don’t think so much about winging it out at the outer corner of your eye, but shade the inner corner lightly up to your eyebrow to square it off. On the catwalk, smoky eyes were sometimes shaded right up to the brows, as at Donna Karan and Nicholas K, I would personally tone this down for a more wearable look, by using lighter colours and less shadow, but it depends how brave you are!

Donna Karan

Nicholas K

There was still a place for graphic liner, as at Jen Kao and Monique Lhuillier. 

Jen Kao

Monique Lhuillier

Jason Wu also deserves a special mention, the violet eye was beautiful and really stood out as a look. You could make this as subtle or as bold as you wanted, with shadows or just a flick of violet mascara. I imagine this would be gorgeous on darker skin tones.

Skin seemed to be more semi-matte, as at Alexander Wang, 3.1 Phillip Lim and Derek Lam. Skin is still glowing and luminous, but with more of a satin finish. I LOVE Diorskin Forever for a semi-matte foundation. It gives good buildable coverage but still looks like glowing skin.

Alexander Wang

3.1 Philip Lim

Derek Lam

Poker straight hair made many appearances, such as at DKNY, Dust off your straightners and invest in a good heat-protecting spray would be my advice!

Volume in the hair seemed to be more at the ends than the roots, to look relaxed and lovingly dishevelled and grungy. Derek Lam left straight hair in braids and then unravelled them into kinks before the show; and Marc by Marc Jacobs tonged the hair and then unravelled the tight curls for Jerry Hall-esque volume.  This could be easily done at home; braid or curl your hair before you go to bed and sleep on it to get some loose volume without too much effort.

Marc by Marc Jacobs

I also loved the take on texture and braids at Rodarte. Soft but elegant and very wearable indeed.

Rodarte

I am always a fan of the perfect blow dry, and if your style is more glamour than grunge, then you’re on the same wavelength as St John and Marrisa Webb, who complimented their collections with a glossy finish on the hair.

Marrisa Webb

St John

Hair up included lots of ponytails, which varied from low and messy at Louise Amstrup and Victoria Beckham, to pristine equestrian at Donna Karan. Alexander Wang used red hair wefts in the pontyails to give a two-tone effect.

Louise Amstrup

Victoria Beckham

Donna Karan

Alexander Wang

Hairstyles also featured braids and texture around the head. At Carolina Herrera this was a more traditional, classic style, whereas Kimberly Ovitz changed it up a bit with a more modern take on a classic. 

Carolina Herrera

Kimberly Ovtiz