Straight hair or wavy. A strong eye or a statement-making lip. Each season, key beauty trends are created for the catwalk by a handful of elite makeup artists and hairstylists. Here, meet 14 of the most influential. They not only enhance a designer’s individual vision, but collectively create new directions in beauty that are translated from the runway to retail and inspire consumers for seasons to come.
This season’s hottest Makeup Artists.
This season’s hottest Hairstylists.
MAKEUP ARTISTS
GORDON ESPINET
Agency: N/A
Shows: Six, including Vivienne Westwood, Threeasfour, Elie Saab, Rosa Chá, Willow.
Company Affiliation: Vice president, global makeup artistry, MAC
Creative Philosophy: Beauty has many faces and is no longer measured by a specific standard. Beauty is as unique as each individual who has existed on this planet.
Spring Is All About: “The Cool Factor.” It’s more important to look cool than to look cute! The Nineties grunge trend has been reborn, but it’s cleaned up. Skin has a sheen that looks like it’s made of plastic; liner is smudged and has a “lived-in” look.
VAL GARLAND
Agency: Streeters London
Shows: 15, including Nicole Farhi, Monique Lhuillier, Diesel, Costello Tagliapietra, Iceberg, Hervé Léger.
Company Affiliation: Artistic adviser, YSL Beauté
Creative Philosophy: Build a bridge and get over it.
Spring Is All About: She’s somewhere over the rainbow—gorgeously groomed, soft and sexy.
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PAT MCGRATH
Agency: Streeters London
Shows: 29, including Dior, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Oscar de la Renta, Prada, Gucci.
Company Affiliation: Global creative design director, P&G Beauty
Creative Philosophy: Enjoy life and take inspiration from everything you see. Never fear the unconventional and thinking outside the box, especially when it comes to makeup. Some of my favorite looks have come from taking risks.
Spring Is All About: High glamour and the chic, dressed-up face. Contrasts in textures; intense shine to accent eyes and lips; a sculpted, monochromatic face. Be it natural or bold, the look is polished.
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MAKEUP ARTISTS
DICK PAGE
Agency: Jed Root
Shows: Nine, including Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Narciso Rodriguez, Thakoon.
Company Affiliation: Artistic director, Shiseido The Makeup
Creative Philosophy: Makeup is fun. I love it when women use it to play with their looks…enhance, decorate, disguise— if you must!—but most of all, enjoy.
Spring Is All About: Heat, energy and various versions of “sexing up” your look, be it as at Kors with superglossy red lips or a more formal bluish-red lip, as at Thakoon. Alexander Wang was scruffy and sexy….They’re all cool and the elements are interchangeable.
TOM PECHEUX
Agency: The Collective Shift (New York); Calliste (Paris)
Shows: 17, including Ralph Lauren, Yves Saint Laurent, Balmain, Givenchy, Hermès, Derek Lam, Doo.Ri, Badgley Mischka, Isaac Mizrahi.
Company Affiliation: N/A
Creative Philosophy: Chic and playful.
Spring Is All About: Youthful glamour. Women always like to add glamour to their makeup look, and we’re seeing in the upcoming season a play on glamour with a fresh, youthful twist.
MAKEUP ARTISTS
LUCIA PIERONI
Agency: Streeters New York
Shows: Five, including Vera Wang, L’Wren Scott, Christopher Kane, Alberta Ferretti, Ferragamo.
Company Affiliation: Color creator, Clé de Peau Beauté
Creative Philosophy: Natural beauty with an edge.
Spring Is All About: Super-natural, light-reflecting minerals and African deserts.
CHARLOTTE TILBURY
Agency: Management Artists
Shows: 31, including Chloé, Missoni, Zac Posen, Donna Karan, Pucci, Sonia Rykiel.
Company Affiliation: N/A
Creative Philosophy: I take inspiration from all aspects of my life and passions, such as film, art and nature.
Spring Is All About: Sculpting; monochromatic makeup, created by using contours and highlights. Thick, lush, “Brooke Shields” eyebrows are a must and have a youthful feel…or a sexy, lived-in, rock-chic look with slightly smudged eyes in navy blues, silvers, blacks and purples.
This season’s hottest Hairstylists >>
HAIRSTYLISTS
ODILE GILBERT
Agency: Exposure NY
Shows: 16, including Christian Lacroix, Baby Phat, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Sonia Rykiel, Bottega Veneta, Karl Lagerfeld, Rodarte.
Company Affiliation: She works with a variety of brands on different shows, including Redken, Aveda and L’Oréal Professionnel.
Creative Philosophy: I stand by the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.” Specifically, I believe in not overthinking things.
Spring Is All About: Interesting and innovative ways to put your hair up. For practical reasons, women want to wear their hair up. It’s always a challenge and exciting to find ways to reinvent the chignon or ponytail, etcetera.
PAUL HANLON
Agency: Julian Watson Agency, London
Shows: 11, including Matthew Williamson, Christopher Kane, Burberry, Pucci, Costume National, Alexander McQueen.
Company Affiliation: N/A
Creative Philosophy: I take inspiration from everything around me—from a person who walks past me in the street to someone I see in a film. My philosophy is to be open and experiment and never to be afraid. Nothing is wrong as long as you feel comfortable.
Spring Is All About: Dry texture and unkempt hair. Kate Moss is the perfect example. She’s very iconic and all the girls in London want to look like her. People are moving away from the very done, beautiful, jet-set hair. It’s more about individuality.
LUIGI MURENU
Agency: Streeters New York
Shows: Nine, including Gianfranco Ferré, Gucci, Chloé, Viktor & Rolf, Givenchy.
Company Affiliation: Artistic consultant, Kérastase USA
Creative Philosophy: Spontaneity. I believe in the creative subconscious as the driving force that informs and defines each of my looks.
Spring Is All About: Texture and the quality of the hair, rather than styles per season.
HAIRSTYLISTS
GUIDO PALAU
Agency: Art + Commerce
Shows: 27, including Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren, Balenciaga, Roberto Cavalli, Versace, Lanvin, Louis Vuitton, Luella, Issa, Prada.
Company Affiliation: Creative consultant, Redken
Creative Philosophy: Being aware of trends, both current and past, and applying this knowledge within the areas that designers, photographers and stylists are aiming for.
Spring Is All About: Minimal and simplistic with a lightness and certain taste of romanticism.
LAURENT PHILIPPON
Agency: Tim Howard Management (New York); Calliste (Paris)
Shows: 14, including BCBG, Chado Ralph Rucci, Blugirl, Moschino, Rick Owens.
Company Affiliation: Editorial stylist, Bumble and bumble
Creative Philosophy: Hairdressing is about taking what inspires you from various disciplines and synthesizing these influences into your own unique elegant vision. It’s important to have a point of view, but one that’s open to collaboration and adaptation and is generous enough to accommodate another artist’s vision.
Spring Is All About: Easy hair, nothing painful-looking. Could be a flattering loose ponytail or a soft wavy texture or a little more rock ’n’ roll, like the heavy texture for Diesel. For the more sophisticated fashionistas, a revisited Fifties updo.
ORLANDO PITA
Agency: Art + Commerce
Shows: Eight, including Carolina Herrera, Halston, Oscar de la Renta, Michael Kors, Vera Wang, Bottega Veneta, Marni, Dior.
Company Affiliation: T3
Creative Philosophy: A haircut or style is about what suits you, your lifestyle, your hair type and your face shape. Hair should never be treated as one thing for everybody.
Spring Is All About: Well-groomed looks, whether it’s an updo or down with accessories for a chic look. Lengths that are between the chin and collarbone. Women are shedding that long hair….It started with Gwyneth [Paltrow].
EUGENE SOULEIMAN
Agency: Streeters London
Shows: 28, including Marchesa, Isaac Mizrahi, Donna Karan, Dolce & Gabbana, Hussein Chalayan, Stella McCartney, Valentino.
Company Affiliation: Varies each season.
Creative Philosophy: Learn the rules, make the rules, break the rules.
Spring Is All About: Celebrating diversity in terms of hair. Designers wanted to do what they wanted to do—it wasn’t about trends this season—and the beauty about this is women of all shapes, sizes, colors and textures of hair can be fashionable. It felt like hair had been done more than in previous seasons and the craft of hair was back!