Backstage at Dior, Models Armed for the Resistance in Rainbow Eyeliner
time2018/02/28
Backstage at Dior, Models Armed for the Resistance in Rainbow Eyeliner
"Don't apologize for getting where you need to go," says casting director Michelle Lee. We're backstage at Dior, and she's leading a timid newbie model through a throng of makeup artists, hair stylists, and photographers—a traffic jam of backstage passes. "Just push through them," Lee continues, "so you can get to work."
That sentiment—"Don't be sorry for moving ahead!"—was threaded through Dior's entire show, from the clothes to the music (a military marching tune, remixed with female singers). Even their Instagram stories were crammed with models giving girl-to-girl advice. "You need to be focused," says Dominican catwalk crush Lineisy Montero, "and never stop."
Which brings us to Dior Makeup's creative and image director, Peter Phillips, who also never stops. After creating couture tattoos in January, Phillips debuted crayon-colored liquid liners today in Paris. Available in May, the eye candy is called DiorShow On Stage Liner, and though it looks kawaii, Phillips insists it's actually got some heft. "If you use a pink eyeliner as a cat-eye, it will go cutesy," he says, "but if you're doing a blunt line, almost like a little half moon, across the upper and lower lids, then it's conceptual, cool, and ready to be taken seriously." (For the record, Dior Makeup is often taken seriously, especially by beauty junkies who stalk the typically sold-out line of Dior Addict lip stuff.)
As for the hair, Guido Palau let the curly girls stay curly (yay!), but gave the straight strands of Edie Campbell and Gao Ying a "slight flip" with a barrel brush and Redken atinwear Thermal Blow Dry Lotion to boost shine and movement. "It's hair for a rebellious girl," he explained, "But not rebellious enough not to blow her hair out. She's kind of a bourgeois rebel, because we all know girls who can be rebellious because they're bourgeois."