Backstage Beauty: DKNY Fall/Winter 2015

When the Fall season of New York Fashion Week hits, it’s the dead of winter with temps in the single digits. Hats are a necessary evil to keep warm. But when they come off, without a doubt your locks will be messy, static-ridden, out of place. And while you may think to brush your fingers through to fix the strands left in disarray, think again, as this style you created unintentionally just made a splash down copious runways, including DKNY. Eugene Souleiman, Global Creative Director for Wella Professionals, takes inspiration for the raw and edgy design he crafts from a girl he saw who was wearing a beanie and took it off. “I love things like that — things that are a little bit wrong, a little bit raw, but are really stylish,” he shares. “As a hairdresser I think you have to take inspiration from everywhere.”

Souleiman constructs dual textures in his minimal hairstyle. First, he saturates and flattens the models’ roots with Wella Professionals Ocean Spritz and Wella Professionals Stay Essential. [Editor’s note: Backstage Souleiman uses products from Wella Professionals new EIMI line due to hit the States next September. You can achieve the same look with the products mentioned here.] He then creates a center part to give the design a polished, tight and chic feel. To get extra tension, he braids the models’ locks from behind the ear to the nape of the neck and secures them with an elastic band. Souleiman leaves loose a veil of hair around the parting, which he sprays with Wella Professionals LuxeOil Light Oil Shine Spray and then manipulates with his hands to create an intricate web that lays across the surface of the hair. To finish, Souleiman employs a series of maneuvers: he covers the models’ heads with a mesh scarf, pulls it down to ensure the hair sits flat to the head, sprays the mesh with Wella Professionals Stay Essential, blow-dries it, and then removes the scarf once the hair is dry — a ton of work to mimic “hat head.” And yet, Souleiman makes it sound so enticing. “The hat has massaged their hair so you have this very flat ‘hat look’ with an incredibly beautiful cobwebby texture over the top,” he explains. “It looks really cool.” Indeed.

The makeup design Maybelline Lead Stylist Yadim creates centers solely around the eye. “It’s quite an eye, quite a look, but it’s actually very simple and stripped down,” says Yadim. “[The design] is more abstract and conceptually driven [than it was in past seasons]. She’s this young, cool, fun girl from a big city and she’s not afraid. She’s playful and fearless. And you get that with this eye; she’s not afraid to try new things.”

To create the do-it-yourself and art school look, Yadim sketches an imperfect circle around the models’ eyes, right above the crease, using either Maybelline Eye Studio Master Graphic Liquid Eyeliner or Maybelline Eye Studio Master Precise Liquid Eyeliner, and then tops the lids with Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balm in Quenched. “It’s about making a mess and cleaning it up and getting the shape somewhere in that mess,” he says. “The reason we put this shape together is there is a pattern in the collection on a few pieces that has these big, abstract petal designs. And you don’t even know they’re flower petals. They’re so abstract it’s not obvious. So we brought that to the makeup”

For the nail design, essie lead manicurist Michelle Saunders keeps things much more simple. “I’m calling this the 'Fast Pass manicure.' It’s the fastest manicure you can give yourself,” she laughs. “And it’s not perfect because what we’re seeing as a trend in nails is that we’re moving away from perfect and precise and we’re going into a little bit of quirkiness and obscurity.” To create the minimal design, Saunders applies one coat of essie ridge filling base coat and then quickly swipes essie in all eyes on nudes down the center of the nail. “It’s as if [the models] did it themselves. They’re rushing out the door and just need something on their nails,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be perfect. We’re not robots!”

–Molly Church

[Photo credits: Courtesy of Wella Professionals, essie]