It was a case of Park Avenue princesses beautifully combined with punk piercings at Trelise Cooper. Dramatically coiled conehead updos, suede-soft skin and an intensely matte burgundy lip gave her towering models a glowering glamour.
This effect was oddly enhanced by the metal hardware clipped to their ears, noses, lips and cheeks. Worn with grungier clothes, the "piercings" would have sent different signals, but here they became just another embellishment among the many elements the designer loves to mash up. Anyone for spikes with their sequins next season?
Playing with notions of punk and pretty was a feature at other day two Fashion Week shows, but most heavily favoured one or the other style. At Nyne and Stolen Girlfriends Club, the beauty looks went respectively from androgynous to witchy, at Deryn Schmidt and the Weddings show, from feminine to Stepford Brides.
It was more fun checking out the faces than the fashion and hair really was the hero. None more so than that by Grant Bettjeman, who described his uplifted look for Cooper as a "Mohican pony tail." His team then had to transform the models for the second part of the show - 10 minutes to change 15 girls - wrapping their hair across their forehead and up around padding into a spectacular swirl.
Amber D for M.A.C directed the makeup, custom mixing lips and adding dimension to the deep burgundy with an apple-red outline to diffuse the darkness. Skin was buffed to velvety perfection and nail stylist Leah Light also custom-mixed a black and white velvet-textured polish for fingers with grey for toes.
