First it was New York Fashion Week, with Marc Jacobs’ bouffant dollhouse wigs taking us back to the ‘80s and Beyoncé’s front row appearance at Luar. Then it rained on the 40th anniversary of London Fashion Week while rose-adorned brows were sent down the runways at Simone Rocha. Now, fashion month just departed their third stop, in Milan, of the Fall/Winter 2024 season, where we saw a rather moody fashion week lineup.
Below, take a look at 5 standout Milan Fashion Week beauty moments: everything from Julez at Versace to the undercut mod bangs and pencil-thin brows at Marni.
Marni
Last week, Marni’s creative director Franceso Risso presented their FW24 collection beneath Milan’s central station. “Bring no clothes,” English Writer Virginia Woolf wrote in a letter inviting friends to her home, which was the sole direction behind Risso’s inspiration-stripped collection, banning all other moodboards and references from his creative process this season. Nothing but blank white paper textured the location’s walls, which inspired makeup artist Yadim Carranza to etch pencil-thin brows over raw matte skin for the beauty look. On hair, Paul Hanlon undercut choppy bangs on wolf-like wigs, returning to the “interior zoo” of Risso’s childhood.
Prada
In front of a major front row guest list– including Tracee Ellis Ross, Letitia Wright, Amandla Stenberg and Yara Shahidi– the house returned to the same set from their January show (with minor cosmetic tweakments.) While the collection looked to the past, hair stylist Guido Palau sculpted prim and proper Art Nouveau pin-curls and finger waves, setting the hair with gel and high-shine lacquer under unexpected hats.
On makeup, Lynsey Alexander drew from a multitude of eras past– everything from punk gothic and English school girl, to hard romance and the wartime 1940s. Yet, the look was quiet (think: hyper nude), perfecting each detail and reducing the look to soft brows. As for the key products? Prada Balm primed and moisturized the natural lip under Prada Monochrome lipstick, then the brows were softly reduced with their Reveal Foundation.
Versace
Earlier this month, ESSENCE’s March/April cover star Beyoncé shocked the front row at Luar’s NYFW show, as she watched her nephew Julez take the runway in his modeling debut. Now, he’s seen on the runway again, but this time at Versace’s FW24 show in Milan. “This collection has a rebel attitude and a kind heart. The woman is a good girl with a wild soul. She is prim but sexy,” read the show notes. “Don’t mess with her!” Donatella Versace tapped makeup artist Pat McGrath to turn models into punk princesses on a black carpeted runway. Their eyes, smudged with black kohl, paired with electrified hair– à la hair stylist Guido Palau– winking at TikTok’s “mob wife” aesthetic and punk upper-class with bloody, red tweed.
Diesel
A few weeks before their FW24 show, Diesel announced they would go remote this season, live streaming the behind-the-scenes process– from model castings to runway prep– for a full three days. Then, creative director Glenn Martens invited 1000 members of the public to “interactively participate” through Zoom call-like boxes– with front row guests, including artist JT in a cloudy eyeshadow look, sitting front row IRL. Now, with the world watching, picture this: makeup artist Inge Grognard turned models into lizard people with beady snake eyes and vibrant animalistic pigments. Meanwhile, hair stylist Gary Gill went just as swampy; drenching stringy hair strands in sweat with others wearing mop-like hoods as wigs. (We couldn’t help but think Diesel entered Doechii’s beauty realm this season).
Moschino
At Moschino, the new creative director Adrian Appiolaza– succeeding Davide Renne who passed away after just 10 days as creative director of the House– presented his first collection with the intention to “build a new language from an existing vocabulary” with just weeks to complete the collection. And we must say, Appiolaza is multilingual in both fashion and beauty. Tapping makeup artist Inge Grognard, bloody-like red liner on the lower lash line matched classic red liquid lipstick. On hair, Eugene Souleiman volumized natural afros, while other models wore head wraps made from ties and dress shirts or paper hats.
