Backstage beauty: Karen Walker Spring 2012

the look board backstage at Karen Walker/Image:S.Whittle for Style Wylde

Karen Walker Spring 2012 was a riotous mashup of 1940's housewife style with a serious punk rock twist. To create this retro-inspired yet thoroughly modern look beauty experts from Bumble and Bumble, CND Nails and Clinique came together behind the scenes to give the models a one-of-a-kind glamour that was pure Karen Walker.  Here's how they did it. 

Bumble and Bumble's Laurent Philippon explains his process/Image:S.Whittle for Style Wylde

First, that amazing hair:

image:S.Whittle for Style Wylde

Bumble and Bumble's key stylist Laurent Philippon wanted a retro, but never matronly look that was fresh young, and just a little bit imperfect, almost as if the model's had put their hair up themselves.   To create this done, but undone look Philippon started by spraying the roots with Bumble and Bumble Thickening Spray to add mega volume. Next he used Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray to rough up the hair before rolling it into a classic 1940's shape. Finally Bumble and Bumble Hair Powder was added to give the  hair a worn look and small pieces were loosened to create a relaxed, modern shape. 

 

image:S.Whittle for Style Wylde

Now the glowing beauty: 

Clinique key artist Jenna Menard was tasked with creating an "All American Girl" look that would compliment, but not upstage either the collection, or the inspired hair.  To do this she focused on clean glowing skin courtesy of Clinique repairwear laser focus foundation with a peachy-pink cheek, and a bright poppy lip. 

Wanda Ruiz of CND Nails/Image: S.Whittle for Style Wylde

Finally, those fabulous nails!

image:S.Whittle for Style Wylde

Always on the absolute cutting edge of fashion CND creates a totally unique nail color for every single runway show they do ( and they have done a TON). For Karen Walker, lead manicurist  Wanda Ruiz created a hue she called "Murky Mustard" by adding exactly 7 drops of CND nailcolor BlackJack to CND Nailcolor  Bicycle Yellow.  "This bold and vibrant color can be worn by anyone, of any skin tone." Ruiz explained, "It just takes the right attitude to pull it off." 

image:S.Whittle for Style Wylde

For more image from the Karen Walker Spring 2012 collection check out the Style Wylde Galleries, and get a full recap of the looks in Fashion. 

Comments

[msi]

uh duh ... who's the model?! i think that's a more important ingredient to the final look than who did her hair or nails. i see in one pic a card marked "Johanna". more info please.

[Cynthia Anderson]

to be fair Msi, the article is about hair and beauty trends, not models. Further more journalists and attendees are not usually given the names of the models who walk in a show. I know it seems unfair from the model perspective, but truly they aren't the 'stars' of the show the clothes, hair and makeup is! That being said we try to identify models whenever we can, but that almost always means the girls have to either have a certain amount of fame themselves, making them identifiable without a run-of-show casting sheet, such as Karlie Kloss, Lindsey Wixson or Hane Gaby Odiele.