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4 AW19 Beauty Looks You Can Recreate With Just Your Stash Of Arts And Crafts
And a dash of imagination.
Forever a source of hair and make-up inspiration, fashion week never fails to serve up fantastical, haute couture beauty looks we love to stalk on Instagram (and every now and then recreate in real life). Whether it's Simone Rocha's beaded crowns, Erdem's alien granny chignons or Christopher Kane's sparkly lip gloss eye hack, there's some looks we'll buy, some we'll try, and some we'll simply thank for the memories and forego altogether.
Serving up a new wave of satisfyingly theatrical beauty inspo was London Fashion Week but this time with a DIY twist. Between Halpern's gold leaf eye make-up and Peter Pilotto's rainbow feather lashes, AW19 was all about raiding your arts and crafts stash for a look that says 'extra but achievable'.
Whimsical? Yes. Wearable? Perhaps. Totally fun and surprisingly easy to do IRL? Definitely.
Oh, and FYI, balloons are the latest backstage hair tool you need to get your hands on ASAP.
Read on for the most epic AW19 hair and make-up looks that only require a local Hobbycraft and less than a fiver to recreate.
Gold Leaf At Halpern
Not just for when you want a seriously bouji ceiling, gold leaf took its place at London Fashion Week as the only way to get Halpern's art deco metallic eye make-up.
DIY decadence was the order of the day with make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench applying whole sheets of gold foil to models' eyelids before brushing off for a 'cracked' effect.
'I was inspired by old fashioned glamorous cruise ships, like the Titanic', said Isamaya on the ostentatious make-up look.
Frizz-Making Balloons At Alexa Chung
Winning the award for the most unexpected hair product of fashion week was Alexa Chung and her balloons. Yup, we said balloons.
The mastermind behind the genius hair tool was hairstylist Alex Brownsell, who used the balloon to create 'post-headscarf dystopian frizz and flyaways'.
'I want it to look like she's just broken out of a cult and taken her headscarf off for the first time,' explained Brownsell backstage. 'So I'm rubbing a balloon on the front of her hair to create static and pull pieces out around her ears.' In fact, the BLEACH London co-founder wasn't using her hands to style at all, instead letting the balloon do the work for her.
Her top tip? 'Get good quality balloons otherwise when they get hot, and they'll burst.'
DIY Jersey Hairbands At Molly Goddard
Acknowledging our never-ending obsession with hair accessories, AW19 served up hair bands, barrettes and bows galore. But it was backstage at Molly Goddard that we discovered the DIY hair hack saving us serious pennies.
'I'm using torn off strips of black jersey just bought from a haberdashery', revealed hairstylist Luke Hersheson. 'Then I'm placing it a little further back on their heads and wrapping the length around the ponytail at the back before tying in a rough bow.'
Taking a grand total of six minutes and almost no money to achieve, we'll be recreating Molly Goddard's dancewear-chic hairband ASAP.
Trimmed Feather Lashes At Peter Pilotto
Reminding us that next level beauty looks can be created from just about anything was Peter Pilotto's playful feather lash look.
Make-up artist Inge Grognard applied just the tips of multi-coloured feathers to the corner of models' eyes for an ethereal take on super long lashes. Recreate the look by snipping just one to two cm off a strip of feather trim and using Duo lash glue to apply. A sweep of matching pastel-hued eyeshadow keeps everything modern rather than OTT.
We don't know about you, but feathers just took the place of our falsies.
George Driver was the former Senior Beauty Editor - Digital at ELLE UK.
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