This piece was originally published 26 April 2019. The hair and make-up on the runway is commonly very experimental. Creative freedom combines with eclectic visions from designers to bring together the final word fantasy. Runway Retrospectives is a column that explores a few of the most legendary catwalk beauty looks of all time.

Who

Designer Alexander McQueen presented his fall 2009 show in Paris just over ten years ago. For the occasion, McQueen sent models down the runway wearing elegant skirt suits and dresses in shades of red, black and houndstooth that mirrored couture in craftsmanship and execution. As for the wonder look, make-up artist Peter Philips gave models bleached brows and now iconic extreme, oversized lips – exaggerated to the purpose of ridiculous and paying homage to Leigh Bowery’s smeared lip. For the models who weren’t wearing Philip Treacy hats, hairstylist Guido Palau created sculptures on top of every model’s head with aluminium drink cans and plastic wrap. Echoing the wonder aesthetic, the gathering was meant to poke fun at traditional French couture, with garments made out of trash bags and what looked like bubble wrap.

“This whole situation is such a cliché,” McQueen told the New York Times right before the show began. “The turnover of fashion is just so quick and so throwaway, and I feel that could be a big a part of the issue. There isn’t any longevity.”

What

Make-up artist Peter Philips, a fixture backstage on the likes of Dries Van Noten, Calvin Klein and currently creative and image director of Christian Dior make-up, had long collaborated with the designer when it got here to his visual fantasies. “There have been three themes that Lee shared with me,” Philips tells us. “Eliza Doolittle on the flower market before she transforms in My Fair Lady, Elizabeth I and clowns. He wanted initially a watch look inspired by these themes, but once I proposed this look, combined with Guido’s headpieces, he was sold.”

Philips continues, “Alabaster skin and no eyebrows for the Elizabeth I touch, and an exaggerated shiny lip to get a little bit of clown in.” Guido Palau, editorial hair stylist who was also key to carrying out McQueen’s visions, pinned models’ hair back in order that none of it was showing and covered their heads in numerous arrangements of aluminium spray painted cans wrapped in plastic. “Guido used trash to create the headpieces, which for me, got the dirty, early morning flower market element covered. The shapes of Guido’s head wraps also had a historical edge,” says Philips.

Where

The show took place in Paris and was certainly one of the late McQueen’s very last shows. “I feel it’s dangerous to play it secure since you will just wander off within the midst of cashmere twin sets. People don’t wish to see clothes. They wish to see something that fuels the imagination,” he told critics. Like the wonder look, the set incorporated trash, and memorabilia from the designer’s past shows piled high within the centre of the runway with a glass shattered catwalk.

Why

The look was legendary for its element of fantasy in addition to the marginally controversial assumptions the world made about the whole show and, specifically, the make-up. Vogue’s Sarah Mower, for instance, wrote of the show, “There have been those that found his picture of girls with sex-doll lips and sometimes painfully theatrical costumes ugly and misogynistic”

Together with that, Palau told Dazed that McQueen had a significant influence on him, not only for this show, but inside his entire profession: “He showed me a special way of beauty. He had a really specific idea of girls, which was celebratory but in a way that was very powerful. The ladies were powerful. They weren’t misogynistic. They were so restrictive, in a way, but he was really celebrating women’s power otherwise. He was very pro-women.”

Easy methods to Get the Look

For a everlasting look, you would bleach your individual brows using Jolen Creme Bleach (a really of-the-moment style considering models at Prada AW19 also had bleached brows). A terrific semi-permanent alternative is Kat Von D’s 24-Hour Super Brow Long-Wear Pomade in bleach, which supplies even the darkest of brows a fake bleached effect. Take a lipstick, like Dior Rouge Dior lipstick, in a vibrant shade (lipstick shades of scarlet, maroon and red-orange were all seen within the show) and overline the lip. Try a lipliner in an identical shade to get a harder, more finessed edge. Or, for a more unconventional take, you may wear a jelly lip mask which really resembles the identical look. The Japanese Pure Smile Choosy Lip Mask is available in tons of various colors and stays put.

As for the hair pieces, you may DIY it using your individual cans and plastic. If it doesn’t look the exact same, that’s effective; the magic of this look is the fantasy imbued in it.