Runway Beauty: 80s Club Scene at Marc Jacobs Fall 2009

February 19, 2009

After a decade, makeup artist François Nars finally returned to the runway at the Marc Jacobs Fall 2009 show. Drawing inspiration from the New York night club scene of the 1970s and ’80s and the works of Sprouse, St. Laurent, and Halston, Nars took into consideration each model’s individual beauty and created 65 different makeup looks on the 65 models. Each model has a separate edgy look, reminiscent of the past but still very modern. “We are doing quite an eclectic look,” he said. The inspiration for diversity came from Nars’ book XRAY. “Marc wanted to keep that feeling,” said Nars, “the variety of looks, the same way we do the campaigns for NARS.”

For many of the models, porcelain skin was a key component, allowing the black eyes and bright colors to pop. The cheeks were also perfectly contoured for a strong, theatrical look.

Focusing on an edgy, night clubbing look, a strong cat eye and bold color were a major theme. Black eyeshadow was used as a base before cobalt blues, deep greens, bright purples, reds, fuchsias and glitter were added on top. “There is a wide variety of color (try NARS Single Eyeshadows in Nightlife Collection),” said Nars, “it’s whatever looks good on the girl.”

When it comes to the lips, we see the perfectly defined red lip, soft nude lip and the 80s frosty dark lip.

Just like the makeup, each of the models had a tailor-made style. Lead hairstylist Guido Palau from Redken created the ’80s punk rock dos, frizzed out Mohawks, twisted updos, teased Afros, slicked-backed crops and towering beehives with lots of gel and hair spray.