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In a diaphanous sea of red and the beat of discordant 70s pop, the romance of fashion week was born. A culmination of the good, the brilliant and the refractory, Luke Sales and Anna Plunkett put on quite the show, replete with plucked rainbow feathers, frothy tulle, embellished slogans, fetishistic fancy and nipple, a whole lotta nipple. There was even a virginal zombie bride and bare-bottomed waif that waltzed out to the pit of ogling paparazzi. Birds of Paradise on acid, it was spectacularly iridescent.
In between the glazed sequins and areola action, a spectacular (and quintessentially Romance) manifestation of hair and makeup played out. It was everything we expected, and more. Crying rainbows, lids loaded with mottled glitter, doodled eye liner, blurry blush, shocking pink, citrus shadow and swatches of ultramarine that made the 80s look tame(ish). A histrionic take on colour, it was artful and expressive and beautifully executed by Sephora’s Natasha Severino. So sickly it was delicious, it logged new beauty rules, and a rendered a big woop-di-do from eager Beauty Ed’s slightly stumped by the prevailing ‘no makeup’ makeup.
Meanwhile, KMS’s Alan White had been ‘planning’ the hair – fantastical wigs and all – for three months prior to the show, and it was palpable. The most creative confection of corkscrew curls, cropped highlighter-tipped fringes, matted manes and a big bloody perm, made for mesmerising hair viewing. The unicorn horn just about iced Romance’s rainbow cake, whilst the painter’s palette beret took the hair accessory trend to the next arty level.
No takeaway beauty trends here. Just an appreciation of the wonderful and inspired, a wondrous finale that breathed a new imagination into the week that was. Take your bow, Romance was Born.
