Inspired by Jem and the Holograms, models wore highlighter-coloured wigs paired with iridescent eye make-up
Designer Jeremy Scott is no stranger to bold and loud colors, prints and plenty of pop culture references. Every season, his New York Fashion Week show is a mash-up of all the aforementioned, with a dash of inspiration from the downtown club scene, too.
Scott’s SS20 show was no exception: a symphony of metallic leathers, crystal embellished prom dresses and sequined suits, each model was transformed into a Jem and the Holograms-inspired look with hair and make-up.
Make-up artist Kabuki worked with MAC Cosmetics Reflects Glitter layered over MAC Paintstick in a wide, 80s cat eye shape on the eye. “It’s truly outrageous,” he told us backstage. “It’s sort of Jem and the Holograms. It’s a bit more fun and cartoon-y. That’s the idea for the big shape on the eyes. Jeremy mentioned The Misfits and Jem and the Holograms. Then I looked to the clothes. There were a lot of metallics, leathers and crazy colors. It was quite easy. We came up with the idea in 20 minutes.”
Kabuki highly recommends using the Paintstick layered underneath to get the glitter colour to pop. As for the rest of the look, “There’s just a baby pink lipgloss, because we just want to keep the rest of it soft,” he adds. The rest of the complexion was relatively simple, created using Pro Longwear Nourishing Waterproof Foundation as a base and MAC Get Lit Hyper Real Glow Palette on cheeks.
As for the nails, Miss Pop went all out on 80s references and created three different styles of nails replete with zigzags, bright colors and animal spots. “We’re doing a mixed animal print and Saved by the Bell beauty reference,” she said. “These are collection prints that we cross-patterned, so we’ll see a lot of animal print and 80s fun blobs.”
Eugene Souleiman lead the candy-colored wigs in shades of pastel pink, seafoam green and lilac. “It’s kind of like LA rock from the 80s,” he said, midway through teasing a massive yellow wig. “There’s a lot of Japanese manga art references and there’s a slight, fluorescent punky vibe to it as well. One of the reasons we really went there with the colour was because it was all black and white last season. There was no colour in the last show. This season, we decided to do lots of colour. It’s completely different.”
The wigs took over three days to cut and dye. If you want to try the daring look at home, according to Souleiman, you’ll have to break out the vintage styling tools. “We went back to the 80s with the styling tools. We got the crimping iron out. We kind of oversprayed the hair and crimped it – it was very crinkly. Quite hard. Then brush it out, it gives it a light, fluffy texture,” he adds.