Fashion week has gone supernatural. For the AW26 season, designers across both New York and London turned to monsters for sartorial and beauty inspiration. At Collina Strada, vampires were used as a metaphor for how we’re withdrawing into “self-made sanctuaries”, with the concept driving the beauty direction by Mustafa Fayanaz and Dick Page. Vampires were also the inspiration at Masha Popova, where models walked with fangs and ghostly complexions courtesy of Lauren Reynolds. 

Gabe Gordon led the werewolf trend in New York, with nail artist Julia Sumita creating a horror show aesthetic with blood-stained wolf talons. Over at Di Petsa, Medusa – who was a gorgon nymph before becoming a monster – was the reference, and models were given fake tattoos of snakes which slithered across their hips and wound around their collar bones. 

Below, we round up all the must-see beauty moments from across New York and London AW26.

MASHA POPOVA

While werewolves were the monster of the week in New York this season, it was vampires who stole the show in London. At Masha Popova, the collection was loosely inspired by Jim Jarmusch’s 2013 gothic romance Only Lovers Left Alive, and the matching beauty aesthetic was ‘modern vampires’. 

Models walked the runway with vampire fangs, while powdered faces and ghostly blue eyeshadow by Lauren Reynolds gave the impression that they hadn’t seen sunlight in a few centuries. On hair, Sarah Jo Palmer created new wave looks in bright colours and lived-in textures, as if they had endured from night into dawn.

CONNER IVES

At Conner Ives this season, the beauty was all about bringing different eras of glamour together. The team at MAC Cosmetics headed up the make-up, which saw thin 1960s brows paired with 80s, garage door-style eyeshadow in soft-wash shades of greys and pinks. “There were a lot of references to classic Hollywood cinema, 1960s femme fatales, but with the melodrama of 80s teen flicks,” says Dominic Skinner. “We had these wonderful shots of deep red lipstick – very Madonna, very film noir powerhouse – giving it a retro feel, but the star of the show was the gorgeous nude lip, Viva Planet, which we laid over the top of Greige lip pencil to give it a slightly autumnal depth that fitted perfectly with Conner’s clothes.”

On hair, Clare Grech and her team also pulled references from across the ages, creating chic French twists, 80s bouncy blow-dries and sculpted flapper bobs. It was the perfect match for the 30s Art Deco theme of the collection, which was inspired by Ives’s research into a Weimar-era Berlin club called Eldorado, at which people – and especially the queer community – had the freedom to live life in its truest form.

ERDEM

At Erdem’s 20th anniversary, the collection imagined what would happen if all the women who have inspired the designer over the years (Virginia Woolf, Radcliffe Hall, Maria Callas, etc.) were in conversation. The rich fabrics, textures and colours of the collection, full of crystal embellishments and historical panniered skirts, were offset by the beauty which was kept modern and fresh. 

On make-up, Fara Homidi created skin that was healthy and glowy – what she called “expensive skin” – and then used cool-tone browns and soft blacks, drawn from her new essential eye compacts range, to give the sense that the models had been out the night before and still had a smudge of eyeshadow on. Lips were kept nude-toned, while brows were given strength and structure to contrast the softness of the rest of the face. 

“It’s just really emphasising who they are, working with their features. Erdem wanted them to be their own characters,” says Homidi. “I personally want to imagine that if you see these looks and these ornate, beautiful clothes, you’re like, ‘I like that. I'm gonna wear that tomorrow. I want to be that person.' Very achievable.” She was helped out by the SkinCeuticals team, who gave the models backstage facial massages before they hit the make-up chair.

Using Keving Murphy products, Eugene Souleiman’s hair looks provided a deliberate contrast with the ornate collection. “The clothes are precious, so I wanted to do something raw and imperfect, a bit cooler and a bit realer. Not to take the romance out of the clothes but to add some edge to it,” he says, adding that he wanted the hair to add a toughness to the prettiness of the clothing. 

Like Homidi’s make-up, the hair had a lived-in, second-day feel to it. “I’m really into the feeling that the hair had been done at some point and then the model had worn a hat or a beanie over the top of the hair and it had been squashed,” he says. “The whole thing for me is to make it look as uncosmetic but cool as possible. It’s about those little imperfections in hair that make it more magical.”

LUCILA SAFDIE 

Girlhood-guru Lucila Safdie invited guests to witness the societal debut of Bunny Bell at her most recent runway show. In a room draped with a full-wall tapestry and furnished with a plush-velvet chaise longue and mahogany piano, the presentation was Safdie’s contemporary take on a debutante ball, centred around her recurrent themes of getting-ready rituals and femininity.

Models moved down the runway with stray ringlets framing their foreheads and cheeks, styled by Alex Brownsell. Matching the show’s sense of grandeur, Jada Ellize painted nails a rich purple, and Thom Walker provided minimal makeup looks – the occasional flash of purple eyeshadow and red lacquered lips.

SIMONE ROCHA

Fantasy and romanticism provided the backdrop to Simone Rocha’s collection this season, with the designer turning to the Irish folkloric tale of Tír na nÓg (a mythical land of eternal youth and beauty) for inspiration. For the female models, hair by Anthony Turner was unkempt and undone in the chicest way possible – long, loose and effortlessly wild, as if they had been wandering the weathered moors of Tír na nÓg forever. 

Several male models, meanwhile, were given Chelsea styles – a sharp, bold look that brought some edge to the yearning romanticism of the collection. Similarly, make-up by Thomas De Kluyver cut through the femininity with multiple silver rings pierced through the eyebrows of the models. These were perfectly complemented by pierced nails courtesy of Ama Quashie.

DI PETSA

Titled Medusa’s Lover, the latest runway from Di Petsa was inspired by the Greek myth of Medusa, who was a gorgon nymph before becoming a snake-headed monster with the power to turn men to stone with a single glance. Leaning into the familiar Di Petsa themes of power, eroticism and rebirth, models took to a runway housed within a decadent dining room. 

The serpent was a motif threaded throughout the show, with fake tattoos of snakes winding around collarbones, up lower backs and on hips. Hair was done by Efi Davies and nails by Tyler Phoenix. Dark-under-eyed looks were done by make-up artist Bea Sweet, and keeping things slippery in every sense, the show was sponsored by lube brand Ples’Jour, with models carrying platters bearing the sleek sculptural bottles. 

TOLU COKER

Titled Survivor’s Remorse, Tolu Coker’s collection paid homage to Coker’s community, whom she’s leaned on in recent months while grieving the death of her neighbour of over 20 years. Immersing the audience in her world, she filled the walls with paintings of her loved ones, posters for Notting Hill Carnival and W10 postcode road signs. 

Alongside the Yoruba-British mix of satin textiles and tartans, models took to the runway with sleek, glossy hair and sculpted edges by Efi Davies, wigs by Enoléh and make-up by Bea Sweet. The tailored looks were complete with nail art inspired by leaks from floors above; these textures were then colourfully reimagined by nail artist Abena Robinson.

CHET LO

Chet Lo transported guests of his AW26 show to a Hong Kong night market, full of street carts, food stalls and steaming woks. Models browsed the stands in street-inspired iterations of the designer’s classic spiky knitwear and hair looks by longtime collaborator Anna Cofone, who drew upon the collection’s exploration of Chinese cultural references. There were glass-straight lengths, feathered chignons and sculptural feather accents.

“In traditional Chinese opera, pheasant feathers extend the performer’s movement into space, drawing calligraphic lines in the air; by setting contrasting feathers into ultra-sleek hair, or constructing them into tightly controlled chignons that honour their natural texture, we’re playing with the idea of lines that travel beyond the body,” says Cofone. As with the previous two seasons, Cofone’s non-profit Hair & Care made the show accessible for blind and low vision guests.

Nails were courtesy of Angel Linh, while Bea Sweet on make-up says the idea was for the models to feel like they had walked straight off the runway and into the night market. “It’s a couture glam with street-market soul, skin that feels alive under neon lights and lantern light,” she says. On the lips, she used Pureseoul’s Lip Potion Steaming Milk Balm Lip Mask along with MAC’s greige lip liner for a “little cool lip edge work”. 

LABRUM

As we’ve come to expect, Labrum was one of the hair highlights at London Fashion Week, once again drawing on elements of traditional African hairstyling to create bold, sculptural looks. This season, Nick Irwin was back, creating twisting braided updos and weaving cowrie shells into some of the looks. 

On make-up, Joey Choy was inspired by the theme of the collection, namely the impact of movement, migration and cultural osmosis. Custom-made stamps were used to mark up the models’ faces with gold designs, aimed at evoking the passport pages of a well-travelled adventurer. Other models walked with delicate, jewelled chains hanging from their lips. “It’s all about documentation of our life journey,” Choy said.

GABE GORDON

On Valentine’s Day in sub-zero Williamsburg, Gabe Gordon’s chilling AW26 ushered attendees into an 80s ice skate-horror show, adding a twist to the aesthetics of small-town Americana with a chilling werewolf plotline. As models walked the low-lit room, attention fell on their Tonya Harding-inspired voluminous bangs by hair stylist Zenia Jaeger. Partnered with Submission Beauty, models wore icy-blue eyeshadow on their sunken, dark-circled eyes, and greying skin courtesy of make-up artist Davey Matthew, and blood-stained wolf talons by nail artist Julia Sumita.

COLLINA STRADA 

Titled The World is a Vampire, Collina Strada’s show used vampires as a metaphor for how we’re withdrawing into “self-made sanctuaries”. To complete the reclusive look, hair was wind-swept in every direction, back-combed and bedraggled by the hairstylist, Mustafa Fayanaz. Equally messy, make-up was smeared beneath bloodshot, startled eyes by make-up artist Dick Page.