A number of in-the-know experts chalk it up to—surprise, surprise—the recession. “It just feels like—in that time of ‘we’ve-got-to-sell-clothes’—we’re still a bit recessive,” says Val Garland, go-to runway makeup artist for MAC Cosmetics. On the other hand, some believe the incredibly expensive and intricate pieces themselves are to blame. “I think clothes are becoming more and more embellished,” says Redken Creative Consultant and premier catwalk hairstylist, Guido Palau. “The designers still want to appeal to real women, so if you over-design the hair it really becomes kind of too much, and women are going to go, ‘Who wants to look like that?,’ hence the more simple [the beauty is] with these very embellished clothes, the more rich it actually looks.”

Exhibit A: Super Simple Strands: