Musicians and Magazines Inspire the Beauty Looks at New York Fashion Week

For the spring 2015 shows in New York, runway beauty looks ran the gamut, with a few trends emerging. (Definitely break out your red lipstick and aqua eye products for spring.) While a lot of the looks focused on individuality and the now-ubiquitous soft/natural/dewy triumvirate, many designers used quite literal inspirations. Iconic musicians and classic magazine photographers were especially popular, and designers — and their beauty teams — stayed pretty true to that inspiration. Halloween or the runway? You decide. 

Siouxsie Sioux

Creatures of the Wind delighted me with its blatant Siouxsie Sioux inspiration. (I once dressed up as her for Halloween.) Aaron de Mey (for NARS) gave some models extreme cat eyes, and a small number got the full-on Siouxsie treatment with gold glitter right up to the eyebrows. Peek-a-boo, indeed. 

Gilles Bensimon/ELLE

At Thakoon, hair stylist Odile Gilbert mentioned that the designer wanted a beauty look that evoked the Gilles Bensimon/Elle era and Cindy Crawford in the '90s. To get that bit of volume, flip your hair upside down, spray with Kerastase Laque Dentelle and tease a bit: instant supermodel. 

Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson was sporting braids long before fancy braid bars opened. At Mara Hoffman, the designer basically made the models into clones of the country singer. Hair stylist Nick Owen said it was the first time the designer had ever wanted the hair to be hanging in the front rather than the back. (Hoffman always has elaborate hair at her shows.) No word on what Willie thought of the collection. 

Steven Meisel/Vogue Italia

The beauty look at DVF was inspired by the woman herself in the '70s when she first started wearing her hair curly in public. The makeup also had a very specific inspiration: Pat McGrath, at DVF's request, recreated a makeup look that she had done on Sophie Dahl for a Vogue Italia/Steven Meisel shoot in 2000. The result? The most gorgeous shimmery mermaid eyes you've seen this side of the Atlantic. 

Amy Winehouse/B-52s

I think it was coincidence that Jeremy Scott showed his collection on singer Amy Winehouse's birthday, but the beauty look was a lovely homage to her, although the inspiration was not meant to be blatant. Makeup artist Kabuki and hairstylist Eugene Souleiman both explained that the overall look was meant to evoke a mash-up of '80s pop art, the B-52's, the "Desperately Seeking Susan" era, John Waters and, yes, Winehouse, who sort of embodied all of the aforementioned traits.  

Marianne Faithfull

This look is a classic for a reason. Hair stylist Jeanie Syfu cited Marianne Faithfull as an inspiration for Rebecca Minkoff's show, and she gave all of the models fluffy blowouts with a matte texture. Tresemme's Perfectly Undone Sea Salt Spray will get you there. 

Peter Lindbergh

At DKNY, '90s models and photographers, in this case Peter Lindbergh, once again provided the inspiration for the beauty look. Makeup artist Yadim (for Maybelline) made these models look they they could jump right into that classic Vogue cover. 

Boy George

At 3.1 Phillip Lim, Francelle Daly (for NARS) mentioned that New Romanticism was the inspiration for the makeup look, with a modern twist. "There's a little bit of a homage to Boy George... there's a modern New Wave kick to it," Daly said backstage of her deconstructed blue eyeliner. This one is more of a visual stretch, but anytime I can look at pictures of vintage Boy George, it makes me happy. 

Joan Jett

Eliza specifically asked hairstylist James Pecis (for Oribe) if the hair inspiration at Baja East was Joan Jett, but he denied it and said it was Berlin club kids. Since I've never been to a Berlin club, I'm still going with Joan here. That black mullet will forever be hers. 

Miss Piggy

Miss Piggy is both a singer (here) and a magazine girl (here), so she fits the criteria for this roundup. Also, is it coincidence that MAC sponsored the Jeremy Scott show and also gave Miss Piggy her own collection back in 2011? I think not.