Photographed by Hunter Abrams / @hunterabrams
Somebody get the Smithsonian on the phone.
It is very rare that the backstage beauty directive at a Tom Ford show diverges from the “smoky, sexy, sultry” script the designer wrote for himself and the Ford faithful years ago. And so it went for spring, where some of his favorite models, including Liya Kebede and Mariacarla Boscono, graced the runway, which split a custom-fabricated lounge—equipped with built-in bars, of course—in smudged, ruddy-brown lids and sculpted cheeks. But the players often change. This season it was Yadim’s turn to blend the dark-chocolate shadow from Ford’s beloved Eye Quad in 37 Smoky Quartz and the shimmering red and burgundy shades from 04 Honeymoon into something that felt “glam rock, and a little more rock ’n’ roll,” Yadim said as he added a dab of Elizabeth Arden 8-Hour Cream to the tops of lids while Bella Hadid filled in her own brows and Ford made the rounds checking in to ensure there was no mascara. Leaving no detail unattended, Ford didn’t want heavy lashes this year, Yadim revealed. “Carine [Roitfeld] hasn’t been wearing mascara recently and Tom loved that!”
But it was the hair, which wasn’t so much done as crafted by Jawara, that Ford seemed most taken with. “He’s a genius,” Ford said of Jawara to anyone in ear shot, which was not up for debate as a crowd gathered to watch the hairstylist build Sacha Quenby’s finale hair sculpture as Ford art-directed the stunning feat of workmanship. “Get me the big braid,” Jawara requested of a member of his team, who was busy tending to the rest of the cast with a “futuristic nod to the ’80s” that included molded waves, and brushed-out, rick-racked lengths. Jawara plaited sections of hair around U pins, pressed them with a flat-iron, and then set the resulting volume with hairspray so that Gigi Hadid’s cornsilk-blonde strands moved like a soft, side-parted cloud as she slinked down the runway. “You could do this at home,” he suggested, supermodel stare not included.
This post was originally on Vogue.com
