London Fashion Week’s Polished Punk Beauty Is The Next Look You Need To Try |

The undone beauty trend was seen all across this season’s shows.

With the Fall 2023 London Fashion Week shows officially dedicated to the great purveyor of punk, Vivienne Westwood, who passed away towards the end of last year, each designer took to their mood boards to infuse subtle elements of the distinctive subculture. Following a memorial for the late designer at Southwark Cathedral, each collection was a celebration of British style and individualism.

From deconstructed and modernized historical silhouettes to rebellious maximalism and diverse casting, the season was rife with excitement. No matter the brand’s aesthetic or direction, there was one uniting factor that tied together nearly every show this week: polished punk beauty.

Throughout each show, the models were done up in understated makeup that reflected elements of punk style. Having been defined as the rebuttal of perceived excess, punk makeup veered away from traditional “pretty” and often centered on bold, dark colors around either the eyes or lips or even outlandish graphic shapes across the face.

The skin was often left pale, unrouged, and unbronzed to emphasize contrast with the vampy colors. Images come to mind of the movement’s icons, like Siouxsie Sou, Joan Jett, Jordan Mooney, and Sid Vicious.

During the Fall 2023 collections in London, makeup artists presented a more updated take on the style without sacrificing its classic elements. For most of the shows, models stepped out in dewy and luminous yet bare skin. Their stripped-back looks helped accent a statement eye or lip.

Brazilian designer Karoline Vitto for Fashion East had her models pained in either blocky black winged eyeliner or black lipstick, while Roskanda opted for a dark wine-toned lip. Both Richard Quinn and Nensi Dojaka chose to modernize the punk eye with smoked-out shadow in shades of copper or lavender.

At Erdem’s show, each model had their eyes lined thickly with kohl with the barest hint of coral on their lips, which paired well with his Victorian-inspired collection. The Central Saint Martins show made use of a literal play on smudged liner, with messy yet strategically placed stains of black and silver eye makeup.

Each look was fitting for the current zeitgeist, yet aptly alluded to its original influences. Looking to try your hand at recreating the polished punk look? See how these designers did it below: