Backstage At Michael Kors: Perfectly Imperfect

The models at Michael Kors may have appeared bronzed and glowing (as they so often do), but makeup artist Dick Page was thinking in black and white, wanting to “just see tone and structure in the face.” While there were forties elements to the collection this season, Page didn’t proceed with a red lip, which would push the look strongly in the wrong direction, he explained. Instead, he evened the skin with a light layer of base and added warmth back in with Michael Kors Sporty Bronze Powder in Glow dusted along the hairline from temple to temple in a “horseshoe” shape. Page accented cheeks with Sexy Bronze Powder in Flush, a slightly rosier shade. To camouflage any darkness around the eyes, he encircled them with MAC Eye Shadow in Brule on fair-skinned models, and a brown-gold hue for deeper complexions. “It cancels shadows almost like concealer, but [the pigment] is so [sheer] you don’t read it as makeup,” he explained. After coating lashes with brown mascara, Page created a stain via layering: first applying a lip balm, painting on Glam Lip Lacquer in Dame (a berry hue) with a brush, blotting, putting on another coat of balm, adding one more coat of color, blotting, and sheering it out with a final slick of balm. (Phew!) To diffuse the edges of the lipstick, he rimmed the mouth with the same shadow used on the eyes. “The girl looks very healthy, alive, and animated because Michael really likes that kind of energy—so [we did] that in the most precise and discreet way possible,” concluded Page.

As for the tousled updos created by hair pro Orlando Pita, where models were meant to look as if they’d just had “a romp,” he began by randomly curling sections with a one-inch curling iron to add a bend to the hair. For the undone, chunky texture, he worked Schwarzkopf Osis+ Dust It (a mattifying powder) into strands with his fingers, then twisted them into a loose chignon—being sure to leave loads of pieces out around the face, as the designer requested “bits flying,” and set with hairspray. When asked how he skirts the balance between romantically rumpled and plain old disheveled, Pita said, “You have to go over-messy for the runway or a photograph; the film and light polish everything up.” I think it’s safe to say I won’t have any trouble nailing that part.