Glamour Makeup: How-To Get the Look

The step-by step on how to get 3 different versions of Fall's Glamorous trend, straight from our fall catalog cover shoot

Dramatic Makeup: How-to

Here's the step-by-step on how to score 3 different versions of Fall's dramatic, gothic makeup trend, direct from our Fall catalog cover shoot.

FashionWeekLive: Model Citizens

mNicole Trunfio, an IMG model who strutted the runway at FashionWeekLive in Houston, is slowly getting used to Manhattan life. Understandable, as she’s an aussie at heart and grew up in the outback of Australia—definitely not your typical fashion model story. “I moved to New York three years ago, but just started feeling comfortable,” she said. “I just started calling it home.” (Added perk: The big city is a great place for Nicole as an aspiring actress too.) For now though, Nicole is definitely sitting pretty in her modeling career. She’s stomped the catwalk for a laundry list of designers—Chanel and Fendi included—and has even appeared in high-fashion mags like French ELLE. The must-have in this beauty's makeup bag? Sunscreen. After all, you don't grow up in the bush without learning how damaging the sun is!

FashionWeekLive: Model Citizens

Another aussie gal. Jessica Gnomes, also an IMG model in Houston's FashionWeekLive show, hails from Perth. (Think far southwest coast of Australia.) She started modeling in Australia and Asia as an 18 year-old—back when she was "a huge tomboy and very shy"—and has been modeling with IMG in NY for the past two years. Her secret beauty tip? Apply baby powder to (dry) hair if it's oily. Jessica—who lives in East Village, but swears by the fish burgers in West—says skin care is critical too, especially in a city like New York. She cleanses and exfoliates her skin daily, and uses lots of tinted moisturizer to keep her skin healthy and glowing. Another must-have in her backstage bag: Cosmedicine Full Benefits.

FashionWeekLive: Model Citizens

More gorgeousness from Houston. Here's Luca–the German beauty who just cut her hair, remember?–strutting in Oscar de la Renta.

A) She lives for NARS Blush (a Best of Sephora winner). How rosy and fresh-faced does she look?!
B) She also swears by Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer, a sheer moisturizer with a hint of color.
C) Love, love, loving those shoes. Adorable.

FashionWeekLive: The Models Have Been Announced

Reporting live from FashionWeekLive presented by Sephora. I've got so much to blog about, but I'll start with the basics. It's such a crazy scene backstage--between makeup artists, hair stylists, photographers and everybody else, it's almost hard to spot the models. So, they make a poster with all the models's headshots (or, as the models like to call it, mugshots). Here's a shot of the poster (hair and makeup look up top) , with a list of the models in the show

THE GALS: Naomi Campbell, Gemma Ward, Nicole Trunfio, Jessica Gomes, Trish Goff, Luca Gajdus, Hilary Rhoda, Caroline Winberg, Jessica Stam, Erin Wasson, Sasha Pivovarova, Marija, Marie Fuema, Lily Cole

THE GUYS: Tyson, Clay, RJ, Dan Cameron, Jared Jones, Andrew Purpura, Zakk Goodman, Josh Slack, Brian G.

Masked Beauty at Commes des Garcons

To beauty enthusiasts, the Paris runway show of Commes des Garcons was particulary interesting. Models walked the runways wearing what looked like a facial mask. While it could have been a clever way to prep thier skin for their next show, my guess is that designer Rei Kawakubo's intent was more figurative: The inspiration for her clothing was "Cubism," and I think the masks were a nod to the African masks which inspired many of the great cubist painters, like Pablo Picasso. That's my 2 cents. What's yours?

Supermodel Says...

A Brazilian model shed light on Thursday's post—re: a scary rise in anorexic deaths in Sao Paulo—by defending the fashion industry's role in the problem. "The fashion industry isn't to blame for anorexia among young models – families are," she told People magazine. "Everybody knows that the norm in fashion is thin. But excuse me, there are people born with the right genes for this profession." Hmm. But aren't we discussing those who aren't blessed with the "right" genes?

Crisis on the Catwalk

Some disturbing news from Brazil: six young women have starved themselves to death in the last two months in Sao Paulo, a fashion capital that typically embraces the idea of, you know, models who eat. The death of Ana Carolina Reston in particular—the 21-year-old model who collapsed during a fashion shoot—attracted a storm of media attention. The New York Times cited Brazil’s surrender to "universal" beauty standards—read: sickly thin is in—and mused over the effect of international media. After all, Brazil once encouraged “having a little more flesh, distributed differently to emphasize the bottom over the top, the contours of a guitar rather than an hourglass, and most certainly not a twig.” But somehow, that's drastically changed. A once-unshakable Brazil now features a bulimic ballerina on a popular ABC soap; a magazine flags the headline, “Inside the Mind of an Anorexic.” Thankfully, there are steps in the right direction on this issue. Spain banned underweight models from its fashion week; soon after, Milan did the same. Sao Paulo is now pushing a health and anorexia awareness campaign through numerous media—print, broadcast, Internet, school assemblies—and requiring models in February’s Sao Paulo Fashion Week to show medical certificates. But, question is, can a fashion capital really remedy something like this? And closer to home, where even actresses are wasting away, when will the New York fashion industry follow suit?

Real Beauty: Could you be a cover model?

From American Apparel to Dove, corporate America is eschewing real models for real people. Since the company's inception, American Apparel has used real girls, wearing zero makeup, and Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty promotes the beauty of real women through their ad campaigns. Now, high fashion brands are hopping on the real bandwagon: DKNY, Converse and Adriano Goldschmied jeans have scoured Manhattan's Lower East Side for real life hipsters to star in their upcoming ad campaigns. Hmmmm.....large companies are promoting "real" beauty, skinny models are being banned from fashion runways. Do I detect a trend? Perhaps we're finally getting over our obsession with unattainable beauty? What's next--magazine cover celebrities/models being replaced with you and me? Anyone...Anyone...Bueller?

BMI Watch: Are YOU Banned in Madrid?

With all this talk of BMI's I started wondering what mine is. Am I banned in Madrid, but embraced in Milan? In Madrid, the minimum BMI to walk the runways was suggested to be 18. To find your BMI, you divide your weight in pounds by your height in inches squared, and multiply it by 703. That's way too complicated in my book. To the rescue is this handy online BMI calculater. Simply input your height and weight and it does the math for you. Turns out I have a BMI of 18, which means I'm street legal in Madrid--but most likely considered chunky by "certain designers with histories of weight issues." Nice.

The Skinny

Another day, another New York Times article on skinny models. It's much of the same news: Models are dangerously thin. Some cities are trying to stop them from walking the runways. Models are either agreeing that they are too thin, or lashing back. Agents do care. Designers don't. But this one had an interesting blind item:

"A name came up of a celebrated designer, with his own history of weight issues, who was overheard last season chiding a particular runway star for beefing up. The woman took the hint. She took time off to “rest” and came back so thin you could drive a Hummer through the space between her thighs."

Another question: If cities are trying to ban too skinny models from the runways, should they apply the same BMI standards to the audience? In that case, half of the front row would be banned....

The Skinny

Another day, another New York Times article on skinny models. It's much of the same news: Models are dangerously thin. Some cities are trying to stop them from walking the runways. Models are either agreeing that they are too thin, or lashing back. Agents do care. Designers don't. But this one had an interesting blind item:

"A name came up of a celebrated designer, with his own history of weight issues, who was overheard last season chiding a particular runway star for beefing up. The woman took the hint. She took time off to “rest” and came back so thin you could drive a Hummer through the space between her thighs."

Another question: If cities are trying to ban too skinny models from the runways, should they apply the same BMI standards to the audience? In that case, half of the front row would be banned....