Models must surely breathe a sigh of relief when they’re booked for Tom Ford’s shows. Along with the honor of walking in his clothes come full-scale pedicures and manicures, plenty of attention given to prepping the skin, and an enviable payoff: incredibly glossy, well-cared-for complexions and natural, healthy nails that look fresh even under the harshness of the runway lights. But then what else would you expect from the designer? “I make terrific skin care . . . yes!” he agreed, referring to his Intensive Infusion Ultra Rich Moisturizer which was mixed in with his Traceless Foundation Stick. “I was going for powerful, strong women. Some of the girls have leg muscles that are quite toned; their shoulders are broad like a swimmer’s; they’re fresh, natural, and athletic.” The look—tousled hair, bare skin, and no-manicure manicures—worked in contrast to Ford’s embellished, form-fitting evening dresses and boyish, sexy leathers. “When you have open-toe sandals and bare hands, everything shows, and when you think about who our customer is and who we are, well of course they have to be immaculate! Wearing no polish is harder than covering everything up with a dark shade; your nails and toes have to be perfect.” In the end, the flawless appearance was accomplished with just one coat of Naked on fingers with a clear top coat, and one coat of Toasted Sugar on toes, again with a clear top coat—all made possible thanks to two hours of cuticle pushing and nail buffing by manicurist Liza Smith and her team.
Achieving perfection—without it looking too perfect—meant a delicate balancing act for hairstylist Orlando Pita and makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury. Mid-conversation, Pita was distracted by a far-too-polished updo across the room: “She looks like she’s about to walk down a couture runway!” he shouted. “Not too high, it’s too ‘madame!’” Pita’s eminently covetable updos are boyish, “not too strict,” the kind of party hair that looks effortless, but get it wrong and it’s instantly aging. It’s a favorite look of Ford’s, inspired by his mother, who in the sixties liked to wear a classic Tippi Hedren hairstyle. The key to keeping it more subdued, and therefore more modern, is to leave out the usual preliminary blow-out—Pita used Schwarzkopf Osis+ Dust It Mattifying Powder instead to provide texture, then pinned the hair at the back, to emphasize the natural, boyish shape of the back of the head, rather than the angular, square shape more typical of the traditional French twist, before spritzing with plenty of hair spray—Orlando Pita’s T3 Control. At the last minute, pieces were pulled out at the front, to keep things loose.
Meanwhile, after dusting models’ skin with Tom Ford Beauty Bronzing Powder in Terra and giving the lips a touch of natural color—Ford’s Sheer Lip Shine in Bare—Tilbury saw something that needs correcting. “Your eyebrows are a disaster!” she said to one model backstage, before expertly softening the shape with a deft stroke of a brow brush and a quick touch of Tom Ford Beauty Brow Sculptor and then finishing with a “There you go, sweetie!” What’s the difference between a “disaster” and the full brows requested by Ford, and inspired by Margaux Hemingway? “Everyone’s eyebrows are naturally asymmetrical—what you’re trying to do is bring as much symmetry back into the face as possible,” Tilbury explained. She held up eye pencils next to the eye to demonstrate: “It needs to start parallel with the nose; the brow then rises to a point that’s in line with the pupil; then it should taper downwards to the end.” Like Ford, she is passionate about brows, spending a good 20 minutes getting them right on each model. “Everyone backstage is going to have to take eyebrow brushes with them,” she shouted to her team. Which is reminiscent of something Ford himself said directly after the show: “A lot of thought goes into these things . . . a lot of thought.”
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