Chanel: Rock-Embroidered Statement Brow!

Photo taken by Luca Cannonieri/GoRunway.com

What was on Karl Lagerfeld’s mind as he was designing Chanel’s Fall 2012 line? Minerals! The pale, pebble-strewn landscape was spiked with towering crystal sculptures that called to mind a modern-day Planet Krypton—except that this being Planet Chanel, it was ruled not by Superman, but by an army of glittering, leggy Karl-ites with glittering eyebrows to match.

Peter Philips, Chanel’s creative director of make-up, said backstage “It was a sort of impression, with lots of blush and stones floating on the face. I wanted to translate it into something that would look great on the girls. Contemporary and a little bit military—a kind of strong textural element.” Philips set out on a mission to bring reality to Lagerfeld’s inspiration. He began dreaming of graphic arches made entirely of real, twinkling stones—but with 70 girls walking in the show, “I knew I didn’t have time to sit and (glue them on) one by one,” he said. Searching for a solution, he called his friends at Lesage—the storied French atelier now owned by Chanel and responsible for its legendary embroidery work. Together, they fashioned a pair of slim, rectangular fabric strips that could be pressed on with one simple gesture. “Each one has a base of organza that’s covered in hand-embroidered sequins,” he said.

Naturally, such statement pieces called for a well-prepped canvas. Before gluing them onto the skin with theatrical adhesive at a sharp, horizontal angle, Philips blended Chanel Mat Lumière foundation onto the skin for a soft, natural finish. “It’s very cold today so a lot of the girls are coming in with red noses and cheeks. We need to even them out,” he said. In the spirit of Lagerfeld’s original sketch, he used a generous swirl of a cool, unexpected mauve-ish taupe powder, (the shade: Notorious), due out next fall. “I’m using it to sculpt the cheekbones and also as a veil on the eyelids that disappears all the way into the hairline.”

That pale, slightly punkish color also turned up on the nails in the form of Frenzy—a lavender-taupe polish plucked from the fall collection, as well. “With the Chanel girl, there is always a bit of a twist.", said Philips with a smile. 

I must say Mr. Philips, I wholeheartedly agree with you! Are you inspired to rock this statement brow?



*Some text taken from Vogue.com