Fashion Force: Strong Women Ruled at MBFWA

Donning killer brows and lacquered lips, strong vixens stomped their way down the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia runways last week. Swapping polished locks for tougher tresses and favouring smudged eyes over a winged liner, makeup artists and hairdressers worked frantically backstage to transform their models into a rebellious muse. Here are the top four tough-girl trends to try this season:

BEAUTICATE LOVES: MODELS BACKSTAGE AT ALICE MCCALL. IMAGE BY KELLY GEDDES.

Masculine brows

BACKSTAGE AT MANNING CARTELL

Manning Cartell

Nicole Thompson for M.A.C: “We wanted to create a moment of impact with the brows, some toughness. The shape is really strong but the edges are blurred, so it’s quite boyish without a really high arch. We wanted to keep it low so they looked tough and modern.”

Bianca Spender

Victoria Baron for M.A.C: “We’ve made the brows a bit bushier, stronger and a bit manly but taking out some of the arches and keeping everything really straight and kind of pushing the eyebrows back on to each other so that they get a little bit more volume.”

BACKSTAGE AT BIANCA SPENDER

Slick strands

SAM HARRIS BACKSTAGE AT ASHKAR LINE

Ashkar Line

James Nicholson for Kevin Murphy: “There’s a slightly wet, slicked-back look at the front, but I spent a lot of time blowing out the back with a rolling brush. The wet-look at the front and the blow-dry at the back is a play on textures.”

Bianca Spender

Michele Mcquillan for O&M: “Because the clothes are so pretty, we can go a bit grungier with the hair. The look is a messy, high knot. We are using products to get the grit in the hair before twisting it into a messy knot. Putting O&M Sukuroi creamaround the edge and on the ends to make it look a little bit oilier.”

MESSY TOP-KNOTS AT BIANCA SPENDER

Stained lips

WINE-STAINED LIPS AT JAYSON BRUNSDON

Jayson Brunsdon

Nicole Thompson for M.A.C: “We wanted to see a little more toughness this year, so we’ve created a really nice, deep burgundy but very stained, very lived in lip. We’re going to put it on and not going to touch it up, we want it to look a little rebellious.”

Tough tresses

Jayson Brunsdon

Richard Kavanaugh for Redken: “We start with putting a really strong texture base into the hair and then we’re cinching the hair back so that it creates a really narrow, but androgynous silhouette. The clothes are very feminine so when the girls walk there’s this kind of toughness that anchors them as well.”

UN-DONE HAIR BACKSTAGE AT JAYSON BRUNSDON

EDGY CORNROLLS AT JENNIFER KATE

Jennifer Kate

Mari Cain for Goldwell: “The hair is very cool and un-done with a slight edge. It’s suppose to look really relaxed and there’s a lot of soft hair that drapes around the face, but through the back we’ve done a clean section cornrow through the centre of the head.”

Textured talons

Alice McCall

Karon McKendrick Taylor for FABY: “The Nails at Alice McCall were by Italian brand FABY and were designed to compliment the hair and make-up designs for each of the models – which was was gritty and edgy, disheveled and a little sexy. Texture was important and there were three different looks: a charcoal grey (FABY’s Shadow Puppets), a textured copper orange (FABY’s Sunset Farms) and a metallic pewter (FABY’s Guess A Color).”