Milan Fashion Week Beauty Blog

Backstage photos, news, interviews and more

Stylist's Sam Flowers reports live from the shows. Discover the inner workings of a high-profile fashion show - from Marni's 5:45am Sunday start to the label's 10am catwalk curtain call. Saturday saw Pucci hair inspired by British girls, while Roberto Cavalli went for glistening beauty and Stylist coverstar Joan Smalls showed Sam her secret talent...

P.S. Don't miss the beauty looks from London Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week and you can leave us a message in the comments section below or @StylistBeauty

Backstage Photos: Taken on the powerful HTC One X+ with instant image capture and Beats Audio™

24 february

MARNI

anatomy of a fashion show:

5.45am: Models, stylists, hair team and make-up artists arrive arrive backstage.

6am: Key make-up artist Tom Pecheux and hair stylist Paul Hanlon explain the look to their teams and get to work.

8.15am: Beauty journalists arrive backstage and gather around Tom and Paul, watching them as they work.

8.20am: Tom explains that there are a lot of contrasting fabrics in this Marni collection so he wanted to replicate that on the face - a soft, blurred matte red lip to to play off the high-shine, damp-looking hair.

8.55am: The models get ready for the practise run-through. A production manager pulls them into a "line-up" - the exact order that they will walk down the catwalk.

9.05am: Tom, Paul, production managers, designers and stylists sit and watch the run-through to check how the light is hitting the hair and make-up and if anything needs to change.

9.30am: A team of stylists gets the models dressed.

10.00am: The show starts.

on the catwalk

23 february

kate moss meets marianne faithful in milan = EMILIO PUCCI

"Ok, so imagine those cool girls who go out in Hoxton dressed in retro clothes have just won the lottery. This is them."

The look on the catwalk, above

make-up

Amid the backstage mayhem, make-up artist Lisa Butcher was working away, turning models faces into a modern update of a '60s mood.

Keeping skin matte and adding lashes topped with tonnes of mascara, she let us in on a few secret make-up artist tips that rely on only two products: a duo of beigy coloured MAC Lip Pencils in Cork and Oak.

Give matte skin a youthful finish: Dot the pencils onto the apples of the cheeks to create faux-freckles. Patting them into the skin blurs them slightly and gives a more realistic finish.

Create a perfect pout: Taking the pencils, draw a straight line slightly underneath the lip, in the 'v' of the cupids bow and upwards through the middle of the lips then blend. Pat a balm on top.

hair

Another show, another look inspired by us...

"It's like your hair. And yours. It's the way all you girls have your hair!" exclaimed hair stylist Luigi Murenu, "I just need to give you a fringe."

Personalised faux-fringes backstage at Pucci, above

A bit of Shu Uemura volume mousse to prep, a bit of a tong through the middle using a large curling iron and some serum on the ends (erm, he's right - it's basically my hair routine) topped off with a faux fringe cut straight in the middle and left slightly longer on the ends - a look inspired by our very own Alexa Chung and Kate Moss.

a sneaky look at the catwalk

backstage mayhem at PUCCI

high-shine at ROBERTO CAVALLI

Hair, make-up and nails glistened for all they were worth backstage.

As Guido lacquered hair flat using lashings of Redken Shine Flash and Diamond Oil (remember I first showed you this new range at Reed Krakoff in NYC? It launches into the UK in August) Kerri Blair gave nails two coats of MAC Over Lacquer - a super glossy topcoat - and a good dosage of cuticle oil for good luck.

Topped off with Lucia Pieroni's "sexy, smoky, oil-slicked eye" the aim was to have the light reflect off the models from every angle as they walked down the catwalk.

The Three Brush Rule:

-Line around the eye using MAC Graph Black Liner and blend out and around using a round, fat brush.

-Taking two black eyeshadows - one matte and one sparkly - press onto and underneath the lid using a wide, flat brush

-Using a soft, fluffy brush, buff the shadows outwards, softening any hard edges to fade the shape out into a straightened cat's eye. Finish with a slick of mascara and a touch of gloss.

A little bit grungy, a little bit punky, a hell of a lot of attitude.

ROBERTO CAVALLI ON THE CATWALK

22 february

joan smalls performs her secret talent backstage at MFW...

watch the video

Stylist Covergirl's Secret Talent... from Sam on Vimeo.

Scroll down to see Joan's answers to Stylist's backstage beauty quiz...

sam mcknight takes the stylist backstage beauty quiz

Not only one of the most in-demand hair stylists in the world, Sam McKnight is also one of the best backstage bakers around. If he gave me an hour of his time I don't know whether I'd ask him to do my hair or bake me a cake (although I think it would be the hair). He also had time to take the Stylist Backstage Beauty Quiz at Moschino earlier this morning...

ETRO

Always a beauty girl's favourite mid-morning stop in Milan, Etro not only has some of the world's top models walking but the backstage pass, the food and the designer water gets us every time.

Eugene Soulieman, global hairstylist for Wella, told me the look was inspired by my biker boots:

Joking he may have been, but Eugene's "faux-hawks" definitely had an element of biker-chick-slash-punk to them.

Want to try it yourself? You'll need Wella Perfect Setting Lotion. Apply to damp hair then blow-dry straight. Section hair, pull the sides straight back very tightly applying Wella Moulding Paste to add shine and keep in them in place. Backcomb the top section and rub with the fingertips slightly to give it some lift.

Easy biker chic.

ETRO on the catwalk

"the look at Moschino? it's inspired by you girls..."

Oh Tom Pecheux, you'll make us blush.

Remember the '60s beehives, glossy orange lips and extreme lashes at Moschino last September? Well, its new season brings a whole new style. As make-up genius Tom Pecheux explained, he and Sam McKnight were originally asked to create the usual Italian glamour but the volume and OTT make-up looked at odds with the British inspired collection.

"Its a homage to British girls. Super-fresh, very dewy looking skin using MAC Mineralise Foundation, Something Special Cream Blend Blush to create rosy cheeks and pinky stained lips using a blend of three lipsticks," said Tom. "I'm using only cream textures, no powders, because I want the shades to merge into one another. I want the blush to seamlessly blend into the foundation."

Meanwhile Sam McKnight used one single product to create this idea of the "quintessential British girl who goes riding," type hair. Blowing Pantene Volume Mousse into the roots for a little bit of height, he tonged hair, left it to set then pulled into a low pony. Wrap a section of hair around the base and pull the hair over the ears and there you have it - the typical British girl (in our dreams).

lindsey wixson says hi...

MOSCHINO on the catwalk

backstage clothes prep:

the wedding diet's going REALLY well. not.

I have three months. Send help!

DSQUARED

hair

A bit of a departure for DSquared tonight who had the androgynous Thing down. With Sam McKnight on hair we saw a (pony) tale of two halves - a sleek, side-parted 'do from the front and a bouncy "done" pony with a hint of girly bounce from the back.

make-up

Charlotte Tilbury mirrored this duality in the make-up - contrasting rosy, berry stained lips with a boyish brow and sharply contoured cheeks. These two pros had it in the bag. Their only problem? Only five models had arrived so far, they were still waiting for the others to come from Prada and Ports 1961.

access all areas: dsquared

DSQUARED on the catwalk

post-prada pitstop at ports 1961:

When in Milan....

PRADA

hair

"Miuccia sees things in a very filmic way. She wanted to us to create a moment in time. Her woman has dressed for the evening, she has her gown on, her fur jacket and her jewels but her hair is the way it was when she stepped out the shower," explained Guido, drenching hair in tonnes of mousse and soon-to-be-launched Redken Diamond Hair Oil. "It's a melancholy mood. We're capturing that moment here."

make-up

Make-up legend Pat McGrath mirrored this using an applied-off technique on the face, "to capture the essence of this woman I wanted to create a shadow effect on the face, she's almost a shadow of herself."

To do this, Pat painted a berry lip on, then wiped it straight off using a wetwipe. After surrounding the eyes with a grey cream shadow, she applied mascara then pressed the lashes down to create a smudged effect under the eye. "It's all very done but deliberately undone."

PRADA on the catwalk

joan smalls takes the stylist backstage beauty quiz

One of Stylist's most memorable cover stars and one of my favourite models, Joan took the backstage quiz at Ports 1961.

Fresh faced and full of the joys of spring this was Joan's third show this season (after Tom Ford and Gucci) and she was more than happy to spill the beans....

it's snowing at prada

JUST CAVALLI

hair

Over on hair, James Pecis was working lengths into a '30s-Shanghai kinda look. Hmm. It basically involved wrapping sections of hair in figures of eight around these metal rods and setting with a straightening iron.