A/W ‘12 Beauty trends at London Fashion Week

Now the whirlwind that is London Fashion Week is finished, we’ve had a (little) bit of time to reflect on the key beauty trends that we saw backstage at the shows. We’ve rounded up the most-covetable (and often achievable) looks that you’ll be wanting coming Autumn/Winter. Get your head around them now and be ahead of the fashion pack.

Handsome beauty

As seen at House of Holland, Peter Pilotto and Antonio Berardi, boyish or androgynous beauty was a popular choice for Autumn/Winter. Think strong brows, simple eyes and minimal mascara, and you’ll know what we mean. Antonio Berardi lead the way with their models sporting Modish fringes – much like Woody from This is England – accompanied by thick brows, simple taupe eyes and stumpy eyelashes.

Wine lips

Stained, dark berry lips are always a popular trend for Autumn/Winter, and this season was no different, with claret lips at Stella McCartney and Nicole Farhi. Elsewhere, Basso & Brooke lined their lips in dark plumy black, giving a harder edge, while Jean-Pierre Braganza made their lips multi-tonal, with three shades!

Feline flicks

Structural clothing needs structural make-up. The make-up artists at Erdem and Mary Katrantzou decided to interpret the strong lines of the clothes with strong feline flicks of eye liner. Aquascutum also featured flicks, this time inspired by Japanese sex kittens. Get practising with that liquid eye liner ladies!

Blushing beauties

Glowing, rosy skin – the kind that you get after stepping in from the cold – was in abundance at the shows. Doctor Zhivago was the inspiration at Temperley, with the models having that post-snowy glow like Julie Christie. Literary references also inspired Holly Fulton, whose models had a post-coital blush courtesy of the groundskeeper in Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Cinematic beauty

The cinema event of the year – The Great Gatsby – seems to have had an effect on everything from skirts (they’re drop waist) to make-up (it’s cinematic). There were 1920s inspired looks at Antoni + Alison and Maria Grachvogel (think strong arched eyebrows and eye liner), while elsewhere at PPQ there was a strong pin-up vibe with pillar-box red lips and black heart-shaped beauty spots.

Don’t try this at home

There was some definite prowess involved in creating some of the more daring looks of the week - involving gold leaf applied to the eye lids at Michael van der Ham, gemstones stuck to the lips at Kinder Aggugini, and more pink glitter on the lips at Moschino Cheap + Chic. While it looked great on the catwalk, we don’t advise that you start super-gluing diamonds to your face at home.

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