Flashback make-up was embraced at Vivienne Westwood AW24

Flashback is something we have traditionally been taught to fear and avoid – “the dread of every make-up artist and celebrity,” as one writer put it – with countless articles and tutorials on how to prevent the chalky white cast appearing in photos. But at Vivienne Westwood this season, Isamaya Ffrench proved there’s no such thing as bad make-up – only a bad attitude. 

For the AW24 beauty look, Ffrench sent models down the runway with bright and heavily powdered under eyes which created an exaggerated flashback effect, “to lift the eyes and narrow the gaze,” as she described it. The rest of the face was kept natural-looking, with minimal make-up on the eyes or lips. Hair was also kept relatively simple courtesy of Sam McKnight who left it loose and long or slicked back into a pompadour and tied with a black ribbon.

People often get punished for being perceived as putting too much effort into their appearance, so it’s not surprising that flashback – which makes explicit the artifice and presence of make-up – is so ruthlessly mocked. But Westwood has never been a label afraid of the performance, something that was made particularly clear this season thanks to the spinning dancers and yodelling which entertained the audience throughout the show. 

An embracing of the artificiality of beauty was also seen at Diesel thanks to Gary Gill, where hair extensions – including those shameful clips – were on full display, in shades that contrasted the models’ hair colour. Meanwhile, Inge Grognard created technicolour make-up looks that felt like a bolt of excitement amidst the sea of minimal, tasteful beauty. Models walked the runway wearing reptilian contact lenses in toxic waste shades of green, orange and yellow. These rainbow eyes were further emphasised with clashing multi-coloured eyeshadow and coloured brows. 

Elements of bright colours around the eyes were also seen at shows including Feben and Etro, but it was the watercolour splashes of colour at Noir Kei Ninomiya that really stood out from the rest. Inspired by the reflective colours of light, make-up artist Uchiide created asymmetrical eyeshadow looks in a kaleidoscopic range of pastel metallics. Not limited to the eyelids, the make-up spread out across the face and extended up towards the ears and cheeks to create a delicately whimsical look. Meanwhile, hair by Ryoji Imaizumi continued the playful theme of the collection. Models walked with hair full of broken pieces of ceramics, oversized clips, swirls of wires and sculptural debris for a look that was part punk and part Ms Frizzle.

The hair at Loewe also made a statement thanks to Guido Palau, who took inspiration from anime and manga to create a cartoony look that was both boyish and futuristic. Hairpieces dyed vivid shades of red, green and blue by Antonia Cometa brought a pop of fluoro colour to the black wigs, which Palau had cut into a bowl shape with a rat-tail braid at the back. Make-up by Pat McGrath was natural and minimal, keeping the attention on the hair and collection.

At Kiko Kostadinov, make-up artist Siddhartha Simone kept the colours neutral and toned-down, full of earth shades of greys and beiges. Eyeshadow was a soft wash of grey or pale blue, while Starface stickers – which have been making increasingly frequent cameos on the catwalk – were piled on top of each other to create a “rubbery 3D second-skin-like texture”. On hair, Olivier Schawalder continued the theme of softness with fringe hair extensions which fell across the face, delicate and wispy.

At Miu Miu, the beauty was less about the hair and make-up – although Palau and McGrath did an immaculate job as always – and more about the casting, which featured many older faces including Dr Qin Huilan and actresses Kristin Scott Thomas and Ángela Molina. As an industry, fashion has often been guilty of celebrating and championing youth above all else, so it was refreshing to see older women get represented on the catwalk and rightly held up as icons of glamour and beauty, especially during a time when people are becoming increasingly terrified of ageing.