heavy metal

It was the lack of jewelry at Erin Fetherston's spring '13 presentation that served as inspiration for Butter London's Katie Hughes' nail polish pick. "Erin really wanted the nails to be an accessory, so this is their ring," she said backstage, pointing to a model's metallic fingertips. Call it the bling factor, but we've been seeing it a lot backstage.

In addition to the lilac and gold metallics used at Erin Fetherston (they're Lillibet's Jubilee and Full Monty, respectively) both Richard Chai and Katie Gallagher had the same silver-y shade from Julep, called Sienna. "We're seeing the shimmery metallics as a trend for spring," said Julep founder Jane Park backstage at Katie Gallagher, confirming what we were beginning to suspect. It was there that the metallic polish was used not as the main coat, but as the base--with an intricate nail art pattern painted on top of it (inspired, according to Park, by the desinger's "theme, which was 'chasing butterflies'"). So what's the appeal to something that bucks the matte-finish, neon-leaning trends of the past few seasons? "It's finger-elongating," said Hughes.

"At first the idea [for the nails at Erin Fetherston] was nude-everything. And then Erin was like, 'I decided to do something metallic,' and I was like, 'Yeah!' There's nothing more boring to me than a nothing-nude nail." Instead, she sees this as being more like a foundational nail, "classified as neutral metallics."

Which means you can wear them with just about anything--including the big color for spring '13, tangerine--and still get our thumbs up.

WANT MORE BACKSTAGE BEAUTY FROM FASHION WEEK SPRING 2013? HERE YOU GO: No seriously, tangerine is everywhere. Also, makeup artists are matching lips to cheeks. We kind of love it.

The nails at Katie Gallagher's spring '13 presentation

The nails at Erin Fetherston's spring '13 presentation

More of the nails at Erin Fetherston's spring '13 presentation

Sienna from Julep

Full Monty and Lillibet's Jubilee from Butter London