Beauty

line dance

can eyeliner be both modern and retro? the backstage makeup artists think so.

by ray siegel

With fashion week about to wrap, we've now gone backstage at over 40 shows. That means we've eaten at least 40 mini sandwiches, we've watched Deborah Lippmann give around 800 manicures, we've been hit in the head with a camera (or if we're lucky just a hair dryer) at least four times a day, and we've seen our fair share of Nars, Shiseido and MAC makeovers being expertly applied. Needless to say, we're starting to pick on some predominant trends. It seems like everywhere we look there's a cleaned-up version of the '60s Edie Sedgwick eye, like the the perfectly updated eyes that went down the runway Marc Jacobs.

The trend surfaced at all of these other spring '13 shows; Alexandre Herchovitch, Richard Chai, Altuzarra, Erin Fetherson, Ericson Beamon and Cushnie et Ochs. But it's more polished and less dramatic than the way that Edie wore it.

The best makeup artists in the business told us what to do differently this time around: Hold the lash extensions, hold the curved cateye lines, even hold the caked on mascara if you so please. The look is a straight, thick, clean line. And don't skip the strong brow because that's an important part

FRANCOIS NARS at Marc Jacobs

"We came up a more updated—I don't want to say modern, because modern doesn't mean anything—look than what Edie was doing. We took out the eyelashes and the heaviness of her look, but kept the essence of it. We kept the thicker eyebrows that's still very today. We made the colors very monochrome—very black and white. That gives it a strong eye and an intense look."

DICK PAGE, Artistic Director of Shiseido at Marc by Marc Jacobs

"I don't think the eye makeup belongs to any one era. You can have any version of dark eye makeup from the '20s until now. It's all context: How dirty you go, how polished you are, or how young you are."

JAMES KALIARDOS for MAC at Richard Chai

"We're taking the graphism of the '60s, but we're doing it in a soft color. We're using a color called Dirty Blonde, which is a fluid liner; it's a creamy liner that sets. Once you put it on it won't move, which is great because we won't have to retouch it once it's on because makeup disappears during fashion shows for some reason."

The line has been drawn! Click here to see which products Francois Nars used to get the look.