At Issa London, A Focus On Shimmer And Shine

The perpetual gray drizzle outside the Standard hotel in the Meatpacking District yesterday was hardly warm and tropical, but the restaurant at the new High Line destination, a.k.a. backstage headquarters for the Issa Resort presentation, was awash with aquamarine, fuchsia, and emerald green dresses that begged for a weekend in the Maldives. Amid this explosion of color, celebrity hairstylist Ted Gibson and his senior stylist Liam Carey were serving up loose, low-slung chignons, prepping hair with Gibson’s Hair Sheet Styling and some Tame It Lotion to calm flyaways before sweeping it up. The real key to the look that Gibson dubbed “elegant chic, but effortless” was an accessory that Carey fashioned on site. He attached one bobby pin to each end of a clear elastic and, gathering hair into a low pony, inserted one pin vertically up into the hair, wrapped the elastic around its width, and inserted the other pin downward at the top. “It makes a tighter, sleeker base for the chignon,” Carey said. “And this way you won’t be clawing it out when you want to release it.” The simple, classic style served as a good canvas for makeup artist Susan Houser’s bold eye, which was inspired by the bright fabrics in the collection. Using bronze and gold shadows from a Tarte metallic shadow palette and a new teal shade from the brand’s line of Lock and Roll Creaseless Eyeshadow Duos, Houser drew an elongated aqua cat-eye along the upper lash line, adding copper through the crease and going back in with a bright gold to highlight the inner corners and make the eyes pop. To further simulate summer, she coated models’ skin with Rodin Olio Lusso, a heavenly aromatic blend of 11 essential oils that gives cheekbones and décolletage the perfect after-sun sheen—a nice complement to the myriad low necklines on the runway.