Thom Browne closed out New York Fashion Week in the most dramatic, fantastical way possible: a set design of 2,000 origami paper birds and models wearing feathered lashes, inspired by birds. Winged liner move over — it’s time for theatrical and whimsical winged lashes to shine. Makeup artist, Isamaya Ffrench, known for her often innovative and non-traditional makeup looks wanted to bring a “magical story to life through makeup,” for the show. She only saw the clothes two days before the show but knew how Thom often leans into creating magical moments that are a whole story, not only the clothes but the models wearing the clothes too, whom Ffrench refers to as “characters.”
She wanted to dress these characters up as ethereal creatures with layered lashes. “There’s something otherworldly about the way birds move, their delicate yet dramatic presence, and we wanted to translate that into a striking lash look,” Ffrench tells the Cut. Her mood board was filled with feathered textures, sharp silhouettes and sweeping wings. She wanted to create dimension and movement with the colorful standout lashes, “almost like they were taking flight.” As the models walked the runway batting their eyes as the ostrich feathers fluttered it looked like a fantasy of playfulness.
The lashes came in various colors, from delicate white ostrich feathers to bold yellow ones. The color palette was based on the primary colors of the rainbow to juxtapose the muted grey tones of the collection. Ffrench stacked rows of ostrich feathers over Lashify’s Edge Gossamer lash, a custom-designed lash that gives an intense cat-eye appearance that she created. She applied these lashes layered with the feathers with extra strength bond to secure them in place before models walked the runway, a lash bond I’m not adding to my cart because if it can keep soft ostrich feathers in place then it can surely keep my daily strip lashes in place, too.
