Image by: Julia Le
On Saturday, September 12, ready-to-wear designer Allina Liu presented her Spring/Summer 27 collection, “The Clearing,” in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
In previous seasons, Liu has captured romance and elegance in her designs. This collection departs slightly from that—emphasizing more maturity to reflect the seasoned designer Liu has become. According to her, “her most personal collection to date,” “The Clearing” takes a more functional approach.
This season’s collection was about “reflecting the tension between feeling lost and finding your footing again.” The presentation embodied that, featuring a studio projecting images of a forest, green trees, and moss-covered pedestals. Liu moved away from the pastel colors of previous seasons to an edgier, darker aesthetic, using ripstop, denim, and bungee cords to add a more mature theme to her collection.
To pull each look together for her presentation, Liu enlisted an amazing makeup, hair, and nail team. Here’s how each part of it was executed.
Makeup
Zoe Ray of the Major Face team led makeup this season. Liu and Ray opted for a wet, glazed look, almost like “[the models] just stepped out of the water.” To achieve this look, simplicity is key. Of course, prepping the models with the right skincare makes it easy to achieve any look given the right base. Ray used a slight bit of concealer to clean up any blemishes and
used skin balms and lip glosses on the eyelids for maximum shine. The ease of creating this look meant Ray and the models finished ahead of schedule for the presentation!
Hair
Hair this season was sponsored by Rica Haircare, so of course, the brand’s Global Creative Artistic Director Joseph DiMaggio keyed the hair. One of the main inspirations was the horror genre and how it looked in film and television. “There’s always this play of constriction and freedom,” DiMaggio said. This meant the hair was glossier while still looking controlled and wild at the same time. The juxtaposition of control and freedom came through in small braids running down the sides of the model’s hair and the use of Rica’s Volcanic Elixir Hydro Mist to give it a compact, wet look. To finish, DiMaggio used plumping mousse to lock it all in. He also used hair tools from his own brand, Pomo Styling.
Nails
Lily Lin, co-founder of CLAWS 627, a private nail studio in Chinatown, led this season’s nails. Leaning further into the horror genre, the nails were meant to create a corpse-like look. “It’s a lot of what seems like death and rebirth in a way,” Lin said. Every model adopted this morbid look except one, who wore bare nails to create contrast. To add a bit more edge, each nail varied in length and shape, and a drill was used to create jagged edges. Red, purple, green, brown, and black powders were applied over a milky white coat to create the look of blood and mold.
Which Allina Liu look was your favorite? Let us know!
XOXO,
Your Fashion Bestie
