What do you do when, two days before a runway show, Chet Lo calls and scraps the make-up look you’ve settled on? If you’re Isamaya Ffrench, you oblige. “He messaged me and said, ‘We’re changing it, I want it like X-Men! And he sent a picture of this girl with chrome tears and molten metal coming out of her mouth. I was like, ‘OK, let’s do it!’” A testament to her talent, the bold, metallic beauty worn by Lo’s army of models was mesmerising: a little bit mournful, and a massive hit.
“To create it, we used the silver from the Isamaya Beauty Industrial Palette 1.0,” Isamaya tells Vogue. When combined with a little Mehron Mixing Liquid, the powder takes on a fluidity perfect for creating the illusion of trickling tears. “The skin we kept quite natural, using Skinlacq for a glowy finish, and, just before the models were sent out, we brushed the tears with a clear lip gloss for a three-dimensional effect.”
Isamaya Beauty Industrial Eyeshadow Palette
£95
Selfridges
Mehron Mixing Liquid
£8.75
Beauty Bay
Lead stylist Anna Cofone brought the same level of lustre to the hair, masterminding sculptural looks adorned with silver leaf that echoed the armour motifs in Lo’s collection. “We wanted to convey confidence, strength, and a sense of breaking through. The message is this: the Chet Lo girl is not to be messed with,” says Cofone, who made “predatory” spikes on models with looser tresses using Authentic Beauty Concept’s Pomade and Working Hairspray, before applying a gentle heat to create a cracked silver patina on top. “We wanted to ensure that, even on Type 4 textures, [the] hair was still in this world of armour,” she adds, and there’s no better emblem of strength than a multi-strand braid. Models’ hair was cornrowed back in military formation, with multiple braids sewn on top of one another at the temples to form a raised structure and striking silhouette.
The Vogue verdict? If Lo’s autumn/winter 2024 show paid tribute to the Chinese Terracotta Army he’s long looked to as “a symbol of strength”, then the accompanying beauty looks were a suitably superhuman feat.
Authentic Beauty Concept Solid Pomade
£27.75
ABC
Authentic Beauty Concept Working Hairspray
£24
ABC