Backstage beauty: Matted textures and braided folk twists redefined romance at Cecilie Bahnsen

The brief from Cecilie Bahnsen's head hairstylist (and backstage veteran) Cim Mahony was simple: soft yet scruffy.

Hair was prepped with a nourishing primer to detangle and make it pliable, then roughed up with volumising mousse and a mist of dry texture. The finish was matte and touchable, the kind of slept-in movement that stops the celebrated designer's silhouettes from veering saccharine. “It’s about contrast,” Mahony said backstage. “A beautiful mess against sculptural, couture-like dresses.”

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Braids are part of the Bahnsen vocabulary. This season the team leaned into a folky feel, working clean centre parts into cornrows and box braids. The wide-tooth-comb attachment to the Dyson hair dryer helped stretch and loosen lengths before braiding, which kept the texture believable rather than overly set. Just before lineup, a light setting spray went on to hold the shape without killing the airiness.

Together, the beauty read as modern and streetwise. Matte, braided texture stopped the silhouettes from drifting into pure prettiness. The reflective silver-leafed eye by makeup artist Trine Skjøth was was the red (or, more accurately, silver) thread of the collection. For a tenth-anniversary retrospective that pulled from the archive and amplified the codes, this was the right counterweight. Romance remained, but with some delicious grit to contrast.