At New York Fashion Week, three designers dialled back the decades revisiting the unapologetic codes of '80s makeup. From neon lips, to mono-wash lids and temple-high blush, this season's backstage beauty signalled one clear message: minimalism has left the building
New York Fashion Week has spoken, and it’s time to shelve your skin tints. This season, the beauty pendulum swung firmly in favour of 1980s makeups, with the decades' maximalist codes spotted across three of the week’s runways.
Take Christian Siriano, for example. Presenting a stark black-and-white collection (with the apt application of a polkadot or two, considering the overarching aesthetic) brought the very idea of the fashion show back through time. Staged inside Macy’s department store – the original venue of choice for most runway shows – the American designer doubled down on this theme with vivid neon pink and punchy peach lipstick. A classic '80s makeup look we previously spotted in Copenhagen, on the runway of our own very own Danish designer Caroline Bille Brahe's Caro Editions show.
Elsewhere, 80s makeup echoed (albeit less literally) on the runways of Prabal Gurung and Anna Sui.
Prabal Gurung SS26. Photo: Getty
Anna Sui SS26. Photo: Getty
Christian Siriano SS26. Photo: Getty
Prabal Gurung gave us California surf girl with a glistening golden-hour palette. Peach blush was swept high across the cheeks and into the temples in a bronze-draped love letter to the fitness-forward beauty ideals of the decade. The result? A sculptural warmth with the odd sun-kissed freckle that left us reminiscing about Pamela Anderson’s Baywatch glow and Malibu gym ads from 1986.
At Anna Sui, it was all about the eyes. Pop princesses of the past powered down the Hotel Chelsea runway in frosted pale blue eyeshadow, swept generously across the lids and into the crease. The so called "mono-wash” look has been bubbling up time and time again over the past seasons, firmly establishing this pigment-packed makeup as a usurper sidelining our long-standing love affair with the 'clean girl aesthetic'.
What does this yuppie time-jump mean for our beauty bags going forward? A swerve towards the '80s makeup motto: more is most definitely more. Neon pink lipsticks are cropping up at our favourite retailers, blush is climbing past the cheekbones and cobalt blue mascaras are no longer ironic. After years of minimalism, makeup is stepping back into its role as your outfit’s boldest accessory.