runway beauty

I Can’t Wait to Wear This Beauty Look in 8 Months

Photo: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images

A Rick Owens runway show at Paris Fashion Week is always a journey into another dimension. One time, models wore other models down the runway. This time around, a dozen Rick Owens models wore other faces on their faces for the occasion. The haunting looks were created by Salvia, an 18-year-old makeup and body modification artist whose Instagram account will forever change your life and everything you’ve ever known.

According to an Instagram post by BoF editor Tim Blanks, who attended the show, Owens found Salvia online (my money’s on the life-changing Instagram account) and considers her “a leader in pushing the body modification aesthetic, which has replaced tattoos for this generation.” Salvia and Owens are definitely onto something; these runway looks are far more arresting than any tattoo I’ve seen of late, even misspelled ones that reference tiny cooking devices.

Clockwise from top: Photo: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images
Clockwise from top: Photo: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images

In addition to the impressive prostheses, the contact lenses that completely blacked out the traditionally white sclera portion of the eyeball, and some very blurred lips, the hair and makeup seemed to be a fun, 21st-century take on Renaissance beauty. Complexions were extremely pallid, there was an overall lack of eyebrows across the board, and a lot of the hairlines were pushed way, way back, creating those high foreheads that were all the rage back then.

Clockwise from top: Photo: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images
Clockwise from top: Photo: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images

Not all of the models looked like other-world Queen Elizabeth Is. Some kept their natural face shape but got the Edward Scissorhands treatment, with bruise-colored contouring around the temples and lips, topped with a vertical line at the cupid’s bow.

Say what you will about fashion month fall 2019 and the accuracy of its autumnal trend predictions, but it honestly seems like this look will be “in” in about eight months.

This Beauty Look Will Forever Haunt Your Dreams