“We’ve got Mariacarla, we’ve got Vittoria, we’ve got Mona, we’ve got Julia, we’ve got Kendall—everyone’s here,” makeup artist Dame Pat McGrath says backstage at Alaïa, moments before the supermodels began walking in a spiral down the Ronald O. Perelman Rotunda inside the Guggenheim museum. (On the front row, there was another stunner—Rihanna.) Designer Pieter Mulier has returned to New York to present the house’s spring/summer 2025 ready-to-wear collection, and as showgoers begin lining up outside behind metal barricades, the scene inside is buzzing. Models wear white terry cloth robes with “Alaïa” embroidered on the back as they practice walking in shiny thong heels, Mulier’s team wears white lab coats emblazoned with the house’s name.
“There are no buttons or zippers on the clothes,” explains McGrath of the looks inspired by American fashion from the ’30s to the ’70s, “so I wanted to create seamless skin.” Using different shades of Skin Fetish: Sublime Perfection Concealer to color-block graphic, “sculptural” eyes on 15 of the 47 models, “whether we’re taking around the eyes lighter or we’re going darker for more of a shadow,” she’s calling the new effect “Alaïa nudes.” The tonal eyes are paired with “spa fresh” skin, of course, a little “softly applied” Divine Cream Blush on the cheeks, and Skin Fetish Balm in all the right places.
Courtesy Pat McGrath
Courtesy Pat McGrath
Courtesy Pat McGrath
Supermodel Vittoria Ceretti thinks it’s a little bit “like a fairy.” She just landed in the city yesterday, and when I welcome her back, there’s no sign of jetlag. “Are you kidding me? I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” She loves the beauty look, too. “This is exactly what I would do—I wouldn’t have done anything more, anything less. It’s perfection.” Tonight is a “very special,” very big deal: “Alaïa in my opinion, is such an icon of beauty,” she says. “And it’s New York, which to me feels different from Paris in a way that’s young and a bit more raw and cooler.”
The uniformly slick, deeply side-parted low ponytails on every model are the work of hair stylist Duffy. “He talked about silhouette and he talked about strength and he talked about simplicity,” Duffy says of conversations with Mulier. “Sometimes you have to understand with beauty that you don’t always have to add something because I mean, yes, there’s time for excess, time for glamor, there’s time for extreme,” he says. “But there’s also quiet excess.” There’s excess in the 3 cans of different hairspray (L’Oreal Paris Elnett, Redkin 23, and Got2Be Glued) sitting on the table next to Julia Nobis, and together they combine for a patent leather, “hardcore” finish. “I think this really enhances the beauty that Pat is creating and doesn’t overpower or take away from anything else that as a team, we’re trying to do,” he says. They work well together, and they each help the other shine brighter. “It’s a lot of effort for something so simple, to be honest,” Duffy admits. “But I think it’s beautiful.”