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Kelly Rissman
US News Reporter
Roksanda's latest show took inspiration from Bridgerton, combining Regency-inspired ensembles with contemporary cuts and extravagant eveningwear.
To complement the fashion, Dominic Skinner, the show's lead makeup artist and artistic director of MAC Cosmetics, said the beauty looks needed to be “flawless and sumptuous, but with a certain rawness.”
“The models appear to be unmade up, but perfectly intact.”
Serbian-born, London-based designer Roksanda Ilincic founded her label in 2005 and has risen to fame for her bold, sophisticated approach to womenswear.
Her designs have been frequently worn by the Princess of Wales and Hollywood stars such as Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway, who have fallen in love with her striking blocks of colour, modern cuts and sculptural silhouettes.
For this collection, Roksanda was inspired by the Bridgerton era. The show was certainly a step towards spring, with a colour palette that included burnt earth, as well as pops of pale pink, yellow and tangerine orange.
“I was inspired by the National Portrait Gallery to evoke that Regency quality and create something very pure,” Skinner said of the makeup looks that accompany the work.
“I’ve subtly contoured just enough to accentuate the bone structure, using a traditional technique under the cheekbones, but we’re also contouring the upper inner corner of the brow, where the brow bone and nose meet, to create this pinched, balanced feel.”
Skinner wanted to portray the delicacy and strength of Roksanda's collection through makeup.
“The skin is firm and matte in the centre of the face, but then slightly hydrated on the cheekbones, as if she had just poured water from the basin to wake up and the remains were shining in the spring sun. There is a real freshness to her,” she said.
“The skin has a pure, almost religious quality, juxtaposed with this rounded, pillowy lip in a very dark, blackened plum shade, a color called smoky purple.”
Skinner wanted to leave the edge of the lip slightly brushed rather than perfectly cut, to emulate the raw softness of the paintings that inspired him at the National Portrait Gallery.
“These colors are quite cool and muted, but the look is very spring-like,” she explained.
“There’s a clarity to it, like bright light has hit you but the air is still fresh, like the first day of spring.”
Skinner described the look as “feminine, but fiercely strong,” adding: “It’s very balanced, that’s modern femininity, and that’s what we’ve tried to recreate in the makeup look.”
Set against the backdrop of the Brutalist Space House in Covent Garden, the structure was key to Roksanda's latest collection, featuring tailored eveningwear, draped shirts and pronounced pleats.
The unconventional silhouettes that Roksanda became known for were very much in evidence, with over-the-top sculptural bows and crisp feather fringe seen on the catwalk.
The potentially severe collection was softened, however, by fluid silhouettes: each dress seemed to catch the breeze, demonstrating the sculptural volume of the garment in motion.
Celebrities sitting in the front row included Dame Vanessa Redgrave and actors Zawe Ashton and Joely Richardson.
They all championed Roksanda's aesthetic through their fashion choices: Dame Vanessa in an elegantly tailored coat, Ashton in a delicately draped bright orange dress and Richardson playing with modern colour contrasts in a pink skirt suit with blue tights and a purple belt.
