Freewheeling Beauty Backstage At 3.1 Phillip Lim

Phillip Lim’s Fall collection was inspired by that rare breed of stylish New Yorker who straps on her most impractical shoe and puts stiletto to bike pedal—and hairstylist Odile Gilbert was not about to divert from the plan. Sculpting what she referred to as “shogun bumps,” her Asian-influenced half-up/half-downs were both chic and bike-helmet-friendly (note to self for future riding expeditions). Prepping hair with a Kérastase Double Force Controle Ultime hair spray for structure, Gilbert brushed back tresses, coating them with a mix of its Elixir Ultime and its new-for-summer Chroma Crystal serum before dividing them into two sections. The top was pulled only a quarter of the way through an elastic to look like a samurai knot, while the under layer was treated to a deep wave courtesy of a three-pronged curling iron.

Picking up on Lim’s cycling directive, CND nail tech Angie Wingle was hard at work outfitting models with what appeared to be moon manicures, although the moon itself—a dollop of the brand’s upcoming limited-edition Midnight Sapphire painted on top of its Desert Suede—was actually meant to resemble the rubber from a bike tire.

Makeup artist Lisa Butler didn’t try to make any similarly clever commentary on two-wheelers. “There’s a lot of green in the collection,” she said of the inspiration for the shimmering jade and aqua lids that she crafted using the muted emerald shade from NARS’ Eyeshadow Trio in Delphes layered with the turquoise, dark hunter, and dusty lime pigments in its Eyeshadow Trio in Cap Ferrat. Butler turned to NARS’ forthcoming Larger Than Life Longwear Eyeliner in Rue de Rivoli (a metallic forest) and Abbey Road (a sparkling blue) to add dimension to the inner rims of models’ eyes before pressing a few smudges of its lipstick in Pago Pago—a new shade for fall—onto mouths. “None of the makeup has clean lines,” Butler pointed out. “There’s a round graphicness to it.” (OK, maybe a little clever commentary.