NYFW Beauty: Brows That Wow

From bejeweled streaks to barely-there zebra stripes, eyebrows on the New York runways this season have more personalities than a room full of Real Housewives.

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Alexander Wang

At Alexander Wang, hair stylist Guido Palau not only re-cut a few models’ coifs into choppy, boyish mops — he also shaved a chunky slit into the eyebrows of some male cat-walkers. The tough-guy look (reportedly inspired by circa-1980s boxers) jibed perfectly with Wang’s athletic-haute street wear.

Betsey Johnson

Eyebrow slits were also the thing at Betsey Johnson, seen on models dressed in flouncy, glittery dresses that at once recalled ‘80s Madonna and saloon barmaids. In other cases, eyebrows were completely obscured by an elaborate makeup mask of rainbow stripes that extended well beyond the brow line. Has there ever been a more cheerful makeup look on the runway? So Betsey.

Thom Browne

At Thom Browne’s theatrical show — where models affected punk-rock Japanese eccentrics — natural eyebrows were powdered down to blank out the canvas for chunky, dark brown brow slashes that angled sharply up, in the manner of an angry cartoon character.

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Givenchy

On the other end of the spectrum, at Givenchy, eyebrows basically disappeared; makeup maven Pat McGrath bleached them out to achieve an ethereal, supernatural effect. It made perfect sense, of course — the show’s beauty focal point was McGrath’s magical jeweled masks, each of which took upwards of five hours of layering and gluing to create.

Sally LaPointe

Jewelry highlighted the eyebrows at designer Sally LaPointe’s spring show. Faces were kept clean and bronzed, but brows were decorated with a chic little line of dark silver pebbles on the outer corners. Very cool and understated.