On Tuesday evening, the designers behind Wolk Morais transported guests — Elizabeth Berkley, George Kotsiopoulos, Joseph Cassell (stylist to Taylor Swift) and True Blood alum Jurnee Smollett-Bell, included — to the beatnik coffee-shop culture of the 1950s and early 1960s at L.A.’s historical French Market Place, where they presented the second collection of their eponymous label. Unlike the bright rainbow hues that stood out from their first line, design duo Brian Wolk and Claude Morais opted for a more calming collection this time around, with a darker color scheme (navy, burgundy and bronze).
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“Staying here, our mind grew, and I think this collection will show that a little bit. I’m happy about the silhouettes, the textiles — this California living of zen place,” says Morais, who moved from New York to L.A. about a year and a half ago with Wolk, of the range’s mix of fabrics that includes denim, lamé and cotton twill featuring digital prints. “The color palette that you’ll see — we did a lot of the mountains, that 5 o’clock blue and pink.”
Adds Wolk: “Denim is definitely a fabric that’s quintessential to L.A., but we wanted to explore it from our designer, couture point of view and see what we could do with it when we translated it into these wonderful tailored pieces that aren’t traditionally done in denim.”
CALI GIRLS: Models on the runway of Wolk Morais‘ show on Nov. 9 (Photo: Brian Gove/Getty Images)
With the latest collection’s mellow mood, the makeup — or lack thereof — also matched the rebellious tone. “We’re going with a tough-girl makeup with that kind of natural hair so that it doesn’t necessarily look too ladylike or girly, but looks sportier and tough,” says MAC Cosmetics’ Tiffany Johnston, who cited brows as the main facial feature she and her team were highlighting. “That’s pretty much the only thing you’re going to see.”
Each model then got “a little bit of the tea stain around the eye” with various color concealers (“It looks like when you wake up, you have that depth that’s there already,” explains Johnston) and a moisturized lip with a fuchsia color applied on the middle part of the bottom only, so “it looked a little bit more plumped up.”
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In keeping with the effortless-makeup vibe, Paul Mitchell’s Angelina Panelli says the hair was inspired by “each of the models’ natural texture.” She used the entire Awapuhi Wild Ginger Paul Mitchell line, including the texturizing sea-salt spray, treatment oil and the HydroMist Blow-Out Spray, “for this airy effortless look” that was “a cross between a bohemian coffee shop and a little hint of counterculture, tiny bit of rockabilly and effortless ‘60s vibe — kind of all squeezed into one.”
As Wolk puts it, “Our girls are very rebellious. We like to cast our girls rebelliously — some models, some real girls — so this idea for being the center for rebelliousness was kind of fun for us.”
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