Sarah Balch for InStyle.com
Monique Lhuillier once told us that her goal was to deliver the unexpected. And season after season, she does just that (see: her most recent bridal show). After showcasing a darker, moodier fall/winter 2014 collection earlier this year, with abstract skulls intricately embroidered onto her frothy cocktail dresses, Lhuillier took a 180-degree turn, working her magic once again to concoct an iridescent, awe-inspiring spring/summer 2015 line-up.
"It all started from a beautiful morning sunrise, and took all the beautiful pastel colors you would see," the designer tells us backstage prior to the show. "I wanted to capture the light, and I did that with shimmers, with fabrics that had a luminous quality. It's the playful side of Monique, but it's also very modern. It's new."
To communicate "light," Lhuillier worked with liquid satin, super reflective lamé, shimmer-infused embroidery, and holographic paillettes to achieve a level of high-shine luminosity throughout. But the brilliant shine didn't stop at just the clothes—it carried over to makeup. "We decided to take the shimmer out of the confetti in the dresses," she explains, "and put them on the eyes, for added sparkle."
Val Garland, MAC's pro makeup artist, brought Luillier's vision to life by taking the idea of stained, cracked shards of glass, piecing together a scintillating mosaic of cellophane fragments (after painstakingly applying each individual piece with wax) onto the inner and outer corners of each eye.
"When the girls first come on the catwalk, you won’t see anything because the light won’t be hitting (the cellophane)," Garland tells InStyle.com. "It's about the idea of expect the unexpected. Now you see it, now you don't. It's a little bit of magic."
At the time, we thought Garland was strictly speaking about the artful eye makeup, but she could have easily been alluding to the show's big surprise—during the finale, flower-shaped cellophane confetti showered down from the ceiling and landed on the dresses, unintentionally adding another layer of sparkle. How perfect!
Click ahead to read about all the major moments that happened backstage at Monique Lhuillier.
Day 8: J. Mendel
Designer Gilles Mendel and artist Enoc Perez collaborated to concoct a stunning J. Mendel spring/summer 2015 line-up. "The most challenging (and most fun) part is really how to translate the language of art into the language of fashion," Mendel tells InStyle backstage. "It was about how to make clothes as pristine, textural and beautiful as the paintings without actually having the girls wearing paintings. We took inspiration from collages and integrated (Enoc's prints) with jacquard, and I started to cut it and assemble it in a way that felt like a collage."
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Day 8: J. Mendel
Artist Enoc Perez tells us that he found himself, for the first, in the role of a muse. What was that like? "It's weird," he laughs. "Every single piece has my influence in a way," he says as he starts pointing to designs that originated from his paintings inspired by the building in New York City. "I live in NYC, so a lot of it is going to reflect that, and I think the show translates it-it feels like NYC right now, and from a French designer and Puerto Rican painter. It's beautiful."
Day 8: J. Mendel
"It's not about slapping a work on a garment, which feels easy," Perez explains of each creation. "Gilles took the hardest way possible to translate my work through the lines, the cut, the fabrics. The essence of my paintings are there, but they've become abstracted."
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Day 7: Anna Sui
"I was fantasizing about Granny Takes a Trip, a London boutique in the late ‘60s that all the rock stars went to (The Beatles, the Rolling Stones), and the owner made posters for bands," Anna Sui tells us backstage. "I had the posters on my inspiration board, and I thought, they all have this connection, they’re all celestial. So I put clouds, stars, and moons throughout my collection. I love the twinkle, the metallic flashes, the bits of glimmer, because they're so optimistic."
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Day 7: Anna Sui
"During the early '70s, there were some boutiques in NYC on 53rd street (including Norma Kamali and Betsey Johnson's Betsey Bunky Nini) and they all had this baby look," Sui says. "I've always loved it. I found this whole print archive of these kewpies, and I thought this was perfect, especially if I put them on iridescent fabrics and they twinkle."
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Day 7: Anna Sui
Pat McGrath, the legendary makeup artist for MAC Cosmetics, took Anna Sui's celestial motif and conveyed "cosmic beauty" through gold glitter, dusting them on the top of the lids, under the eyes and the inner corners.
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Day 6: Naeem Khan
"My customer is getting younger and younger, and they're looking for these styles, so I'm moving a bit of my collection toward that," Khan tells InStyle backstage prior to the show. "Hollywood stars are wearing tracksuits, and I thought, what if we convert that to evening—you could be wearing a tracksuit to the Academy Awards!"
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Day 6: Naeem Khan
"This lace is made by hand and engineered, and it took hundreds and hundreds of hours," Khan points out. "It took 25 people five weeks to make one dress. This collection took 600 people-you have to take into account how long it took to sew all the sequins or every single bead by hand."
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Day 6: Naeem Khan
"You see all those amazing young stars in ball gowns, but I feel like they should be wearing something cooler," he explains. But he's quick to note that "cool" does not equate grunge or casual. He's taking something cool, like sportswear, and elevating it, or in his words, "gilding it."
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Day 6: J. Crew
"We?re really obsessed with aurora borealis," says Tom Mora, womenswear designer for J. Crew. "We really love the idea of a shine-twinkling lights-that keeps shifting colors; it's something that felt really right."
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Day 6: J. Crew
"A lot of the pieces are menswear-inspired. We always do the boy-girl look; it's always something we love to do, so it was important to continue that," Mora says. "What we do here is only ever a suggestion of how to put clothes together. What?s great, people take them and do their own thing. And that's what I love, and I think that's why people love J. Crew."
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Day 6: J. Crew
"Latin America was really something I wanted to riff on-that's where we got the ikats, the beautiful stripes, the colors," Mora continues. "That was the starting point."
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Day 5: 3.1 Phillip Lim
"I was actually living in my bedroom because I was going through a renovation, and it was killing me," Phillip Lim laughs, after the show. "I chose to look at the situation and be inspired by it. This is the place that I feel the most exposed, but at the same time protected, and I wanted to play with those two ideas." To convey the message through beauty, minimal makeup and messy bedhead proved to be the right combo to achieve that perfect #iwokeuplikethis look.
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Day 4: Derek Lam
"We did a violet look, but it's very gentle and natural, with the color focused on just the tops of the lids," says Tom Pecheux for MAC Cosmetics. "I wanted the look to be very polished." As for hair (the blue cap was intended to keep the hairstyle secure before the show), stylist Orlando Pita says the inspiration was "'70s inspired, a free-spirited girl who doesn't mind getting a little dirty." -Reporting by Sheryl George
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Day 3: Rebecca Taylor
We snapped Rashida Jones giving designer Rebecca Taylor one of the sincerest hugs we've ever seen. "This is my dream outfit," we overheard Jones gush to Taylor, gesturing toward her mixed paisley-print Rebecca Taylor separates from the spring 2015 collection. "For me, this is a very classic look-I love a button-down and Bermuda shorts, but this fabric is so nice and so flattering," Jones tells InStyle.com, moments later. "Rebecca just has a way of putting in a little bit of feminine flair into things I love."
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Day 3: Rebecca Taylor
"I wanted the collection to represent a fragile modern beauty," Taylor explains. "I went back to a time in my life when I lived in London with my parents and my brother and sisters in the late '70s and my mother would take us to Portobello market and buy the most beautiful, diaphanous Indian dresses there. I wish I had those dresses today, but they're in my fashion memory and they're so romantic, so beautiful."
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Day 3: Rebecca Taylor
"Fashion has become a little more uptight, a little more serious," Taylor reflects. "I want to bring the joy back to Fashion Week. More playful, more joyful. I want to go back to what the Rebecca Taylor girl really wants, what she’s really looking for, and prints really resonate with her."
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Day 3: Rebecca Taylor
"The Rebecca Taylor girl loves prints, she loves colors, she loves femininity. In a way, this collection is a kind of an ode to my customer."
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Day 3: Herve Leger
The Herve Leger spring/summer 2015 collection told the story of a modern-day onna-bugeisha, or a Japanese warrior woman. The collection starts with kimono-like dresses and pieces with origami pleating, shifts into lingerie detailing with splashes of color (her true colors), segues way into a warrior through woven metal beads (pictured), and finally, she becomes a lotus flower with a softer palette, signifying rebirth. "Yes, it's pretty clothes, but in reality, there's a bigger story to tell," Lubov Azria tells InStyle.com. "It was challenging to create new silhouettes (like the kimono) with bandages and jacquard, but I love the challenge. The story wanted to be told, and that's when the beauty happens."
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Day 2: Monique Lhuillier
To communicate "light," Monique Lhuillier employed the help of Val Garland, MAC's pro makeup artist, to create the concept of "holographic illumination" with a mosaic of fragmented cellophane pieces. "We're taking the idea of stained glass, cracked glass, plasters of smashed glass, and adding it to the eye," Garland explains. "I'm doing this because it gives the look a bit of an edge; it makes it look less romantic, more digitized, more futuristic."
For hair, Lhuillier says she went with a sleek, wet look, with straight strands that's glossed at the top. "If you notice, the heels are Lucite because I wanted the models to appear as though they were walking on water. That's how we tied the (wet concept) to hair."
For hair, Lhuillier says she went with a sleek, wet look, with straight strands that's glossed at the top. "If you notice, the heels are Lucite because I wanted the models to appear as though they were walking on water. That's how we tied the (wet concept) to hair."
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Day 2: Monique Lhuillier
"It all started from a beautiful morning sunrise, and took all the beautiful pastel colors you would see," Lhuillier tells InStyle.com "(The water motif) is the reflection of the sky on the water."
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Day 2: Monique Lhuillier
On top: A detail shot of a full skirt in embossed lamé with shiny Lurex threadwork. "But it's softer than Lurex: it's light, everything is airy," Lhuillier says. "I'm really excited to show the volume of the skirts-there's this new sense of playfulness. I didn't want this season to be too serious; I wanted it to be fun."
On bottom: A detail shot of the iridescent rose lamé cocktail dress. "These fabrics are so difficult to sew," Lhuillier confesses. "I've had seamstresses who have been with me for 16 years and have had careers even before me and they said in their entire career, this is the hardest material to sew. It's like working with paper."
On bottom: A detail shot of the iridescent rose lamé cocktail dress. "These fabrics are so difficult to sew," Lhuillier confesses. "I've had seamstresses who have been with me for 16 years and have had careers even before me and they said in their entire career, this is the hardest material to sew. It's like working with paper."
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Day 2: Monique Lhuillier
Lhuillier pointed out one accent in particular that she was excited about-rainbow-reflective hologram paillettes. "There are a lot more whimsical elements happening in this collection," she says. "And that's how I think people should approach fashion and spring in particular."
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Day 2: Monique Lhuillier
Before the stars took their front row seats, they made a pit stop backstage for a mini photo shoot with Monique Lhuillier. Once Upon a Time actress Jennifer Morrison was one of them, and we couldn't help but admire her exquisite upside-down French braided topknot.
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Day 1: BCBG Max Azria
"We work for nine months for 10 minutes and really, there's no rehearsal-nothing," Azria tells InStyle.com. "It's just the model and the clothes, and it's all about being effortless."
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Day 1: BCBG Max Azria
"We started with a concept called color reform; it's when you take old carpets and you neutralize and bleach it and re-color it," Azria explains. "You can see it at ABC Carpets. When I walked in, I was mesmerized by all the shades of aqua, all the shades of pink. I was in color heaven!"
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Day 1: BCBG Max Azria
Call it the unofficial off-duty model uniform! Flannel shirts were spotted tied around the waists of models in LBDs and boyfriend jeans.
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Day 1: BCBG Max Azria
BCBG Max Azria was Blanca's first-ever NYFW show. The 19-year-old model, who hails from Madrid, Spain, opened the show in a dreamy white creation. "I feel very happy that I'm opening the show-it was such a surprise; I didn't expect it at all," she tells InStyle.com backstage.
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Day 1: Honor
"We started with polka dots, but it didn't vibe well with the collection, so we wondered, 'What would psychedelic polka dots look like?'" says Nonie Creme, founding creative director of Colour Prevails, who designed the 300 press-on nails. "It's a story playing with dimensionality: from afar, it looks 2D, but up close, it's 3D." The process took Creme "12 hours and at least four bottles of wine."
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Day 1: Honor
Giovanna Randall, head designer of Honor, skillfully spun a whimsical collection that told the story of the rise and fall of a love affair (a sheltered, wealthy debutante runs away with a wild George Harrison-type guy). "The prints and the crazy colors are his influence," Randall says of the dash of eccentricity found in the neon accents that were strongly reminiscent of Candy Buttons. "I love neon colors. I think every season I try to (integrate them) and I'm always like, 'Are they too neon?' This season I really wanted to go for it."
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