At Eckhaus Latta, Even Blue Faces and Fluorescent Lips Have a Lived-In Appeal
“Friendly, chill, lots of sunlight. Models with blue faces,” reads a text from someone on the inside encouraging the trek to Bushwick from Manhattan for Eckhaus Latta’s Spring 2022 show. Perhaps the designers knew that if their audience really wanted to see the next collection, they’d brave the nausea-inducing hour emailing in traffic, or the subway, or the short walk from their actual home if they’re a real artist, and make it to the Friday block party-ish Spring 2022 setup at 99 Scott Studio.
Inside a glassy warehouse, the typical backstage beauty scene is noticeably looser, roomier, more natural than this week’s stark spaces being used as functional holding tanks until models move to outdoor venues, or the crammed-together corral of editors stretching out their phones for a hairstylist quote two years ago. Here in the depths of Brooklyn, better known for warehouse parties than runways, the models, the personalities, even those blue faces can be described as the opposite of “try hard.”
It feels as if everyone kind of knows each other—not just from a Who’s Who industry event, but from the last rooftop party they attended, or the DMs they bravely sent to interesting strangers. (The latter approach was basically how the designers cast photographer Cruz Valdez, whose work can be found in Vogue’s September Issue.)
Model and interior design talent Camille Deterre laughs at a Slime Lord inside joke with Tamara McNaughton as the hair stylist sweeps Aveda styling cream through lengths for an aerodynamic look that’s essentially a “greasy hand through the hair.” Tata Harper is illuminated under panels of windows as she performs a facial on designer Mike Eckhaus, whose waves she ties back with a bandana in her signature shade of green. For the models, “they wanted the skin matte because of the blue pigment—not super dewy,” says Harper, whose “very custom” approach might include an absorbent Purifying mask, or Water Lock Moisturizer for dryer types, and always her Hydrating Floral Essence.
