Versace F/W ’22 Beauty Was All About ’90s Hair & Barely There Brows

After multiple shows at Milan Fashion Week sent nearly bare faces down the catwalk, Versace’s F/W beauty look was a dramatic ode to the ‘90s, complete with pin-straight, flat ironed hair, barely-there brows, nude lips, and dark, moody eyeshadow. Paired with the collection’s slinky, luxe fabrics and exaggerated silhouettes, the show felt like a high fashion ode to the decade in the most sumptuous way possible.

Modeling heavyweights like Gigi, Bella, and Emily Ratajkowski slinked down the catwalk with mountains of black shadow buffed up and out on the brow bone, complete with a dramatic graphic wing out towards the temples (a nod, perhaps, to Julia Fox’s newly signature beauty look). And although it would have been much more punk rock to actually shave off the girls’ eyebrows, it appears as though the makeup artists performed a quick backstage bleach to help a few catwalkers’ brows disappear. The lips on the other hand looked nearly untouched, with only a clear balm to keep them hydrated under the intense lights of the runway — though a few models sported a deep, vampy lip that would not look out of place in a street style photo from 1991.

The complexions looked otherwise bare and luminous — no additional highlighter, blush, on contour necessary with such a dramatic eye and brow moment going on.

As for the hair look, the models with longer lengths received that quintessential ‘90s flat iron treatment, with nary a wave or bend in sight. Obviously, the ultra long and glossy look is signature to Donatella herself, and always looks right at home paired with a Versace collection’s luxe Italian glamour. For models with natural curls, the team backstage braided sleek cornrows to keep the hair off the face and allow the skin and makeup to really shine.

While frying your hair with a straightener in the Y2K era definitely wasn’t the best for the health of your strands, the advancements in heat protectants in 2022 will at least allow curious minds to attempt the F/W ‘22 look without damaging it to the point of no return. Then just pile on a few pounds of liner and black eyeshadow, add a hint of balm, and you’re well on your way to joining the model ranks at the next Versace show.