Peter Philips, Creative and Image Director for Dior Makeup, on the Makeup Look for the Fall/Winter RTW 2023 Show
All about the eyes.
Peter Philips went with a “deconstructed combination of a smoky eye and an eyeliner” for the Dior fall/winter 2023 show, held at Jardin des Tuileries during Paris Fashion Week. We sat down with the makeup artist backstage just before the show for a how-to on the makeup behind the look.
There is a melancholy vibe to the makeup for this Dior collection (perhaps subconsciously a sign the times), yet it also has a deliberate strength. “It was delicate to find the right balance,” Philips stated, the buzz of backstage a stage of its own. The fashion show set, titled Valkyrie Miss Dior, a multimedia installation by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, was an explosion of fantastical bulbous structures embellished with lace and embroidery, lights, and colours. With this set, “we needed a look that the girls didn’t disappear,” Philips explained. “Deconstructed, moody, strong,” are the words he used to describe the makeup look.
Peter Philips creating the makeup look for the Dior fall/winter 2023 ready-to-wear collection.
Creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri brought simple looks to the catwalk, composed of blacks and artfully rumpled suits and dresses for this fall/winter ready-to-wear show, so Philips wanted the makeup to not stand out with too much colour—thus the simple black eye. (Chiuri’s signature look is kohl-black eyes that contrast with her bleached hair.) This makeup look is different from the smoky eye, Philips noted. It is split in two parts, with black dabbed on the inner and outer eye and then blended to connect. The rest of the face is kept simple with clean skin, no mascara, a brushed-up eyebrow using the Diorshow Brow Styler, and no colour on the lip: in essence, an austere yet powerfully sexy Parisian look.
So how do you get this look for yourself? A base of Dior Capture Totale Le Sérum was topped with Forever Glow Veil and a thin layer of Forever Skin Glow foundation. For the eyes, Philips applied Diorshow 24H Stylo 091 Matte Black pencil strongly underneath the lower lashes, and more lightly to the upper lash line, leaving the eyelid bare. On the inner and outer corners of the eye, the 079 Black Bow shade from 5 Couleurs Couture was “stomped in,” as he puts it. “I pushed it in [on top of the matte black pencil], and I didn’t fade it out,” he said, to ensure an intense makeup that isn’t “too pretty.” (For those with a deeper eye crease, less makeup is required.) There was no mascara, because “mascara makes the look a little bit too sexy, almost too sensual,” but also perhaps because Chiuri is not a fan of mascara, never wearing any herself.
The Peter Philips “deconstructed combination of a smoky eye and an eyeliner.”
The new Skin Mattifying Papers, 100 branded blotting papers in a sleek Dior case.
For the lips, “a bit of a scrub to make sure the dead skin is gone,” and then Rouge Dior lip balm in Diornatural satin finish. For the final touch, Philips unveiled the new Skin Mattifying Papers, 100 branded blotting papers in a sleek Dior case. The best way to use them, as he demonstrated, is to lightly hold them against the skin and dab a fluffy makeup brush on top so the paper “pushes into the skin and follows the shape of your face.”
As the show came to a close with music by Édith Piaf, the Dior T-shirt printed with “Non, je ne regrette rien” epitomized the credo for Philips’s look of the season.
