At Rodarte, Makeup Becomes Fine Art in a Tribute to Feminine Creativity

First came the large-scale succulents planted intermittently along Westbeth Artists Housing’s West Village courtyard-turned-runway. Then there were the handpainted eye motifs and the mushroom-printed, caped dresses, which picked up the wind only to resemble the billowing cap of some truly fantastic of fungi. And when the entire cast of models at Rodarte’s spring show came out for a group finale, barefoot, in identical neutral-toned dresses—as if gathering together following a unifying, life-altering trip—one couldn’t help but think they had inadvertently participated in a psychedelic experience.

“They were communing,” makeup artist James Kaliardos said, acknowledging the feeling of connectedness that can be obtained via substances known for their mind-expanding power. But his freehanded designs—four motifs that included a forehead sunrise and craggily “alien” illustrations derived from Laura and Kate Mulleavy’s mother’s own artwork, as well as an above-the-neck extension of a Zebra printed show look—actually tapped into a “more open-minded feminine energy,” Kaliardos suggested, revealing that the sister duo were inspired by a recent trip to Georgia O’Keeffe’s house in New Mexico. “I think what the show was really about was celebrating this feminine creativity, which I think is really important right now.”

Kaliardos, who treated eyelids like mini canvases with liquid eyeliners, blush and eyeshadow pigments, has also been thinking a lot about unmasking. “What face do you present to the world?” he mused, asking a question all of us are thinking about as we cautiously engage in-person, in real life as the pandemic reaches its eighteenth month. Most of the models received an idealized version of this big aesthetic reveal: perfect skin dotted with NARS Air Matte Blush in a series of peach, pink and terracotta colors, and well-groomed “natural and nice” hair, which hair stylist Odile Gilbert treated with individualized interpretations of texture. “No flowers, no barrettes,” joked Gilbert, whose collaborations with Los Angeles-based florist Joseph Free are the stuff of Rodarte legend. But it was important to Kaliardos and the Mulleavys that Rodarte’s first show post-lockdown wasn’t just about traditional makeup. Added Kaliardos, “A smoky eye didn’t make sense here.” Somehow, an ombre green and blue-tipped sunburst definitely did.