Dior Introduces Me to ‘Chaos’ Makeup

Backstage, on the first day of Paris Fashion Week, Dior’s creative and image director Peter Phillips was in a playful mood, swatching a bright-pink pigment on his hands. As he swished bright-pink pigment across the models’ faces, Phillips wanted to add a hint of “chaos” to the look, but the chaos was still somewhat organized, bien sûr. In what might look like a blob to the untrained eye, the eye makeup for the Dior spring show was actually very difficult to execute. The look is meant to mimic a rose petal effect, with a pop of neon pigment delicately placed in the tiniest corners of the eye. Embracing imperfections, Phillips says, can “sometimes make things more beautiful.”

For the collection, Dior’s designer Maria Grazia Chiuri was inspired by the mid-’60s — the era of Marc Bohan, who launched the ready-to-wear line Miss Dior — and showed mostly neutral-toned pieces. The makeup was meant to juxtapose the collection with a pink pop of color. “There’s no pink in the collection,” Phillips says. “I chose pink because it’s one of the colors that Maria Grazia Chiuri liked that she found in the scarves created by Marc Bohan in the ’70s and ’80s.”

As for the skin, the models wore Dior’s Forever Skin Glow foundation for an illuminating finish with no blush (although we love their cult favorite Rosy Glow blush), the beloved clear Dior lip oil with a blotted-down shine, and fluffy brows.

As someone who spends hours trying to perfect my eye makeup, I was relieved to see makeup that almost looked like a mistake on the runway. It felt like something I could do myself, on accident or not. Going forward I am going to embrace this chaos into my life, because why not?