Just like the ever-trendy cutout dress, its manicure equivalent remains chic season after season. We’re only a few shows into #NYFW, but we’ve already spotted three covetable versions that are as easy to create as they are stylish. At the Marissa Webb show, models gave the trend a minimalist spin by working a matte navy shade with a thin strip of the natural nail exposed.
“We’re using a color called Light My Sapphire by OPI ($9.50; opi.com for locations), which has a lot of glitter and shimmer to it, but when you mattify the color, it almost looks like velvet,” says lead manicurist Miss Pop. “The way we’re doing it is super DIY and user-friendly for the girls at home–we’re literally using the tape they use to stripe cars, which is about 1.32 of an inch.” On each model, Miss Pop began by placing the tape down the middle of the nail, then topped it off with base coat and two layers of color. Once the hue dried, she lifted the tape, and corrected any mistakes. “You can touch it up with a brush dipped in nail polish remover, and swipe it down the middle,” she says. “Seal it with a top coat, let that completely dry, and add the matte coat over the top. It’s one extra step, but the great thing about matte top coat is that you can actually watch it dry, and it happens so quickly.”RELATED: Kick Off Fashion Week With Our Best Backstage Beauty Hacks
With Kaelen’s fall collection paying homage to Audrey Horne of Twin Peaks, only a chevron pattern would do, but in lieu of the iconic black and white dreamscape color palette, lead manicurist Gina Edwards went for a nude lacquer on a natural base.
“The look perfectly complements the collection, and negative space nails are in full force for fall,” she says. Time is money backstage before a runway show, so to save some, Edwards applied the KISS Nail Covers in Active Oval ($6; drugstore.com), then filed each model’s digits into an oval shape. She followed by placing two Kiss Design Perfection stickers in the chevron pattern ($6; amazon.com) on the nail, then layered on a custom blend of mauve nail polish. Once the lacquer was dry, she removed the stickers, and applied a layer of shiny top coat.RELATED: What It’s Like Being a Fashion Week Fixture Like Olivia Palermo
In what we’re dubbing the roughed-up French manicure, lead manicurist Katie Jane Hughes at Tadashi Shoji played off the collection’s ethereal, dreamy vibe with white tips meant to mimic the appearance of a cloud. With a piece of makeup sponge, she picked up the Butter London nail color in Cotton Buds ($15; butterlondon.com) and dabbed it onto the tip of each nail, fading the hue upwards. Hughes then flipped the sponge to the opposite side and dipped it in Butter London’s shade in The Full Monty ($15; butterlondon.com), then pressed over any harsh lines to impart a gradual fade. Once both colors were dry, she added Butter London’s Hardwear P. D. Quick Top Coat ($19; butterlondon.com) onto all ten fingers as a finishing touch.
PHOTOS: More of the Best #NYFW Manicures