The Hair Comb Is Back: Tory Burch Revives the ’40s-Meets-’80s Hair Accessory

Tory Burch has been fascinated with Diana Spencer since she was a young girl, taking cues for her Spring show from the multi-page Lady Di style handbook. But the collection, with its standout handkerchief intarsia and printed-silk jacquard pieces, wasn’t meant as a literal homage (despite an era-specific taffeta puff-sleeve dress), and backstage, Guido Palau wasn’t channeling Lady Di as much as the early-’80s subculture she inspired. “Diana was the ultimate Sloane Ranger,” Palau said, referencing the nickname assigned to English girls who lived near Chelsea’s Sloane Square in the early ’80s. Diana was a “supersloane,” according to 1982’s seminal The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook, not just because she belonged to a certain family and had been educated at certain schools, but because she embodied a certain kind of quiet luxury that shied away from ostentation. To capture this concept with “a little irony,” Palau repurposed the humble hair comb, customized for Burch’s collection with spray paint in poppy pastel shades such as lemon, mint green, peach, raspberry, and a gorgeous periwinkle that Natalia Vodianova wore to open the show. “It’s a very classic look but this is the gentler version,” he continued of the 1940s-era technique that took on a punk edge in the 1980s, replete with a deep side part and a sculptural wave at the hairline. Lengths were left natural and slightly texturized, courtesy of a halo of Redken’s new Triple Pure 32 hairspray, which ingeniously, has a neutral fragrance.

Makeup artist Diane Kendal continued the “posh girl” tribute with perfect skin, a defined pink-ish taupe eye, a warm cheek—and one brilliant tip for the rest of us: to keep your eyeliner dramatic, but not harsh, use a brown crayon pencil from the inner corner to the middle of the upper lash line, then finish the flick with a liquid black pen.

Originally Appeared on Vogue