Oscar de la Renta Will Make You Fall in Love With Hair Jewels

The Oscar de la Renta woman has always been well-traveled. But this season, she’s a true jet-setting magpie; one that wears her passport stamps on her sleeve—and far-flung treasures in her hair.

Proof of her dreamy sojourns turned up everywhere on the Fall 2019 runway: Embroidered on the shawl coats, velvet wrap skirts, and floral fringed gowns; hammered into the jewelry, like the gold coin pendants and baroque rings; and fastened into the sleek, shiny lengths that draped down the backs of all-star models like Bella Hadid, who closed the show in a voluminous black tulle gown.

Backstage before the show, hairstylist Odile Gilbert tended to hair of all shapes, sizes, and textures. "The message is any kind of hair you want, you can have—voila!" said the French pro as she oscillated between between clouds of brushed-out ringlets and ultra-sleek low ponytails that skimmed the lower back, name-checking Grace Coddington and Linda Evangelista respectively. “We imagined the Oscar de la Renta woman being every kind of woman, so we have every kind of hair,” she explained. While the more buoyant styles were not to be tamed, those that were pulled back were either tied with black satin ribbon or topped off with one of the collection’s myriad of jewel-encrusted hair baubles. “This woman is eclectic and picks up something everywhere she travels,” explained Gilbert in reference to the array of gilded, semiprecious hair offerings, which included deco sun brooches, flower pins, and pearl-encrusted barrettes.

And the splendor didn’t end there. While makeup artist Tom Pecheux made a point of paring back the rest of the look with ultra-matte skin ("No contour! No highlight! No mascara!" he proclaimed), he tapped into designers Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia's global fantasy by painting on a soft-focus matte red lip and accenting the eyes with shimmery copper on the inner corners and across the lids. For the rich blurred mouth, Pecheux brushed a bright red on the center, gradually blending out to an earthier crimson shade and dabbing the edges with his finger for an undone effect. “The models eating and drinking backstage will do the rest,” he joked. Adding an effervescent elegance that played well with the twinkling, head-swiveling hair accessories, the beauty message was clear: For the time zone-traversing Oscar de la Renta woman, a touch of sparkle is always welcome.