Collina Strada’s Rainbow Beauty Is the Psychedelic Inspiration You Need This Season

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Photo: Hunter Abrams

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Thinking far outside the box has never been a challenge for Hillary Taymour. So during this unprecedented New York Fashion Week, it was no surprise that the Collina Strada designer served up one of the most galvanizing presentations of all.

For the sustainability-minded label’s spring 2021 digital show, Taymour collaborated with artist Sean-Kierre Lyons and multi-media artist Alicia Mersy to dream up a utopian virtual world filled with psychedelic landscapes (waterfalls! cornfields! floating gardens!) and models clad in an array of reworked classics featuring new dizzying prints and deadstock fabrics. Just as bold and retina-burning as the clothes were this season's beauty statements, which ran the gamut from custom Technicolor, tie-dyed wigs to gazes encased in cartoonish flower doodles.

Photo: Hunter Abrams

"Each of the pieces in the collection had a strong message, so we wanted to match this with the models that were selected to heighten them," explains hairstylist Chika, who joined forces with wigmaker and Junya Watanabe collaborator Tomihiro Kono to bring many of the directional acid-hued hair looks—including chunky extensions and billowing finger waves—to life. Her secret weapon tool for many of the looks? "Lots and lots of double sided tape," she says with a laugh. No one underlined the need for extra reinforcement better than model Sara Hiromi, who was jumping rope (on a pogo stick, no less) with a rainbow mohawk and a cascade of matching braids.

Photo: Hunter Abrams

Enhancing the visual story, makeup artist Allie Smith drew large flowers around select model eyes using Glossier Colorslide gel pencils in bright berry, lemon, and tangerine shades. While rainbow hair is not for the faint of heart (but, at the very least, should be taken for a test-drive with the special Collina Strada filter being offered on Instagram), flower fever continues to take hold above the neck in delightfully wearable fashion.

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