The best of beauty at Milan Fashion Week: eyelashes as eyebrows and Wednesday Addams

See More Photos

In Milan, Wednesday Addams is the beauty icon we weren’t expecting to pop up on the catwalk, Marni takes hair to new heights and of course, we need to talk about J.Lo at Versace. 

We’re another fashion week down at the spring/summer 2020 shows with another host of new beauty trends to obsess over. Let’s break down our favourite backstage looks.

Jil Sander SS20

With make-up trends, Alberta Ferretti gave us a lesson in the perfect way to fake bronzed, summer skin and we’ll be looking at Jil Sander for the rest of winter for the inspiration we need to wear a Malbec burgundy lip. Max Mara gave us the Wednesday Addams beauty look we never knew we needed, with gothy black lips and moody grey eyes worn with plaits.

Max Mara SS20

The best of eye make-up was seen at Salvatore Ferragamo where awards must be given for the painterly strokes of “Abstract Expressionist” eyeshadow created by make-up artist Fara Homidi. At Peter Pilotto, eyeliner was deconstructed into messy fine lines on the waterline and under the eyebrow in rich lurid brights, where at Prada, oil-slick graphic chunky liner was worn with deep red lips.

Salvatore Ferragamo SS20

Regarding hair trends at Milan, Marni stole the show with sculptural, statuesque hair slicked backwards and forwards and sidewards and downwards with white paint and stuffed with flowers – not exactly a look you might be interested in replicating for say, a Monday meeting, but a work of art, to be sure.

Marni SS20

At Armani and Fendi we saw intricate and elaborate buns in very different iterations – Armani’s was sleek, where at Fendi, eyeliner was worn on the inner eye like when you were fourteen and paired with messy hair that made everyone look a bit hungover. Moschino, of course, is never to be beaten when it comes to a headline-grabbing beauty look.

Moschino SS20

The hair was slicked-back, middle-parted with Pop Art painterly strokes of neon brights painted into the hair, with graphic liner, a Crayola bright red lip and very defined brows – no doubt, our favourite look of the week.

Gucci SS20

Speaking of headline-grabbers, having seen baby dragons and decapitated heads (not words you get to write nearly frequently enough as a beauty editor, let me tell you) grace the runway at Gucci, I was devastated to find a complete lack of props on the catwalk at Gucci SS20 but of course, was delighted that Gucci have kept their beauty look this season as weird and wonderful as ever – some models wore make-up that was barely perceptible. Others wore eyelashes as eyebrows. Gucci, still doing Gucci, if you were wondering.

J.Lo SS20 – oops – we mean Versace SS20

All anybody wanted to talk about at Versace was J.Lo, as it should be, and the beauty look was very J.Lo for the rest of the show. bTruth is, there’s not enough wet-look skin, golden glow and slicked-back hair in the world that could have prepared you for the absolute rideyness of J.Lo at Versace in the dress that started Google Images.

Check out our favourite beauty looks from backstage at Milan Fashion Week in the gallery above. Next stop, Paris!

Photography by Jason Lloyd Evans.

Read more: the best of beauty at London Fashion Week

Read more: the best of beauty at New York Fashion Week

Read more: Hyaluronic acid fans, meet your new favourite skincare ingredient