In a car from the Florida Keys to Miami airport, makeup maven Thomas de Kluyver phoned in on an impromptu Zoom call with Proenza Schouler creative director Rachel Scott. “We just talked about what our feelings were for beauty and what we felt like was a modern woman,” Kluyver recalls. A brand famously known for constructing pared back and sublime makeup, this Fall/Winter 2026 season, “we wanted to somehow bring beauty into it but not completely change the codes of the house.”
Instead of a statement, beauty was like an accessory to the collection, which was full of ruching and misplaced seams. Like the fashion, the makeup was deconstructed and separated, pulling apart every piece into three different looks that, when put together, make up a classic makeup look: crusted eyelashes for one look, alternate eye liner for another, and finally, a swiped red lip. “It slightly distorts the face in a way,” he says backstage.
For the lashes, which were worn by a handful of models, “we got little bits of crusted [black] foil and glued it all on the lash to make them feel more like delicate jewelry,” he says, before clumping on Byredo’s Space Black Mascara. The eyeliner took on unusual application, placed thickly on just the waterline of one single eye and on the other eye, just the upper lash line. Then, the lip look required nothing but a swipe of fabric-like liquid matte lipstick in the shade “red coma”, which was sliced onto a natural lip.
Otherwise, de Kluyver says about 50 percent of the models had just natural skin, for which Proenza Schouler is known. But, rarely do you see models having their skin airbrushed with oxygen backstage. Sprayed through what looked like an airbrush gun, adding oxygen to the models’ skin helped the Furtuna Skin Face & Eye Serum and Biphase Moisturizing Oil—which was the base for the makeup—penetrate deeper.
The air of moisture carried from skin to hands, where JINsoon founder Jin Soon Choi offered a hands-on demonstration of the Camellia Glow Renewing Peeling Balm she used on the models. I sat down in a chair as she massaged the balm in, which began to pill off. “Wow!” said the journalists in unison as the dead skin was sloughed off my hand revealing a brighter, softer surface for a manicure.
For the nails, Choi used four polish colors—”sea clay” (blue), “earth clay” (brown), “chillin” (opaque cream), and “tulle” (sheer cream)—which each pulled from tones in the collection. “It’s not for different skin tones, it’s for different outfits,” she says.
On hair, hairstylist Holly Smith tied all the beauty into one—hair tie, that is. “We started our conversation without it being about clothes, but more about a character,” she shares about coming up with a concept with Scott. Imagine a woman starting her day, but not having the time to finish her back-combed hairstyle (It was taking longer than expected). Instead, she’s interrupted, and mid-style, she’s forced to comb and tuck it into a slicked back ponytail with loose, ear-covering strands as she runs out the door.
But, it’s a concept, Smith says, that’s up for interpretation. “It’s kind of like a movie that doesn’t have a lot of words,” she describes.
Using Oribe’s Maximista Thickening Spray, she added grime and grit to the hair before brushing it back into a frizz-less, elastic-held low ponytail. The T3 Aire IQ Blowdryer was key for Smith to style the effortless look. “We really wanted to use the dryer to drag our fingers through things and stretch things out if they need it,” she says.
Effortless, deconstructed, and soft. It’s the inner workings of a modern woman: pulling herself together (think: the hair), even if she’s falling apart (like the makeup).