How to pull off the anti-beauty trend

Trend: Raw Renaissance

The inspiration: Slept-in makeup, post-fight bruised skin, subversive beauty, Julia Fox, Doja Cat

As seen at: Avavav, Moschino, Valentino, Antonio Marras, Gypsy Sport

Gone are the days when the runways showed only one beauty standard. As inclusivity becomes more important, so does the representation of all types of beauty. With the influence of Gen Z continuing to govern social media trends, we now live in an era that’s tired of the perfect “Victoria’s Secret model” kind of beauty. Instead, people want a more realistic look, as seen in TikTok trends such as faux freckles, dark-circle makeup and crying-girl makeup.

With celebrities such as Julia Fox and Doja Cat constantly challenging the beauty standard with shaven heads, bleached eyebrows, hairy body parts and subversive makeup choices, one could say that we have entered an era of “anti-beauty”.

The trend is not just about “looking ugly-beautiful”; at its core it pushes for the celebration of self-expression, real beauty and man-repellent makeup, reclaiming the power to look however you want and not be governed by the male gaze.

On the runways, amid a sea of fresh-faced, angelic beauties, there has been an exciting rise in anti-beauty looks that incorporate faux piercings, face tattoos and makeup applied in a way that unsettles the eye with its imperfect, colour-outside-the-lines, smudged-up messiness.

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Three ways to go when it comes to anti-beauty. (Rosdiana Ciaravolo/Getty Images)

Celebrate imperfect beauty with three runway trends that have a cool, next-gen twist:

Pierced and painted: At Gypsy Sport, Valentino and Antonio Marras, there was a huge focus on temporary tattoos and piercings that added an edgy twist with zero commitment. Models’ pared-back coverage was given a severity by way of temporary tattoos applied to the entire face and faux piercings placed across brows, lips, noses, cheeks and ears. At Valentino, models were sent out with super-elongated eyeliner wings spanning the whole temple, complemented with lip rings.
SFX skin: At Avavav, skin embodied all the things you’d usually want to hide. With the help of special-effects makeup techniques, coverage mimicked skin that looked tired, beaten up and rough. Some models sported sunken, dark circles, bruises or broken capillaries while others had fake broken noses, bloody nostrils and faux freckles.
Smudgy mess: At Moschino, smudged-up makeup stepped away from the considered, soft, diffused look we’ve been seeing and entered a territory that look messier and more worn. With patchy red lipstick barely clinging to the lip edges and creased eyeshadow cracking along the eyelids, makeup was made to look severely lived-in.

THE KIT