Terrific Show, Tuleh! fedoras, boots, color!

A few hours before showtime, I sat backstage at the Tuleh show, watching Yannick, the hair stylist for Redken, create a beautiful hair look. He sectioned the model's hair and combed lots of Redken #5 Workforce volumizing and texturizing mousse through it. He blew this model's hair pin straight and shiny, and it was a long process to get her verylong hair just right. Patiently he straightened each section. When her hair was finally perfect, he added Redken #01 Glass Smoothing Serum (one of my favorite products to tame frizz and add non-greasy shine). Then he wound sections of hair on a large barrel curling iron for a few seconds, pulling the curl gently off the iron intact and making a pincurl of it to "set". Then he wrapped all the pincurls together in a high bun to keep hair bouncy but not too controlled. Hair was parted in the middle and smoothed on top so that it was sleek without any volume on the sides, but the ends looked full and bouncy. Yannick told me that the look he was going for was cool, sexy, and a bit wavy/straight, but not curly and not with a lot of volume. "It is most important to have clean hair for this look," he kept saying. Hair must be healthy and look good to have movement.

Here is the completed look with hair and makeup. The other photo is of some models being readied for the show. Yannick straightened and smoothed and twisted and smoothed and twisted for about 20-30 minutes to get hair looking right. TIP FOR DO IT YOURSELF-ERS: Yannick used Redken products such as Touch Control to keep the style, perfect. You can do this look too, although you might need a couple of hands to make hair picture-perfect. You're also going to have patience, but if you use the Redken products and style your hair as described, you may approximate the look. At the very least your hair will look shiny and stylish!

I spoke to Kim of the Pritti Organic Nail Salon. Their polishes are dibutyl phthalate (or DBP), toluene and formaldehyde so they won't damage nails with harsh chemicals. These are the colors Kim used on the models, depending upon what they were wearing. The colors in the Tuleh show were bright and distinctive...so Kim had a huge chart to ensure that the model's nails wouldn't clash with whatever they were wearing and she followed it carefully. Notice that metallics are going to be BIG for Fall, but at least the colors are Autumn friendly, and not "Goth" as with the blackened blues, blacks and purples of last Fall.

P Polly Osmond was the lead makeup artist for MAC Cosmetics. She was quite busy with scheduled interviews, and so I didn't get a chance to figure out all of the names and new products that MAC is promoting for Fall 2008, but the eyes were the focus in this look for Tuleh, and you can see the finished face to the left, the dominant colors on the right. The look was finished with a natural looking pink lipstick called "4N" (in stores, now) and a touch of sheer pink lip gloss. A matte beige face with just a touch of blush, finishes the look. TIP FOR DO IT YOURSELF-ERS: If you want to do this yourself, make sure that the colors on your eyes are very well blended with no hard edges. Use a base of dark brown shadow on lids, with an overlay of shimmery copper, and rim eyes all around with a line of shimmery bright gold.

I have to say that I personally loved this collection the best of all I've seen so far this season. Of course, it it only Sunday, so there are five more days to go. But the Tuleh collection not only featured vibrant color, there was such an assortment of styles that any woman could find something to covet, in it, from tulip-hemmed outerwear, to lounge-style hostess wear, And oh, those suede, stiletto boots and the jaunty, colorful fedoras in vibrant colors like orange and green and purple!

On the Tuleh soundtrack, Bobby Kennedy could be heard encouraging love, wisdom, and compassion for one another....but the Tuleh show wasn't a political statment, it was a riot of color and fun fashion. It takes a woman with confidence to wear some of these styles, but the nipped-in waists of the tailored suits, the flowing pajamas and kimonos (to wear just for a lover, perhaps?) and the evening dresses...maybe not a revolution as Mr. Kennedy might have produced, but certainly, a wonderful way to wear color this Fall!

...here are three of my favorite looks from the show. I only wish I'd captured a model wearing one of Tuleh's brightly colored Fedoras's... I'm already dreaming of having one to wear when the weather, chills. The fedoras are a MUST HAVE for Fall 2008.

Fashion comentator Robert Verdi sat one seat away from me at Tuleh's runway show. Afterwards, I told him, he was my favorite fashion reporter and that I loved the coverage he was providing for the American Express web site during Fashion Week. He seemed pleased to hear it, and then he said: "Well, now you're my official favorite, too!" And I snapped this photo. NICE guy (and great at his job , too).