Victoria Beckham Reimagines French Girl Beauty At Her Paris Fashion Week Debut

Victoria Beckham’s inaugural Paris Fashion Week presentation had more anticipatory fanfare than some royal coronations. After a two-year global Fashion Week hiatus, the ultimate crossover success story returned to the runway with a packed show, tassel-trimmed gowns, and the most subtly stunning beauty looks of the week. The light eyebrows at Victoria Beckham’s Spring/Summer 2023 show aren’t the fully bleached, snowy-white show-stoppers that feel, at this point, ubiquitous at fashion shows. Instead, they’re carefully calibrated to appear just a shade or two lighter than the models’ hair — and the rich brunettes in the lineup had their own brown brows left untouched by bleach to create a seamless color palette tailored to individual skin tones.

The show felt like a celebration of all things gossamer-light, from the breezy colors and fabrics in many of Beckham’s garments — even the very structured ones — to the glossy, gleaming skin on every model on the runway. In a sense, it feels like a reimagining of the “French girl beauty” mythos that continues to capture the imagination, a your-own-features-but-fine-tuned approach that translated in the show’s makeup and hair. Don’t call her triumphant return a comeback, though. There was no doubt Victoria Beckham could pull off Paris — and somehow, she makes it look as fuss-free as the looks parading up and down the Val-de-Grâce’s historic hallways.

To bring the cohesive beauty looks to life, Beckham turned to two industry icons — both of whom are fellow Brits, too. Makeup artist Diane Kendal tells TZR backstage that Beckham’s vision was for fresh, bold, and strong model makeup, all adjusted to suit natural hair colors and skin tones. After a layer of dewy moisturizer, light-coverage foundation, and just a touch of corrective concealer, Kendal shares that the VB version of brow bleaching isn’t going for straight-up shock value. “We are bleaching eyebrows,” she explains, “but not bleaching bleaching them — we’re just lifting them slightly on the fairer girls.” Kendal says the goal is a luminous, monochrome feel that marries tone and texture for a seamless feel. She points out that focusing on gorgeous, glowing skin is such a trend this season, which is seen everywhere from the runways to TikTok — think about the “clean girl” aesthetic that dominated summer 2022.

That captivating shine comes courtesy of a few Victoria Beckham Beauty products, one of which is a bit unexpected. Kendal says the models’ lips feature VB Beauty lipsticks in assorted nudes to match their skin tones, describing the finish as adding “just a hint of color.” After patting highlighter into the models’ cheekbones and eye inner corners, she coated their eyelids in a clear lip gloss for a “reflective and dewy” finishing touch.

Bearded, mononymous hair stylist Duffy was responsible for the hair looks seen throughout the show. Here, the French-girl beauty motifs continue — their signature is artfully undone hair that glorifies existing features, and Beckham’s show was no exception. Duffy explains that when he met with Beckham and her team, it was apparent there was an element of ‘90s-style cool in the collection. “I grew up in the early ‘90s,” he says. “There’s an attitude to the woman I grew up with and was attracted to as a kid. A lot of those girls you look back at, there was a strength there that was very empowered, very obvious, and quite new at that time.” To capture that spirit, Duffy and his team looked at each individual model, both in their assigned garments and as people. The result, he shares, is a different look for each model.

While working with ghd styling tools and products for the show, Duffy says not every model had their hair touched. The show opener, for example, didn’t need a thing done to her own hair. “For me, when she walks in, the attitude she carries, the way she wears her hair, the way she carries herself — it’s what we want.” Meanwhile another model who always wears her hair down and free-flowing, was given a head full of tight, micro-braids to better accent her silhouette within her chosen garments.

Call the beauty looks trendy but tailored — they might be definitively of-the-moments, but the individualist streak is pure Parisienne. Considering Beckham live-streamed her first Paris show to TikTok, it’s clear her manicured finger has spent some serious time scrolling the For You Page, too. Shop the exact products used in the VB show below to get the look at home.

We may receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.