It was a star-studded season for beauty.
Hair and makeup chatter reached a fever pitch, starting with Pat McGrath’s porcelain couture week creations for Maison Margiela’s spring 2024 show during Paris Couture Week. Since then, a host of trends — skin-first complexions, bold eyes and vampy red lips — took over the fall 2024 runway season.
That bled onto the red carpet, where stars donned sharp middle parts, variations on bob haircuts and pageboys, and borrowed drenched mermaid hair from the runway. Case in point, Claudia Sulewski’s dampened tendrils at the Grammys mirrored the waterlogged looks at Puma.
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Here, the top makeup and hair trends, from the runway to the red carpet.
Scarlet Fever
Showgoers and red carpet devotees saw red all season — literally.
Mugler designer Casey Cadwallader complemented his bondage-chic collection with a megawatt roster of models, notably in glossy red lips. Take Kristen McMenamy’s scarlet pout, or the richer reds on Paloma Elsesser.
The trend also hit the red carpets, with Hunter Schafer sporting a classic red to the Vanity Fair Oscars Party, as did Olivia Rodrigo at the Grammys.
Eyes on Eyes
Makeup artists clearly kept their eyes on the prize this awards season.
Between Heidi Klum’s smoldering lids at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party and Ayra Starr’s pearlescent eye shadow, the focus was all about accentuating the eye.
That also happened during the fall 2024 collections, most notably in Milan. Giorgio Armani played with pretty pastels on lids, hiding behind fanciful and wispy eyelashes. At Versace, the trend took a darker turn with jet-black overdrawn liner.
Spotlight on Skin
Pamela Anderson made waves last year with her decision to go makeup-free, and although she’s still an outlier on red carpets, it seems the rest of the pack is taking cues.
Phoebe Dynevor at the BAFTAs, for example, went complexion first. That also followed a steady cadence of fashion brands eschewing extravagant makeup looks, from Proenza Schouler and Stella McCartney to Burberry.
Playing the Part
Hair-wise, when deciding which direction to go for red carpets, celebrities and hair stylists alike landed in the middle.
A growing number of red carpet regulars — think Emma Stone and Charlize Theron at the Oscars — opted for middle parts. While the former split her loose waves down the middle, Theron chose a slicked-back severity for her ‘do.
On runways, the trend went both ways, too. While Victoria Beckham and Loewe went a sleeker route, Sacai went more relaxed.
Keep It Short
From the cropped bob Carey Mulligan sported at the Oscars to the loose-curled lob, a growing number of stars and models prove that less length is more.
Take the glossy pageboys and sharp cuts at Anna Sui, where the mandate was to let the clothes’ textures do the talking. On the red carpet, Ayo Edebiri sported a crisp iteration of the trend at the Golden Globes; Zendaya channeled Old Hollywood glamour with loose, short curls at the Oscars.
Dripping Wet
Mermaid hair isn’t going anywhere.
The sopping wet trend of seasons past, which generally relies on copious amounts of gel and high-shine product, proved its staying power this awards season. Fantasia Barrino’s high-gloss pixie cut at the Grammys channeled the same wet wonder as the models at Puma and Ludovic de Saint Sernin.
Prada evolved the trend with high-shine hair sculpted by Guido Palau, while Helmut Lang took the look in the opposite direction, inspired by New York natives getting caught in the rain.