A Cut Above Maxine Creative Director Amy Abramite worked backstage at New York Fashion Week. Inset: A beauty look from Jesse Wu's spring/summer show.

Chicago Social

Friday February 3, 2012

Pretty City

From spa openings to miracle-working makeup, here's the 411 on Chicago beauty.

Q & A

Live From New York!

Amy Abramite, creative director at Rush Street's Maxine salon (maxinesalon.com) and artist for Shu Uemura makeup, worked the spring shows at New York Fashion Week with the Kérastase team. Nine shows and five days later, she dishes on hot trends:

What shows did you work? Rodarte, Monique Lhuillier, Jason Wu, Jill Stuart, ADAM, Thakoon, Theyskens' Theory, SUNO and 3.1 Phillip Lim.

Describe for us the backstage experience. On a big show, there are clothing designers, models, hiarstylists, makeup artists, nail technicians, photographers and the fashion press all trying to get their jobs done in a small space with a limited amount of time—it's controlled chaos.

Best in show? Jason Wu. We pinned the models' long hair into masculine up-styles and decorated them with slender black feathers.

What are the hot hair trends for 2012? If you're bold, cut it off Ginnifer Goodwin-style into an undercut crop. If you like your long hair, try putting it up into a fishtail braid, or wear your hair with a new texture—the crimper is making a comeback!