London Fashion Week: BTS with Huda Beauty at Paul Costelloe

Paul Costelloe kicked off London Fashion Week today with his AW23 show, inspired by James Joyce's Ulysees, transporting the audience to Dublin.

As the audience of the fashion elite, reality tv stars and influencers gathered at the Palm Court at the Waldorf Hotel, they were met with the grand ballroom adorned with columns and pillars worthy of ancient Greece. But, as the lights dropped and the Irish music took over, onlookers were transported from London's West End to the coastal region of the designer's home, Ireland.

Paul Costello commented: "This is a celebration of a Dublin that was, Dublin that is, and the city I love so well."

Grunge was the order of the day from the start to the finish of Costelloe's catwalk collection. From heavy woollen blazers and tartans to silk frocks that brushed the runway floor, the theme was threaded throughout the collection via a dark and moody colour palette.

The star of the show? Two metallic, gasp-worthy gowns – one topped with a traditional top hat. The woven cloth of silver was crafted by William Clarke of Derry. Despite the angsty tone of the collection, the creative team opted to style the models in orange 80s-inspired wigs that once again nodded to the designer's roots.

Backstage, TheIndustry.beauty spoke to Head MUA, Michelle Webb, about the Huda Beauty looks she designed to complement Costelloe's collection.

"We took inspiration from the collection really. There are a lot of metallics and a lot of dark colours throughout the collection, so we wanted to do an eye look that would really complement that. Paul wanted it to be strong yet feminine so we've gone for a blown-out smokey eye and a pop of copper in the centre. We're using the Huda Beauty Khaki palette," Webb explained.

"The foundation is lovely and creamy, we're using the foundation sticks from Huda Beauty. The lip is Trophy Wife, it's a matte liquid lip but we've gone in with a blending brush and blown it out so it looks like the models have been wearing it for quite some time."

When asked about Costelloe's brief and how experimental she can take it, Webb said: "We can be quite experimental, we use products in all different ways. The good thing about Huda is that we have a lot of colours to work with, so we went in with the golds but made it more editorial and edgy."

As for the skincare, she said: "Skincare is really important. To start we're cleansing and then we're going in with a mixture of OLEHENRIKSEN's moisturiser and face oil. We give the skin a little massage to plump it up and apply lip balm at the start so the lips are ready for the liquid lip, because it can be a little bit drying."