ashion is an unfriendly business, never more so than during the toxic- chic kiss-and-hiss days of Fashion Week. Beauty, however, is arguably the friendliest of style industries. Whereas fashion excludes, beauty includes. Fashion is affordable to a privileged few (although free to celebrities); beauty comes in all price brackets (and throws in free samples, to boot). Fashion seeks people who aspire to be so superior, they don't even allow themselves to eat; beauty welcomes all shapes and sizes. Fashion spits on the fat kid. Beauty cleans her off and gives her the name of a good lipstick.
And so, on Thursday, Sephora's Face of Fashion show at Bryant Park � the first- ever runway show devoted to makeup � offered a rare pocket of bonhomie under the fashion big top. There was much for the beauty business to feel cheerful about. Last year, according to the NPD Group, a national marketing information company, department store cosmetic counters alone reached $7 billion of business, a gain of 5 percent from the previous year.
In a warmly lighted tent, magazine beauty editors actually greeted each other with contact kisses and � gasp � hugs. A smattering of celebrities (Gretchen Mol, Drea DeMatteo and Jill Hennessy) mingled amiably with the masses. One actress, Robin Tunney, gamely went through the assortment of eye shadows, blushes and powders in her goody bag and chatted about makeup preferences with the jostling television crews swarming the front row.
Only a trifling 25 minutes after the scheduled start time, the customary locomotive engine toot-toot sounded, and the show hurtled forth at breakneck speed. In the next 30 minutes, beauty trends for fall 2001 were spotlighted, using 15 different cosmetics brands, all sold at Sephora, the fancy supermarket-style makeup chain. Well-known makeup artists such as Jeanine Lobell, Charlie Green and Vincent Longo, and hair stylists including Danilo and Fr�d�ric Fekkai, created a quartet of looks for each brand. The forecast for fall? No single dominating look, but a proliferation of vivid color � and a lot of lip. Two giant screens, mounted high on either side of the stage, provided the audience with easier viewing.
First out was Stila, the whimsical line created by Ms. Lobell, and bought by the Est�e Lauder Companies last year. Ms. Lobell dressed her models in pastel pleats and plackets (although the models for all other brands wore black, so as not to detract from their faces), bringing her Stila Girl cartoon logo to life. Pink and wide-eyed, with shiny glazed lips and neutral brown eyeliner, she was a vision of dewy polish, the pretty princess who still gets checks from home for her birthday.
Anna Sui summarily trampled out any country club girl's dreams, and sent her tumbling into high-toned psychedelia: cheeks in hot pinks and oranges, and eyes painted in bright blues and greens, reminiscent of Edie Sedgwick. Urban Decay pushed our heroine even further, into a nickel-plated world of night crawlers, beglittered hair, hard metallic eyes and maroon-streaked cheeks. Body & Soul continued the bold theme with maximum wattage lips � scarlet, shiny and lavishly lacquered in place.
"That's a lot of lipstick," murmured Ms. Tunney. "And then you've got lipstick on your fork, lipstick on your napkin, lipstick on your wine glass. I don't know if that's sexy."
The mood was quickly extinguished by the Goth approach of Christian Dior's Anne Upton � powder-white faces, black silky eyes, with slashes of plum reserved for the lips. Coaxing a bit of life back into the face, Club Monaco ("Or is it Club Monica?" an audience member was heard to crack, referring to the boost the company got after Monica Lewinsky wore its lip gloss in an interview with Barbara Walters) mixed earthy tones with deeper berry hues to create sad, smudged eyes that appeared on the brink of tears.
Everywhere, the influence of the 1980's was strong. Lorac's Carol Shaw revived the Barracuda in the Boardroom look, with aggressive burgundy matte lips and dominatrix cheekbones in hard brick shades. Shu Uemura showed spiked hair, feathered frizz and glittery candy colors. And Make Up For Ever drew applause for a full-on Demi Moore-style body-paint bustier.
Going for the gimmick, BeneFit dressed its models as space-age nuns with silver bands on their wimples, framing a rainbow of apple-green, turquoise and amber-lidded eyes. These sisters might have been played by Racquel Welch in her beauty heyday of the 70's, all thin brows, thick eyeliner and exaggerated lashes.
Several brands leaned heavily on the enduring glamour of old-timey Hollywood. Fr�d�ric Fekkai showed timeless, tasteful makeup, although not surprisingly, it was his sleek starlet hairstyles that were most compelling. Cargo evoked a "just out of the convertible" effect with wind-blown cheeks, tousled hair and crimson-lined eyes that gave the fast-looking models a case of what Holly Golightly called "the mean reds."
Every show must close with a bride, and the place of honor was reserved for Sephora's private label, Sephora Artist. Charlie Green, the line's designer, sent out a kohl-rimmed, tattooed Eleonora Bose in the black-ruffled gown of a rebel bride.
"Ooh, she's the angry model!" said Ms. Tunney. "I saw her in the Rebecca Taylor show. Very angry. But," she added nicely, "it works for her."
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