Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week: Backstage at the Vivienne Tam show
(From FrolicHawaii.com – 2/22/2015) – Amanda Stevens
Flying back to Honolulu was bittersweet for me. I was sad that the NYC Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week was over, but grateful for the experience – especially the one that I had at the Vivienne Tam show. Unlike fashion shows in Hawaii that I’ve produced, the shows in NYC allow photographers, media and celebrities to gain access backstage and see what’s happening. It’s really part of the culture there. But at the Vivienne Tam show, I also received the rare chance to work backstage, under the direction of Hawaii’s-own Lynne O’Neill. This was huge! Bucket list huge! It’s like getting sideline seats at the Super Bowl.
Amid the organized chaos and distractions backstage, I stayed focused on the duties I was assigned from the production team: round up the models, get their shoes on before rehearsal, take the models from hair and makeup to first looks, and help line them up for the show. Sometimes we had less than a minute to change the models from their first look into their last look, with zippers, buttons, hair touch-ups, then right back into the line.
Needless to say, I was super busy backstage, but here are a few behind-the-scenes photos I was able to snap:
A little about Vivienne Tam:
Tam was born in China and raised in Hong Kong since the age of three. I really took notice of Tam’s career when she created a collection to auction off so that she could help the pandas that were affected by a devastating earthquake on May 12, 2008 in the Sichuan Province.
Her fall 2015 collection demonstrates that she is still the reigning queen of China-chic. I love her collection’s ornate prints, Victorian silhouettes and school-girl flare skirts – definitely east-meets-west but distinctly true to Tam’s cultural roots.
Here’s a look at the entire show courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week:
1. Skin: If you can commit to any one beauty regimen in 2015, it should be to take care of your skin, and hydrating is key. Drink plenty of water, especially if you are consuming alcohol. This will help make your skin glow from the inside. If your skin is dull or needs a little help to look soft and dewy, try a tinted moisturizer or foundation that has a soft glow to it. There are many foundations on the market to give you this look, but I like Motives Cosmetics custom blend foundation. Their beauty advisers can make you a perfectly matched foundation. They can even add your skin primer to your foundation. Freitas recommends not adding a powder over the foundation for the evening. If you are coming straight from work to your party, he suggests spritzing a little alcohol-free moisturizing toner (he likes Skintelligenceʻs Ph Normalizer) or a makeup setting spray to add more moisture and keep your skin hydrated and glowing.
3. Eye shadow: We still want the eye shadow to be a soft color like a warm latte-like color or a nice soft brown just one or two shades darker than your skin tone. Take the color and sweep it across the lip from your crease to your lash line. Be sure to blend, blend, blend. It should give your eyes a little definition without looking harsh or smokey. It’s about being fun and flirty, not dark and twisty. Take a richer brown or hazelnut like color, and starting from the outside of your crease, sweep it towards your inner eye using a windshield like motion back and forth in the crease. Again, blend, blend, blend. You do not want to see where one color begins and the other ends. Be sure to keep the darker concentration of color on the outer two-thirds of your lid. The combination of these colors should be light and soft. We will be defining the eye with some dark liner and mascara.
Substance In Style 
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