In the basement before lifting up the flag of fashion

by MIKE CHAIKEN

CTFashionMag.com

When the lights go up at New York Fashion Week, the focus is on the clothes and the models wearing the clothes.

But before they get to that moment, the hair and makeup professionals are charged with fulfilling the designer’s vision as the models patiently sit and check their cellphones as they wait for their big moment.

At the Angel Orensanz Center on Norfolk Street in NYC during Art Hearts Fashion, the big show was upstairs. The guests checked out the art show and milled about with cocktails in hand waiting for the first cue that the catwalk was going to be occupied by stylish creations.

But in the bowels of the building down below, the hair and makeup professionals toiled away under a variety of work lights as a mist of hairspray hung over the atmosphere as they sipped bottled water. For most of them, they would see their work in front of them in the basement but not as it made its way down the runway in the big room upstairs.

This was what was happening behind the scenes at Art Hearts Fashion on Feb. 8.

PHOTOS by MIKE CHAIKEN