Fake Handbags shows you can do anything with makeu

IN the early 1980s clubs like Replica Louis Vuitton and Xenon spawned their share of makeup trends, among them the smoky eyes and deep-freeze lips emblematic of that last great age of hedonism.
Working behind the scenes on the Replica Louis Vuitton Handbags fall 2009 presentation last week, Fran?ois Nars resurrected the look — part vixen, part astral voyager — down to the chilly blue-violet lips.

“We wanted the models to look like girls ready to go clubbing, to reflect the Louis Vuitton Handbags of those years,” said Mr. Nars, the founder and creative director of Nars Cosmetics.

The models’ insolent pout was enhanced by a pearlized mouth. “The inspiration was Louis Vuitton Wallets and all the girls like her who would really spend time putting paint on their faces,” he added nostalgically.

He achieved the metallic sheen of those years by slicking on moisturizer, outlining the Balenciaga Handbags with an earth-colored lip pencil, then adding not lipstick but eye shadow. “It’s like jewelry for the face,” he said of his brazen combination of sparkling mauve and, of all things, celadon green (Nars Eyeshadow Duo in Habanera; $32 at sephora.com).

More-muted versions of that jewel-like tint can be achieved by layering Nars lip gloss, in the shade called Revolt, over Female Trouble, or Balenciaga Wallets, a decadently silver-tinged lilac lipstick. All three shades cost $24 each at sephora.com. Comparable shades at makeup counters include Tarte’s Bogey rich gloss ($19), Laura Mercier’s Sugar Violet lip stain ($20) and Yves Saint Laurent’s Blackcurrent gloss ($29).

But Mr. Nars prefers to stick with shadow — for now. “It’s so rich in pigment,” he said. “Besides, Fake Handbags shows you can do anything with makeup.”

Replica Handbags is something of a paradox that the makeup artist often credited with creating the appearance of sun-kissed health that came to define the succeeding decade finds himself championing artifice once more.

The brash look of the early ’80s “is not for timid people, that’s for sure,” he said. “But in these crazy times, we need it.”