An eye-catching collection of hand-crafted nail designs were on show in New York at CND for Libertine’s Fall/Winter 2016 collection show. Aleesha Balfour reports.
Partnering with Johnson Hartig of Libertine for its fourth season, the leading nail brand were right on point when it came time to collaborate.
“Our synergies are intuitive and based in an artists’ understanding of design and fashion. Johnson shares his extraordinary vison and we’re right there with him! That’s true and inspired partnership,” said CND Co-founder and Style Director Jan Arnold.
“With this collection, we were able to embody CND’s Fall 2016 trend story, which is all about authenticity, hand-crafted artistry and embracing the beauty in raw imperfections.”
It appears then 2016 is going to take a turn for the quirky with nails adorned in hand-sculptured eyes made life-like with Swarovski crystals as the finishing touches portraying pupils.
But it doesn’t stop there! An array of pastel matte nails dressed up in fluffy embellishments also hit the runway adding to the already vivid collection.
“One of the coolest things about this partnership is the artistic vision our team shares with Johnson,” said CND Design Lab Team member Heather Davis, who led the charge on the creative concepts for the nails.
“He recycles the work of classic designers and refurbishes them into modern interpretations, while we take classic core colors and reinvent them with artisanal techniques like mosaic tiling and porcelain enamel finishes. It’s pure magic when we get together to create.”
The CND Design Lab Team got to work on these hand-crafted elements, putting in over 200 hours of production time. Using RENTENTION+ Liquid & Powder to create the eyes, they painted them with SHELLAC Brand 14+ Day Nail Colour and VINYLUX Weekly Polish in vibrant colour combinations of red, green, blue, orange and pink. 60 LED-lit Swarovski crystals were then attached for the final product.
The nail designs reflected modernism and animation as models stepped out onto the catwalk in the playful Libertine collection.