Last month, gel manicures were our third most-booked treatment. Yep, when it comes to nails, we know our stuff. The same goes for Ama Quashie. The London-based manicurist is renowned in the fashion industry across print, digital, and catwalk shows. We headed to the Nicholas Kirkwood SS19 presentation at LFW on Sunday, and watched Ama do her thing. This is what she had to say on all the exciting goodness going down in the world of nails right now.
By Rachel Spedding
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1 Where did your inspiration come from for Kirkwood’s show?
Three days before the show, hair, makeup and nails headed to Nicholas’s studio. Here, the stylists talk us through the collection – a subversive dystopian world where females activists have formed a resistance to the tyrannical regime. Shoes act as a symbol of defiance.
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2 Can you describe the nail looks from the show?
The inspiration was built on Nicholas’s idea of a resistance army – the nail colour reflected their ranking. The majority of models sported a milky nude. The next ranking – silver nails, purposefully chipped to emphasise their continued battle. Lastly, a chosen trio wore black, green and iridescent. Rose Mcgowan – the army’s leader – was the only model wearing a solid silver design.
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3 Is any nail prep needed at the shows?
For the Nicholas Kirkwood show we wanted all the models to have perfectly manicured nails. We filed the shape to a sport oval shape, tended to their cuticles, then moisturised, before we started painting.
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4 Do models arrive varnish free?
It would be amazing if models came to the shows varnish-free, with perfectly groomed nails, but this is never the case. More often, they’ve arrived straight from another show, with no time to remove the previous look. At best, we have to hope they don’t arrive with stick on nails or glue on their nail beds, as they can take a lot of time to remove – and time is precious!
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5 Do you have a go-to nail look for the autumn season?
Personally I love metallic copper or brown-toned nails, and think now is the best time to wear those colours. They’re very complimentary if you’re still sporting a summer glow, while we’re not yet close enough to christmas for it to look too kitsch.
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