Thursday 1 May 2008

After the fact

I get a little annoyed with stating-the-obvious reportage. Frequently I read something that proclaims the entrance of this trend or that style - not six months after it first broke, but actual years, by which point it's pretty much taken hold anyway. The guys over at the recently launched Ponystep.com report this week that big brows are back. "Eyebrows are huge again this season", they say, citing the catwalks and the popularity of brow bars across the cityscape.

Without wishing to pick holes, this one is rather stating the obvious. The fashion press have been hailing the bigger brow and urging women to grow beyond the super-thin arch for several years now, and the photographed ladies of the world have been sporting them with aplomb. See below - the admittedly dubious Sienna Miller, last summer, and Lindsay Ellington at Chanel in 2005, with what look like stick-ons. One's opinion on either of these particular examples is another issue entirely, but the point is, there is nothing new about this look.




And then there's the ever wonderful Eva Green, with her beautiful and very definitely there brows:



It's pretty rare now that I see women with overplucked brows; I think to most stylish women, the pencil thin brow is anathema. Me, I'm cursed with near non-existent brows, always have been. The little beasts just won't grow. So for years now I've been shaping them to look a little fuller and darker, and I don't think I'm particularly ahead of the curve as far as the heady world of eyebrow trends go.

It happens with many a catwalk style too - Grecian/Roman draping and the corresponding gladiator style footwear has been around for ages and ages, but admittedly this year it does seem to have a stronger presence. If fashion writers wish to express the growing success or endurance of a particular mode, or to lend their support to it, I support them fully, but I wish people would stop reporting the established as the new. It doesn't have to be super-super new for us to read about it, surely - it just has to be interesting and appealing, or have a new angle.

[Images: About.com Beauty, TheFashioniste.com and the Sydney Morning Herald]

8 comments:

Luxe. said...

Yeah this has been around for agggges, but I do adore a bigger brow. I wish mine would grow REALLY thick but I cant seem to leave them alone!

Gen Williams said...

Mine are extremely vexing. Hardly anything there, and when something does grow, it seems to be nowhere near the actual brow! I take after my mother in that respect. So I do pluck them, but I never pluck the actual brows. I have to darken them though, or it just looks like I got tweezer-happy and accidentally erased them.

I really want brows like Eva Green :( They're weird but brilliant.

alice said...

that does my head in too! But I do love big brows, it makes everything look less polished and perfect

Gen Williams said...

Yeah, there's something a bit control-freaky about really skinny brows, unless they're obviously natural. Big brows give a face definition.

S. said...

There is nothing more elegant than a big well-groomed brow IMO.

After years of over-tweezing.. I really don't have anything there.. I have to learn to perfect the art of using make up to make a bigger brow.

Anonymous said...

Big brows make a face so strikingly beautiful, I agree. You can get eyebrow gel will little fibres in it, called Eyebrow Extender or something. I have TWO of them! I never use them of course, because that is my M.O. with most things.

Gen Williams said...

That sounds rather good! Does it work? Do the fibres look real?

Sister Wolf said...

Yes, very effective! One is by Talika, called Brow Extender. Also, Lancome Brow Expert is like mascara for the brows...I have it in "Brunet."