Black Lipstick Is Back! (It’s About Time.)

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Contents

Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolor Paint-It Matte Lip Color PermaGel Ultra Glide Eye Pencil Longwear Lip Liner – Snapped SuperStay Matte Ink Liquid Lipstick Everlasting Hyperlight Transfer-Proof Liquid Lipstick

Every fashion editor has that one runway show they build their entire fashion month calendar around. It’s the show that makes all the overtime hours and back-to-back events and midnight deadlines worth it—the show that reminds you why you got into this industry in the first place. For me, that show is Schiaparelli. The beauty at the fashion house’s latest couture show, as an avid wearer of black listick myself, only affirmed it.

Twice annually, Schiaparelli debuts its newest creations at Paris Couture Week, and my partner and I pore over each design. We debate hot takes, choose our favorite looks, and decide which elaborate gowns we’d splurge on if we ever tie the knot (Look two of the spring 2023 collection). The brand’s latest runway procession was like any other conceived by the mind of Daniel Roseberry, surpassing even my most outrageous expectations. Miniature saddles were converted into shoulder pads, breast plates sparkled with three-dimensional nipples, and one satin gown even featured a pulsating, crystal-encrusted heart.

But, for the first time, I was enamored not only by Roseberry’s latest bout of surrealist sartorialism, but also by the makeup that enhanced each look: a layer of high-shine lipstick in the darkest, inky black.

Models sport no-makeup makeup looks almost exclusively at Schiaparelli shows—save for the occasional red lip and the spring 2024 “chandelier face” moment. This season, however, the couturier departed from its prescribed beauty standards and instead embraced a bold lip, with most models wearing a glossy black shade, and four models wearing a pop of red. Schiaparelli’s longtime makeup muse, Dame Pat McGrath, credits her namesake brand’s new PermaGel Eye Pencil in Xtreme Black as the hero product to get the goth lip look.

Black lipstick has experienced several brief spikes in popularity since the 1980s, when it became the trademark of goths, punks, and glam rock bands. Design houses have likewise dabbled in dark lipstick for decades, but even with stamps of approval from Valentino, Marc Jacobs, Thierry Mugler, and Chanel, the look has always felt removed from mainstream beauty. Because even at their peak, onyx lips are still a calling card for little freaks like myself.

Long before my career as a fashion editor, I was the lone emo kid in my high school class—queer, both in aesthetics and sexual orientation. Black eyeshadow was my signature makeup look, acting as the ever-present cherry on top of skinny jeans and band tees. Though my style regularly garnered taunts and judgmental stares in my tiny town of 1,700, that inky pigment subtly affirmed every aspect of my identity—I just didn’t know it yet.

The struggle to find one’s personal style is often intertwined with gender and sexual identity, as was the case with me. Years later, when I moved to New York City and began exploring my sexuality, my alt-girl propensities began manifesting, once more—this time, in the form of Kylie Jenner’s “Dead of Knight” Lip Kit. Finally able to embrace my unapologetic self, free of ridicule, I swiped it on and never looked back.

Today, as a fashion editor and proud bisexual woman, my tube of KVD Beauty’s Everlasting Hyperlight Transfer-Proof Liquid Lipstick gives me the same euphoric feeling as those smoky raccoon eyes of yore. I never feel more at peace with myself and more visible in my queerness than when I’m wearing a jet-black lip. While many items in my closet have come close, no other beauty trend makes me feel so authentically me.

Even in a field like fashion, which champions individuality, those adolescent insecurities can be tough to break. This hyper-glamorous, image-obsessed industry often makes me feel like I don’t belong, but seeing a symbol of my identity, the bold black lip, celebrated on fashion’s most-renowned runway validates me in ways I never experienced growing up. Schiaparelli’s display of gothic glam is a reminder to my younger self—the girl who was laughed at in the halls—that she deserves to be here, black lipstick and all.