The CND Design Lab team helped models in two New York Fashion Week shows nail their looks last week.
Led by CND creative director and co-founder Jan Arnold, the CND nail artists “took nail artistry to another level” at The Blonds and Libertine shows.
The nail company accented Libertine’s ‘Made with Love’ collection with nails that “were an extension of the elegance of the collection and each individual fashion look”.
Although fashion designer Johnson Hartig “found comfort in nostalgia, giving each detail in the collection a handmade feel”, Jan said the CND team pushed its “creativity and craftsmanship to the edge to show handmade and homemade doesn’t have to mean old fashioned”.
“The CND team exaggerated the elegance of the woven fabrics, embroidery and lush details with larger than life nails – where Hartig wanted extended fringing, the team took his suggestion and amplified it, creating a nail with fringing down to the floor.”
It took over 350 hours – and 1220 metres of hand-dyed silk fringe, more than 5000 beaded accents on tips and ‘upcycled’ objects such as computer wires to make flower adornments for matte herringbone base nails – to create the art works.
In equally dramatic fashion, the team showcased “both extremes” in The Blonds ‘ Angels vs. Demons, Light vs. Dark’ themed show “through the use of highly saturated colours, elongated shapes and a palette of deep ink black and Russian reds”.
“Each nail design created is an answer to the question, “What would the world look like if Lucifer were a woman?” explained Jan. “Our answer was elongated shaped tips, holographic fire details and wildfire crocodile textures with a dash of angelic frescos.”
The team used bold red shades, rich purples and iridescent mylar combined with hand-blown marbled pierced tips enhanced with volcanic-shaped crystals to showcase “the fire and fury of the underworld” while Reptilian crocodile warrior nails were made from CND Shellac Gel Polish and red suede patches, and the other-worldly cosmos nails featured ivory polish overlaid with gold geometric shapes.
In total it took the team more than 300 hours, 2000 crystals, 1.5 metres of mylar and gold foil, 600 studs and 1875 pins, spikes and piercings to create the nail designs.
