Graphic Nails At Libertine Spring 2016 Show Inspired By German Artist Blinky Palermo

Abstract German artist Blinky Palermo (1948-1977) earned global recognition for producing works that emphasize the beauty of simple geometric shapes: his 1969 “Blaues Dreieck” work, for instance, consists of a cobalt blue equilateral triangle painted using gouache on paper, while his 1970 “Flipper” diptych features a grid of red, white, and blue squares resembling those found on the sides of the pinball machine Palermo often hovered over at his favorite café. These abstract masterpieces informed the bright, pattern-heavy nail look CND Co-founder and Style Director Jan Arnold envisioned for the Libertine Spring 2016 show, one of the most dynamic, graphic, artistic, and simply cool manis to grace the runway during this New York Fashion Week.

A group of CND Design Lab Team artists hand-painted the nails using CND’s SHELLAC 14+ Day Nail Color and VINYLUX Weekly Polish in near-neon yellow, pink, blue, red,orange, and green hues.  In the end, they created four distinct patterns that were mixed and matched on models’ nails to create a look described as “organized chaos.” The four patterns were: “Blinky Blocks,” a color-blocked motif in which two hues were juxtaposed via clean lines (for instance, a strip of bright orange color along the center of a yellow nail, or a wide pink line running horizontally across a white backdrop); “Checkmate,” a checkerboard pattern seen in shades of white and red, white and black, orange and white, pink and green, white and black, and  lime green and blue (among others); “Bad Penny,” consisting of a rose gold shade adorned with copper foil and a mosaic of overlapping miniature pennies; and “Veronica,” a high-impact design consisting of mirrored glass-cut baguettes encrusted over the nail, covering it completely.

In the end, each nail was a tiny canvas onto itself. As models walked down the runway, it seemed like they were staging a mobile art show, one in which they’d carefully curated every element — from their clothes to their shoes, jewelry, and the nail design on every single finger.