Getting Runway-Ready With Derek Zoolander Backstage at the Zoolander 2 Premiere

When you’re really, really ridiculously good-looking like Derek Zoolander, a woke-up-like-this beauty approach is routine. For a major runway moment, however—say, the pop-up fashion show at the New York premiere of Zoolander 2—a more high-impact statement may be required. Enter a crack team of hair, makeup, and nail artists, who paid a visit to Lincoln Center, where tonight’s big event took place, to transform Derek and Hansel—plus an A-list of real-world models, like Gigi Hadid and Irina Shayk—into a squad of stunners on the catwalk. Here, five rules to Zoolander’s signature runway look—it’s so hot right now.

 

CONTOUR, CONTOUR, CONTOUR
Step one: Suck in those cheeks. Step two: Grab the bronzer. “The only person who can say he does contour best in the world is Derek Zoolander. He’s the king of contour!” says backstage makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury. “If you’re going to have that Zoolander moment, you have to highlight your way to those famous cheekbones.” That is, unless you, too, are sorry you were born with perfect bone structure.

PUCKER UP
A solid Blue Steel is your runway essential. “I would definitely suggest practicing the perfect pout in the mirror,” says hairstylist Anthony Turner. “Go full-on.” Tilbury recommends a nude pencil to cheat your way to fuller lips, if need be—as a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, so must you become “Derelicte.”

GO BIG OR GO HOME
A model is nothing without towering hair, whether it’s Zoolander’s signature coif or the voluminous clouds of curls seen on models Taylor Hill and Aya Jones. “Over-exaggerate everything,” Turner says. “Pump it up, the bigger the better, more is more is more.” It’s like, ex-squeeze me, but have you ever heard of styling gel?

DARE TO GO BARE
When booking a mani, one shade of nude will not do—which is why there were three. “Derek Zoolander, or his female counterpart, is not afraid of color—or not wearing color,” Deborah Lippmann explains. “He or she just wants to be groomed! It’s all about being totally, ridiculously good-looking from head to toe.”

EMBRACE AIRBRUSHING
It’s important to look like a moving magazine spread at all times. “Skin has to be flawless, flawless, with that perfect airbrushed finish,” Tilbury says. “Derek Zoolander loves to look gorgeous, and all the people around him have to look gorgeous, as well.” No pressure.

 

 

Derek Zoolander takes us inside his really, really ridiculously good-looking apartment:

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