Campy, Dramatic Bows Are the Beauty Trend Dominating the Haute Couture Runways

The reign of the hair accessory continues.

A beauty look from Giambattista Valli’s Haute Couture Fall 2021 runway.

Anyone who’s paid even a marginal amount of attention to the runways over the past several years could tell you that hair accessories have been dominating the beauty trends for season after season (after season). And if the Fall 2021 Couture shows are any indication, the phenomenon isn’t disappearing anytime soon. In fact, the latest runways out of Paris indicate that hair accessories — campy, dramatic bows, to be specific — are only getting bigger and showier.

To accompany Virginie Viard‘s Fall 2021 Haute Couture collection for Chanel, hairstylist Damien Boissinot created punk-y, inverted French braids that read as fauxhawk in profile, but took on an almost-pompadour effect when viewed from the front. He then added oversized black bows, sometimes stacking two on top of one another. For some models, the ribbons extended dramatically down their backs, creating an almost train-like effect as they walked the runway.

Bows were also integral to the beauty look at the Giambattista Valli Couture show, which featured two different hairstyles that hinged on the adornment. Hairstylist Odile Gilbert gave about half of the models hair bows (yes, as in Lady Gaga‘s signature circa 2010) paired with blunt, cheekbone-cutting bobs for a striking effect; the others wore towering, voluminous-at-the-crown pigtails which were tied off on both sides with ribbon bows.

Rounding out the trend, the models at Yanina Couture wore their hair pulled into teased, exaggerated updos, each accented with several black ribbon bows. The collection itself was inspired by “the provocative, mystic grace of Marie Antoinette,” and the more-is-more embellishment of multiple hair bows certainly contributed to that effect.

Click through the gallery below to see this trend in all its couture runway glory.