The start line for the sweetness look of Dior’s pre-fall 2023 catwalk display, shown outdoors in Mumbai was a black kohl liner — makeup traditionally utilized in the country.

“A black eye shadow, black kohl liner and heavy black eye makeup could be very Indian,” said Peter Philips, creative and image director of Christian Dior makeup, of the look he created for the catwalk.

But he gave that a twist.

“Maria Grazia [Chiuri] asked me to do an intense black smoky eye,” said Philips, adding the Dior women’s artistic director asked him for a “wet” look. She had crafted a mood board with vintage photographs from India.

Keeping Mumbai’s humid weather conditions in mind, he gave models’ eyelids a greasy allure, which “sort of looks prefer it lived here.”

Philips used the black Dior Mono Couleur Couture shadow on eyelids and a black Diorshow Khôl around lash roots, then tapped a touch of Vaseline over the attention shadow.

On skin, he used the Dior Endlessly Skin Glow for a luminous finish and powdered T-zones, around models’ noses and above their eyebrows. Lips were left nude.

“Then [we] just let the natural glow do the work,” he said.

Guido Palau created the hairstyles for Dior. Models’ tresses had finger waves crafted. But it surely’s “not too retro,” Philips continued. “It sort of looks a bit jazzy. Like really old pictures of the ’20s and ’30s nightclubs.”