Simone Rocha’s Rose Arches & The Evolution Of Avant-Garde Eyebrows

Eyebrow trends have been formulaic for decades now, yo-yo-ing back and forth between Brooke Shields thick to Naomi Campbell thin to bushy (à la Cara Delevingne). But recently, even though we’ve been seeing skinny brows regain popularity, the 2020s have also sharply diverged from the established pattern, offering a new world of art, adornments, and embellishments.

On Feb. 17, at Simone Rocha's Fall/Winter 2024 runway show during London Fashion Week, models walked the runway with hand-painted, upward-curving rose stems in place of their own eyebrows. Thomas de Kluyver, the key makeup artist for the show, created the floral arrangements by first using concealer to create a bleached effect, before hand-painting the designs. But that wasn’t the first time even this year that de Kluyver has shown experimental eyebrows: At Jan. 24’s Jean Paul Gaultier by Simone Rocha Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2024 show, he covered models’ arches with sparkling jewels.

While eyebrow art has been shown in editorial beauty and on catwalks over the years — including the criss-cross brows at Yohji Yamamoto Spring/Summer 2015, the bejeweled brows at Chanel Autumn/Winter 2012, and the hot pink color-blocked brows at Diesel Fall/Winter 2024 — more than ever, there’s an interest in the real-world application of avant-garde brows. Celebrities like Doja Cat, Julia Fox, and Jazzelle Zanaughtti have all dabbled in eyebrow art with bleached, dotted, and orbiting looks between the three of them.

This more experimental approach to styling and decorating brows might, logically, have a lot to do with the fact that skinny and bleached brows are in style at the moment — with over-plucked, shaven, or lighter hair to cover, you get a blank canvas to paint, bejewel, and draw on. But for those who don’t want to commit to 24/7 stylized brows, you can always conceal them temporarily like Kylie Jenner to give yourself more space to play.