At Diotima’s FW26 Show, The Bedhead Was Reinvented

Messy, static, and full of frizz. The untidiness of bedhead is adecoding=”async” src=”https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/02/GettyImages-2261338323-scaled.jpg” alt=”At Diotima’s FW26 Show, The Bedhead Was Reinvented” width=”400″ height=”600″ />Model on the runway at the Diotima fashion show as part of RTW Fall 2026 on February 14, 2026 in New York, New York. (Photo by Giovanni Giannoni/WWD via Getty Images)

The artist, who’s currently having his largest-ever retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art entitled “When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream”, was the sweeping reference behind the collection and, naturally, the beauty. This time, however, the sensuality of bedroom hair was more done-up than you would think.

“There is an eroticism that’s in the artwork,” lead hair stylist Joey George tells ESSENCE exclusively before the show. Holding up an image of Lam’s “Figure” 1949 painting, George goes on to describe how the seams of the artwork informed the hair. “I took a lot of this and put my own little take on the Helmut Newton woman,” he says. “I’m calling the look a ‘bedroom twist’.”

WIFREDO LAM, Cuba, 1902-1982, ‘Figure,’ 1949. Oil on canvas, 41 3/8 x 31 1/2 In. 105 x 80 Cm. Signed and dated lower right. GARY NADER, MIAMI.

A double French twist with a strong lacquered finish, the updo appears to have a seam running down the center, like the seams in Lam’s painting, which upholstered the bedroom >Oribe’s Royal Blowout Heat Styling Spray to smooth and stretch the models’ hair textures, the stylist then applied thickening spray to the roots for more control over the sculpt.

Then, teasing a new, unreleased Oribe product, he created a loop at the front of the head (like the gaping hole at the center of Lam’s painting). “The look is very strong and has a little bit of eroticism to it,” he says. A quality which extends into the sensual nude, skin-like appearance of the makeup. 

Model on the runway at the Diotima fashion show as part of RTW Fall 2026 on February 14, 2026 in New York, New York. (Photo by Giovanni Giannoni/WWD via Getty Images)

“I just wanted to bring out [Lam’s] color palette,” says lead makeup artist Yumi Lee. “It’s a very soft blurred finish with earthy brown tones on the eyes and lips,” she says, using Anastasia Beverly Hills’s Soft Glam eyeshadow palette. Matching the eyeshadow to the models’ skin tones, she used a muted olive taupe shade on lighter skin tones and coffee brown on darker women. “The look is very soft, but strong.”

Following her Proenza Schouler show where beauty deconstructed the modern woman, Diotima—the Jamaican-born designer’s own label—is the second collection Rachel Scott presented this fashion week. One, deconstructed and the other, sewed up like a tightly knit seam.

TOPICS:  Diotima NYFW FW26

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