Abra’s A/W 2025 beauty look embraced the 1980s with furry wigs and ‘greige’ lipstick

Founder of Abra Abraham Ortuño Perez grew up in Alicante, Spain, surrounded by women. ‘My mom, my sister, my aunt... Our home was filled with beauty products,’ he tells Wallpaper*. ‘They were some of the most striking and memorable elements of my childhood.’

Yesterday (5 March 2025) Ortuño Perez drew upon these memories for Abra’s A/W 2025 collection, titled Fashion Boutique. (This marked the brand’s third runway presentation and the second to be included on the official Paris Fashion Week schedule for ready-to-wear).

Abra A/W 2025 beauty: furry wigs, greige lipstick and New Romantic glamour

Ortuño Perez – who moved from Spain to Paris to study at Institut Français de la Mode – realised Abra in 2020, whilst freelancing at Jacquemus, Coperni, Rabanne, JW Anderson and Loewe on shoes and accessories. (Ortuño Perez is behind the S/S 2022 sandals at Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe, where heels took the form of realistic-looking cracked eggs, solid soap bars and bottles of nail polish, to name but a few of his viral designs).

In Abra’s debut runway show for A/W 2024, make-up met clothing once more in the form of surrealist jewellery and bags: eyeshadow palette clutch bags and earrings; lipstick-shaped brooches; necklaces that curved around the décolletage, sculpted to look like bent make-up brushes; and prints on dresses, nodding to the branding and marketing imagery of provincial beauty salons.

‘My mom had a unique approach to make-up,’ Ortuño Perez continues, speaking on the themes of the A/W 2025 collection, which built upon those of A/W 2024. ‘She would use a single pink lipstick for everything, from her lips to her cheeks. She also carried a compact eyeshadow palette filled with glossy, vibrant shades, effortlessly creating her signature look.’

This season’s presentation received its name thanks to the local fashion boutiques the designer would visit with his mother during the 1980s and 1990s, where a commercialised ‘fantasy’ of Parisian fashion, by the likes of Thierry Mugler, would be sold. ‘This was an era where high-fashion drama was effortlessly mixed with the everyday woman’s wardrobe,’ says Ortuño Perez.

The designer worked with French hair stylist Charlie Le Mindu and make-up artist Cécile Paravina to realise the Abra A/W 2025 runway beauty, which fused his mother’s effortless style with the glamorous aesthetics of 1980s pop and subculture. ‘The New Romantics revolutionised beauty and fashion,’ he says.

‘I also vividly remember a scene from Flashdance where she dances in a room filled with flashing lights, wearing the signature make-up [of that time]. As a kid, I was convinced this was the future of beauty.’

To achieve this, Le Mindu styled some of the models’ hair in a typically ‘bourgeoise’ fashion; either loose and natural, cropped short or slicked back into buns which were then tied with scarves. Here, make-up was kept soft, tonal and ‘griege’. ‘The goal was to have a cohesive color story with the 1980s, brownish fabrics of the collection,’ Paravina explains.

‘Before the show, we prepared variations of beige and browns shades by mixing several cool-toned lipsticks to create a kind of gradient and match each model with something that would work on their complexion. We then went for a soft matte base, using minimal foundation and concealer and translucent powder,’ she continues.

In seven out of the 28 looks, however, Le Mindu and Paravina provided shaggy black wigs and white face paint, à la Siouxie Sioux. ‘I had my team start with eyes first to avoid eyeshadow fall out,’ Paravina says, noting that she used a black waterproof pencil to build a structure around the eye before applying matte eyeshadow in deep black and a medium purple-hued grey, finishing the look with a touch of pale lavender. ‘Layering matte shadow helps with creating a diffused look reminiscent of Pater Sato’s airbrushed illustrations,’ she adds.

‘The Abra A/W 2025 beauty look has a mix of punk and goth, but with a futuristic energy,’ Le Mindu tells Wallpaper*. ‘The hair is almost like a hybrid of a Russian ushanka and a 1980s glam rock mullet. It blends elements of raw, untamed textures with sharp, structured layering.’ A combination of natural hair and goat fur provided exaggerated volume, with lengths given a sleek polish. ‘There was some serious teasing and razor cutting to get that jagged finish, alongside matte texturizing products by Savage Panache and powders by L’Oreal Professional.’

‘This vision had been lingering in the back of my mind for a while and the A/W 2025 collection felt like the perfect moment to bring it to life,’ concludes Ortuño Perez. ‘Charlie and Cécile are two of the most exceptional artists working today: their talent and professionalism made them the ideal creative partners to realise this project.’

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