Anatomy of an Outfit: Wet Look and Boob Tape

by Stig / 0 Comments
wet hair look | look de cabelo molhado

This weekend was the semi-annual Fashion Community Week here in San Francisco – and you know what that means: runway shows. And you know what runway shows mean: free rein to dress however your little heart desires. For me, at least for the first night, I wanted to do a full-out wet look.

Oh yes. Do I hear you saying, “but Stig, that’s so tacky!’?

how to do wet look hair | big geometric earrings and deep v dress for a night out | como fazer o look cabelo molhado | acessórios grandes para um look da noite

You may be right.

But I loved every inch of this “baby-seal-rolls-in-spray-tanner-and-jumps-down-the-slip-n-slide” look. I felt great in it, and at a fashion event it was a great conversation starter.

The Dress

This dress has a distinct 1930s office vibe, albeit a few inches too short. Without the belt, it’s actually a dropwaist dress, which on my small frame would only look good if it were very tight. The belt compensates for the fit and, when combined with the deep v, makes my legs look longer.

wet look hair, low cut mini dress with long sleeves from Jonathan Simkhai, See by Chloe purse, strappy pointed toe heels from Schutz for night out look | Look de cabelo molhado, mini vestido com decote v procundo de Jonathan Simkhai, bolsa See by Chloe, sandália de tirinhas da Schutz para um look sensual da noite
Dress: Jonathan Simkhai (similar) | Shoes: Schutz (similar and on sale) | Bag: See by Chloe | Necklace: Kate Spade (on sale)| Earrings: Sachin & Babi (similar and on sale)

I don’t know what Jonathan Simkhai’s wish was for this dress when he designed it, but I can easily imagine someone with polished style (like my mama) putting a thin turtleneck on underneath and wearing it to work. Oh my stars, that would be adorable, wouldn’t it?

But it’s me. And I had total free rein … which means I channeled my very chic, very vampy grandmother, grabbed my body oil and my boob tape, and went to town.

… Which Brings Me to the Topic of Boob Tape

I had never used “fashion tape,” as it is so demurely called, before this week. I admit that I thought its claims of everlasting skin-to-fabric bonding power were dubious – but I got on Amazon and spent $10 on 50 strips of this stuff anyways.

how to do wet look hair | big geometric earrings and deep v dress for a night out | como fazer o look cabelo molhado | acessórios grandes para um look da noite

OK, there is clearly a pink tax on boob tape. I imagine that the Tape People have a huge profit margin selling glorified strips of Scotch tape at 10 dollars a pop. From a social and political standpoint, this churns my stomach.

HOWEVER, this stuff worked. Impressively so.

If you invest in boob tape, just know that before you use it, clean and dry your skin first. It won’t do you any good to try to apply it over all your lotion and body oil – you’ll be flashing people left and right. The night after this, I didn’t properly clean my skin and ended up gloriously strobing people as I descended the staircase at the Fairmount Hotel. When I flash, I go classy (apparently).

So yes – despite the price, I do recommend “fashion tape” if you want to go low-cut.

And it will definitely rip off tape-shaped strips of your fake tan, just FYI.

The Wet Look

Growing up, my sister and I would make fun of our dad for having many, many cans of The Dry Look hairspray in the bathroom at all times. They must have been on sale at some point, and it being the 80s and 90s and Dry was In, capitalized on the opportunity.

how to do wet look hair | big geometric earrings and deep v dress for a night out | como fazer o look cabelo molhado | acessórios grandes para um look da noite

I think of this as the Anti-Dry Look Look – and here’s how I did it, after much research and experimentation.

The Wet Look, Step-by-Step

You’ll need: spray bottle with water (optional), cheap hair gel, a neutral-smelling oil, and a wide-tooth comb.

  1. Wear something you don’t care about, or something you can get dirty.
  2. Get your hair damp. I used a spray bottle and gave it a spritz.
  3. Get yourself some gel. And by “some,” I mean a lot. And don’t be fancy about it – whatever the cheapest is at your drugstore will do the trick.
  4. Grab some oil. No, not hair oil – the internet said that I should use argan oil, but you need an ALARMING quantity to make this look work and it just isn’t necessary or cost effective. I used grapeseed oil, because that’s what we had a huge bottle of in our kitchen. I believe it’s what they used to fry Twinkies and I’m not nearly as worried as I ought to be about that. Just make sure it doesn’t have a strong odor, and you’ll be a-OK.
  5. Mix the oil and gel together and slather it from your roots to your ends. I have long, relatively straight hair and this took many repetitions. I probably used a half a cup of oil in total, Yeah, I was a grease factory.
  6. Use a wide-tooth comb to work your gel/oil mixture through your hair. You can let the groove-marks set for that “just got out of the pool” look.
  7. If you want, you can twist sections around your finger at the ends. The gel will hold that slight curl, giving that ”just popped out of the pool and now I’m ready to party” look.

For my skin, I used good old Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs, let it set, then patted body oil on over it. Don’t rub – it’ll rub the airbrush product off.

wet look hair, low cut mini dress with long sleeves from Jonathan Simkhai, See by Chloe purse, strappy pointed toe heels from Schutz for night out look | Look de cabelo molhado, mini vestido com decote v procundo de Jonathan Simkhai, bolsa See by Chloe, sandália de tirinhas da Schutz para um look sensual da noite

There you have it! What do you think?

love,

Stig

PS. To see an earlier iteration of the wet hair look, check out this post.