Noses Are Big For Autumn Winter 2015

As the new season’s fashion advertising campaigns began hitting magazines this month, one thing has become clear: for autumn/winter 2015, noses are BIG.

Australian model Julia Nobis, whose prominent nose – porcelain pale and a geometric wonder in profile – totally steals the show in the new multi-model Dior ads. Likewise, all eyes are on Belgian beauty Anne Catherine Lacroix’s kookily hooked nose, despite her lurking witchily in the background of Proenza Schouler’s quartet of women. For Juergen Teller’s campaign for Bottega Veneta, he shot Anna Van Ravenstein Cleveland, whose elegant, elongated nose gives her the air of an eccentric aristocrat.

There’s no denying, The New Nose is a standout feature. But is it attractive? Just check out the super-cool rocker Julia Cummings, shaking her bleached hair (and notable nose) like she’s all ‘big nose, don’t care’ in the new Saint Laurent campaign. Then there’s sex blogger @Slutever (aka Karley Sciortino), featuring in Kate Spade’s ‘creative professionals’ campaign, whose striking nose doesn’t seem to have prevented her documenting a string of lovers. And as Karley rightly points out, ‘People with small noses are cute. People with big noses are beautiful.’

OK, maybe I’m biased. Because for a certain section of the fashion populous, myself included, our time has come! Of course, fashion has been making significant progress in recent years in expanding its rigid definitions of beauty – size and age are notable examples. Are big noses one of the last beauty taboos?

It’s not just the casting of big noses that’s noteworthy this season – it’s also the nose- showcasing styling. When Marc Jacobs featured long-term muse Sofia Coppola in his star- studded A/W ’15 ad campaign, the usually pared-down director was given such a startling makeover she was virtually unrecognisable; her hair was backcombed high into a bouffant, her usual bare-faced beauty was transformed with gallons of glossy black eyeliner – all serving to exaggerate that incredible angular profile.

Which begs the question, have try-hard selfies killed off the straight-to-camera pose? Fashion seems to be favouring profile shots, reportage-style action snaps and a lot of hair over face, or coy, looking-away-from-camera poses in the new season ads. And for those shots, you certainly need a striking silhouette.

These are the two things I know about girls with big noses: 1. Not every guy will fancy you, but the ones that do will be bananas about your look. 2.This is a feature that ‘builds character’; a big-nosed girl won’t be boring. So I say – fashion, what took you so long?