The Amy Winehouse Cat Eye Is Back

Ever since the emergence of Julia Fox as a figure in the avant-garde scene, bold, graphic, eye makeup has begun to infiltrate fashion again. When Fox made her Paris Fashion Week debut during an appearance at a Schiaparelli show in January 2022, graphic, and uncontained black smokey cat-eye makeup quickly became her signature beauty look. Clean  girl beauty trends are falling out of favor and replaced by more grunge glamour like the mob wife aesthetic and classic, messy Parisian styles. It seems the intense, and rebellious cat-eye eyeliner synonymous with Amy Winehouse is making a comeback on the runway, especially after the deconstructed eyeliner look was everywhere for the spring 2023 season.

The cat-eye makeup look dates back to Ancient Egypt, the feline-flick of linear that even Cleopatra used as a makeup trick, by outlining her eyes with minerals such as malachite, kohl, and copper ore.

Of course, heavy eyeliner is almost synonymous with the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and old Hollywood charm, but perhaps the beauty proprietor of an unorthodox cat-eyeliner is none other than the late Amy Winehouse, the fearless, and edgy liquid cat-eye became her signature beauty technique, along with her full beehive of hair (the beauty look is trending just in time for the superstar’s upcoming Biopic, Back To Black, set to release this May). 

Unlike cleanly etched eye makeup looks, a Winehouse-esque cat-eye requires boldness; it’s almost supposed to look like a dark permanent marker was flicked upwards, heavily to the corner of the eye. “Amy always had a very clear idea about how she wanted to look. It was very much about the ‘60s thing … the big hair was inspired by Brigitte Bardot, and she was into the idea gangster moles—girls that hung out with gangsters,” shares Naomi Perry, Winehouse’s personal stylist in an interview with InStyle. 

Impeccably thick, and noir winged cat-eye eyeliner soared on the runway for much of the Fall/Winter shows of 2024, from Versace’s collection in Milan (on supermodel, Gigi Hadid, no less) to a smudged, and rocker chic cat-eye for Tom Ford, while Gucci’s show had a more subtle wing that darkly covered the models eyelids as they walked down the runway. A smokey cat-eye was even prevalent this season from designers Helmut Lang, Jason Wu and Huishan Zhang. 

It seems it’s not just the runway embracing the strike of a Winehouse-inspired eye look, even pop star Dua Lipa was seen sporting a fierce, sleek, and thick liquid black feline eye while on the red carpet of the 2024 Brits Awards. 

As natural-but-not natural beauty begins to fade for more daring, and experimental beauty, we have the legendary Winehouse to thank for being the proprietor of the unapologetic, and edgy cat-eye makeup look.