As I scaled a snowbank in Brooklyn on the way to Pavloski’s out-of-the-way studio in Greenpoint, it occurred to me that nail art does require a great deal more commitment than just darting into the corner spa when a free half hour presents itself: Gels may speed up the process, but a good nail-art mani takes time. On Bellizzi’s recommendation, I made my way to see her friend and favorite nail artist, Natalie Pavloski, the day after the biggest blizzard to hit New York City in years. “I swear, at this point I don’t even know how to use my phone if I don’t have my nails on,” she says. “You get used to them!” Bellizzi insists, after I finally work up the courage to slide into her DMs and ask for tips. Tying my shoelaces before a run was immediately difficult typing, a total no-go. They did not work for mine, at least not at first. For a newbie like me, Olive & June’s almond-shape, French mani–style press-ons are a nice solution-pop ’em on, and see whether long nails work for your lifestyle. New brands such as Facile and ManiMe offer reusable, natural-looking press-ons in a variety of shapes and designs meanwhile, L.A.-based Olive & June’s recently launched The Instant Mani kit-a cheap thrill at $10 a pack-comes with 42 tips in a broad array of sizes. Especially when it comes in the form of the press-on nail, that humble product once relegated to drugstore shelves, and now itself in the midst of a renaissance. “People are tired of being locked up-in all senses.” I can testify to that-and to seeing nail art as a low-risk, high-reward way of wilding out. Moore likens this moment to the Roaring Twenties, another era when-after enduring a long pandemic (not to mention a world war)-the vibe was, as she puts it, “anything goes.” “The showiness, the flouting of norms, it’s all similar to what was happening 100 years ago,” she says. Similar to the gel that’s in polish, it’s quick to apply and soaks off without much fuss-one reason, Kawajiri says, that “with the Aprés, it’s more like, you can play.” “You can fit them to any nail, and they’re just not as hard to work with as acrylics,” she notes of the thin, malleable tips developed in Japan. One such advance is the Aprés Gel-X extension, which has awakened new possibilities for the form, according to New York–based nail artist Mei Kawajiri. And on the other, there are these huge innovations in nail technology, mostly coming out of Asia,” continues Shapiro, that have eased the process of obtaining extended, embellished nails like the ones Flo-Jo made internationally famous at the 1988 Olympics. “On the one hand-no pun intended-there’s the ongoing mainstreaming of hip-hop aesthetics and the rise of celebrity culture, with people like Cardi B emerging as ambassadors for the maximal nail. Shapiro, a New York–based fashion historian and the author of Nails: The Story of the Modern Manicure. “What we’re seeing today is the cross-pollination of several developments,” explains Suzanne E. Apparently, I’m far from alone in gravitating toward nails as the ornament du jour. Venturing back outside, I was struck by how many New York City storefronts that had been emptied out during the pandemic were now filled by salons offering Japanese-style nail art. I devoured the nail news from the couture runways-the Dracula-inspired claws dangling off models’ hands at Viktor & Rolf, and the flesh-toned daggers on view at Glenn Martens’s Jean Paul Gaultier debut. I was social distancing, after all, and spicing up my fingers didn’t strike me as “essential.” Instead, I daydreamed about outré nails-the ones London-based artist Sylvie Macmillan devised for the spring/summer 2022 Dries Van Noten show, imitating the collection’s fabric on elongated fingertips the jeweled, anime-inspired stiletto-shaped tips Los Angeles–based Coca Michelle creates for Megan Thee Stallion. Returning to Bellizzi’s feed, I wondered: Can she order an Uber with those things on? How does she floss? And, also: Do I dare? I may as well have been on Duolingo I was learning a whole new language. They were ultra-long and coffin-shaped-not to be confused with the “almond” tips, or “tapered squares” I discovered as I scanned captions elsewhere. For years I’d been loyal to the same polish, a hue so neutral it blends into my skin like foundation, and yet, driven back inside (and back insane) by omicron, I suddenly found myself lusting over photos of costume designer Miyako Bellizzi’s ombré talons. “God, my thumb looks boring,” I thought as I scrolled Instagram late one recent winter evening, disappearing down a nail-art rabbit hole.
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