As we’ve seen over the last five or so years, nails have staked out their rightful place on the runways. Fashion Week is no longer simply about the clothes (and the hair and the makeup). Nail techs now share prime real estate backstage with top hairstylists and makeup artists. And polish companies and nail technicians are often brought in to consult with designers about their dream nails. Long gone are the days when every model walked down the runway with short nude or pale pink nails (usually slapped on haphazardly by the makeup artist). Now nail techs wield there wands backstage and bring the designers’ looks to completion with the hands and feet.

Whether it’s a bold shock of color, an out-there design fit to accessorize the outfit, or sometimes even that tried-and-true pale pink, fingernails are getting their due.

Fall New York Fashion Week (NYFW) finished up last week and we’ve got a close up look at a few of the trends.

The grande dame of the fashion shows is CND, which has really revolutionized the whole fashion week process. At the Fall 2009 show, the CND team did the nails for 51 runway shows.

The five trends they identified are:

Tickle the Ivories — Glimmering ivory and buttercup blonde manicures debuted on the runways of Carolina Herrera and iconic American designers Jason Wu and Tommy Hilfiger. The look is opaque, not sheer, with hint of golden shimmer. 

Dark is Classic — Ebonized jewel tones in sapphire and amethyst punctuated the seriously sexy styling at BCBG, Herve Leger and DKNY, while Milly and Luca Luca showed classic dark raisin manicures to complement their feminine collections. At Miss Sixty, pure black Voodoo polish was reserved for pedicures. At Diesel, Amanda Fontanarrosa mixed a custom shade of dark chocolate enamel to match the clothes.

’40s Moon Manicure — The glamour and hope of post WWII returned to fashion in the form of bold beauty elements including matte red lips, pin curled hair, lined eyes and half moon manicures. Ruffian, inspired by a vintage Vogue cover, updated the moon manicure from Vogue’s coral to a deep blood red. At Thakoon, CND’s Wanda Ruiz took the look a step further with a French moon mani in beige and black (shown above). At FORM, the urban black uniforms were contrasted with ’40s hair and makeup and black and white moon manicures. At ThreeAsFour, CND’s Roxanne Valinoti abstracted the manicure with black triangular moons on nude nails. 

Greige & Dirty Pastels — The non color of choice for fall is grey. At Kai Kuhne, Roxanne Valinoti designed a gradated manicure effect with grey shades evolving from pinky to thumb. CND’s Kristina Baune mixed custom shades of grey and mushroom for Karen Walker, Costello Tagliopietra, Matthew Williamson, Yigal Azrouel, and Malandrino.

Vintage Metallics — Nails are jewels not tools, treat them like the fashion accessory they are. At Marchesa, the look was a metallic charcoal veil to pick up on the delicate embroidery. Baby Phat manis were a universally flattering warm antique gold while Binetti showed distressed gold and silver on a black base.

Check back in the coming days, we’ve got so much from NYFW.

— Hannah