In recent years, we’ve been applauding the fact that nails have been gaining clout on fashion runways. Nowadays savvy clothing designers often loop in nail professionals at the beginning stages of the fashion show process, letting the nail designer collaborate directly with the clothing designer and the hair and make-up teams. Yet still, we nail enthusiasts have always had to concede that, of course, the couture garments themselves must take center stage…until now.

At Rosemount Australian Fashion Week 2010, clothing designers Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales of Romance Was Born turned the nails themselves into the garments. That’s right — not satisfied with using just nail tips just on the models’ hands and feet, the duo requested more than 2,000 hand-painted CND Formation nail tips to incorporate into the actual apparel. The nail tips were polished in CND Blackjack, Raisin In The Sun, Green Scene, Gold Chrome, Silver Chrome, Eclectic Purple, Blueberry Whip, Tutu, Emerald Shimmer, and Gold Sparkle. Each tip had a hole drilled into the base so that they could be sewn onto a one-off couture piece. The majority of the tips were incorporated in one of the characters, aptly named “Nail Slut” (shown). Other tips were used to create jewelry and headdresses.

In addition, Romance Was Born also used 20 unique embellished nails by CND to create a nail scale fabric print that was used throughout its Spring/Summer collection for items like boots, dresses, jeans, hats, and shorts. “The print looks like scales and armor,” says CND co-founder and style director Jan Arnold. “The backstory is that the designers called Ellie and Danelle at Pacific Nail and Beauty and asked if they could decorate a couple thousand nail tips with gem-toned colors and adorn them in crystals and chains. The nails were done and sent, and the designers then lined up the tips and had them photographed and finally converted the photo into a custom fabric for jeans, jersey tops shorts and dresses! It’s simply the most creative use of nails I’ve ever seen! You just don’t meet true artists like this very often…so visionary and creative!”

To see more than 40 other nail photos from Fashion Week, visit NAILS photo gallery Fall 2010 Nail Trends from Fashion Week.

—Sree