Forget the frocks, this year hair and makeup rocks.
Two weeks after New Zealand Fashion Week, I've normally got in my mind's eye a few must-have outfits for next winter, but this year I'm thinking more about how much I loved the hair and makeup.
"It's very wearable" may be code for clothes that are unimaginatively commercial, but in hair terms the phrase is high praise. Across most of the shows this is what we got. But not in a safe, repetitive way, which is how I found a bit too much of the design.
Fashion weeks are traditionally testing grounds for hair and makeup, but sometimes the results are anything but wearable. Of course, on the runway, everything is writ large, but sometimes it's writ weird as well. This year there were plenty of looks that would easily adapt for everyday.
Makeup was mostly applied with subtle imagination, not a trowel. Even at the exaggerated ends of the show spectrum, the makeup conveyed ideas that enhanced an overall vision.
After 10 years, our top hair stylists, makeup artists and show stylists know the drill; they not only capture the mood, they help set it. Some of our designers should be very grateful indeed.
The creatives who regularly work backstage at Fashion Week tell me they love the buzz they get testing their skills in a way far different from working in a salon, beauty store or commercial shoot. They learn new tricks and brush up on old techniques.
Certain products crop up time and time again, from favourite hair sprays to the face base used on every second model. Some of this reflects the dominance of certain suppliers, but often these products gain currency because they perform under pressure.
Take your cue for an up-to-date appearance from some of the looks that showed the way.
The big O
Get ready to make like a 60s housewife for the roller revival. This year the product debuting at Fashion Week with the most buzz about it was undoubtedly The O. Have you had one yet, one big name hairdresser has been joking round the traps. Another told me "hairdressers love them".
The O is a new generation heated roller that uses induction technology such as that found in cook-tops, to zap rollers to 130deg from the inside out. They're initially cool to touch so can easily be put in hair, where they warm up before slowly losing heat, leaving the sort of smoothed, volume-added longer styles that take serious blowdrying time to achieve. Unlike conventional heated rollers which take a while to heat up, The O pod uses seven times less power and requires no warming up time. It heats a roller in four seconds and each has an indicator light showing when it is warm and when it should be removed.
Servilles secured some of the first to arrive in New Zealand and used them on its show models for cascades of soft full curls (see picture at left) and in its glam summer season campaign images.
Steve Morgan of Morgan & Morgan says: "The industry is excited, it's a real hairdresser's tool."
The product is imported by the Christchurch-based company bringing in another new industry favourite, Cloud Nine styling irons, which are rapidly winning fans with their temperature control settings. Supplies of The O have been slowed by earthquake issues, but salons are now securing them.
Morgan said that except for those with very fine or frizzy, unmanageable hair, The O would help achieve glamorous styles in medium and longer hair.
Paul Serville demonstrated the device in public seminars at Fashion Weekend. He's taken by its possibilities and says it offers an alternative for the irons generation that delivers beautiful flowing hair.
The idea is to use the rollers once hair has been mostly dried, using a product applied to boost curl memory. Hair is sectioned to match roller size and then a light spray can be applied before it is rolled in. The bigger the roller the smoother the lifted look, with smaller rollers adding more curl.
Morgan said each root section of hair could be lightly backcombed before the roller was inserted to boost final volume. Once the rollers are wound out, use fingers like claws to break up the spirals, but the less touching the better, with spray helping to fix the shape.
He expects The O to appeal to high-end clients or those who have always loved rollers.
It doesn't come cheap, with The O unit alone costing nearly $400. Packs of rollers are available in five sizes, and cost extra, bringing a standard kit price to well over $500. (Stockists ph 0800 252 530).
Ineventive updos
Like the ponytail the updo is a Fashion Week staple, with both made more inventive this season. From Danny Pato of D&M's scraped back coneheads at Kathryn Wilson, to the giant crimped donuts sitting top-of-head that Mana Dave of Blaze did at Sera Lilly, these were eye-catching dos. Toned down, they are also do-able by day. You could also try out the front bun from the Sabatini show or rolled back curls caught loosely at the nape at Michelle Yvette - or the 80s-esque looks at the NZ Weddings collection, which extended to a boy's version, in quiffy updos that Steve Morgan of Morgan & Morgan came up with for some long-haired male models.
For Alexandra Owen, ghd's creative director Michael Beel from Wellington's Buoy salon fashioned an utterly elegant updo, right in sync with the clothes. Just like the 60s inspired updo Lauren Gunn of Stephen Marr created for Juliette Hogan. You'd need help to pull off both these styles, but they would sure make waves at cocktail time.
Grant's Bettjeman's skew-whiff angels at Trelise Cooper were pure runway fantasy, with voluminous caught-up curls turning into a ropey mane. The overall impression, combined with my favourite makeup of the week, was gorgeous. The look captured a prevailing mood of romantic prettiness with a knowing twist.
Go with the flow
Long, loose, but not lank, hair hung happily at many shows, sometimes in soft rolled curls, sometimes styled out straight, but always with a little lift and life. From the virgin vampire-bait look at Stolen Girlfriends Club, to Cybele's pagan spirits, hair often started out flatter at the front and flared out. For SGC, Greg Murrell of Ryder for KMS California relaxed it with irons then pulled the front section behind the ears, while allowing hair at the crown to fall forward and the back to tizz out in keeping with the theme of rolling around at a party.
Lauren Gunn for Cybele centre-parted hair, sectioned and pulled it back at the crown then twisted and crimped it out.
Centre-parts were also strongly defined at Salasai, where hair was dressed with gold filigree and at Zambesi where white powder defined the part line. The Zambesi hair mixed various sizes of seemingly randomly placed braids interspersed with sections of loose hair by Tigi hair products' Sydney creative director Grant Norton.
At Jimmy D, the hair was simply slicked straight back with comb marks showing to the nape, then left a little looser lower down.
Ruby's hair billowed out and back from a centre-part in the sort of very now style that involves rather more work than it might first appear, but which sure beats poker straight. At Twenty-seven Names it was the same story, with a lot of work going into creating a strong mane that looked naturally buoyant. Emma Ecott of Servilles with Cloud Nine international key stylist Rhiane Schroder used The O heated rollers, backcombing and irons, then a brush out.
At Huffer the look by Murrell was soft but a little dishevelled, inspired by American college girls, with lightly straightened hair pulled back and pinned at the nape.
Ready made up
Models didn't compete with their makeup, they wore it well, with skin looking clean and fresh.
There were few fantasy looks - World of course for winged eyes and Swarovski crystals, seen also at Phoenix House of Makeup's outing with body-painted Shortland Street stars - but several shows opted for bold statement touches, with brow action, including warpaint at Zambesi and red lips at Ruby.
There were fewer dark and red lips than at the previous season's European winter shows, but the use of petal pink or barely there colours was saved from being vapid, by the addition of 60s eyeliner. This came together with bejewelled flourish under M.A.C's Amber D at Trelise Cooper, with a soft lipstick colour called Snob.
A little glimmer showed around the eyes at Huffer, where pearlescent pigments provided highlight to a gentle look that is worth emulating. AgResearch eyes were also rimmed beautifully, in the inner corner and defined through the brow and crease line.
At Juliette Hogan the look was mannered 60s, while Hailwood headed into more wrecked territory, reminiscent of Julianne Moore in A Single Man. Get thee some hairspray, black eyeliner and a precise pout.
Extra insight
Review more detailed dissection of the Fashion Week looks online. You'll find photo galleries, show commentary by the Viva team and backstage beauty tips by Catherine Smith. Check it all out here.
