REDBULL TAKES YOU BACKSTAGE:

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK A/W 10 FEBRUARY

2010.

Day 5

New York is such an exciting city! I have had some of the most exciting news about my career in the last few days I can barely contain myself! However, I will stick to Fashion week…

Animals. It’s becoming a recurring theme for the week.

From sheep bags to cardboard cutout dogs to live leopards.

Today it was the birds turn. Feathers dominated the show from Irina Shabayeva,

winner of season 6 of Project Runway.

The hair was a simple textured updo loosely pulled up at the crown and secured with a little detailed hairpiece at the crown.

Tony Cohen’s Show saw lead stylist Staci Child create a really messy texture in the hair before simply twisting it into a french roll at the back secured with a couple of pins. She then had her team lace a criss cross of leather into the roll to accessorise the look.

All good wearable DIY type styles with a cute twist.

Then we go over to the other extreme at Chado Ralph Rucci where the hair was simply alien like.

It was pulled up over an intricate scaffold of plaits, backcombing and ponytail into a highly lacquered cone shape. Not a DIY style and probably not one you’d wear out in a hurry.

Thanks DimitySO

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK DAY 4

REDBULL TAKES YOU BACKSTAGE:

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK A/W 10 FEBRUARY 2010.

Day 4

Karen Walker is a name synonimous with New Zealand fashion. This season was her 8^th consecutive showing at New York Fashion Week and was one of my favourite shows.

There seems to be an animal theme here this week. or is it just me?

The collection was a fruity amalgamation of the sound of music and Bob Dylan with skinny trousers, curtain print fabrics, and sheepskin collared jackets.

Karen Walker is so on the money with her direction. The sunglasses range incorporates old favourites along with a good splash of round framed shapes a la John Lennon.

Not sure about the big sheepskin suitcase one of the girls was carrying...

I'm sure Heathermary Jackson must know what she's doing.

The clothes will be in stores in August.

The hair was simple. A messy textured ponytail. When I asked lead stylist Rolando Beauchamp about the hair he was quite concise. JBF hair (stands for just been f*#ed) pulled back tight at the sides into a messy ponytail so as to allow the red lip to shine and pop. It was all about the makeup.

Whodunnit?

Rachel Antinoff dunnit.

One of the coolest fashion installations yet, was the showing for new label Four. Set in a downtown apartment, the models didn’t parade on a catwalk, nor did they stand on a podium as is so often the case.

The models, dressed and tressed, were part of an elaborate play that had them acting out small scenes in a murder mystery while the guests walked through and interacted with the scene.

There was a cardboard cutout dog, a girl murdered with flaming red hair flowing and silhouetted on the floor with white tape. A girl at a desk with an old fashioned typewriter, even in the bathroom a model stood, beautifully attired and quite engaging.

Jenny Balding was in charge of the hair for Redken and Cutler. She set the hair curling irons, then pinned it up into a faux bob with a sweeping wave at the front.

Thanks DimitySO

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK DAY 3

REDBULL TAKES YOU BACKSTAGE:

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK A/W 10 FEBRUARY 2010.

Day 3

I’m at this show, and they bring out a leopard.

And give it a piece of steak (not that it looked hungry).

Then they put it straight back in the cage. I say cage, but it was more like an oversized cat carrier.

All the while, this girl sits on a broken piece of concrete on what looked like a film set and looked all scared and sexy and coy and dusky maiden.

It's cool though, we were totally safe behind the velvet rope. That cat was not going to cross the velvet rope. You just don't do that.

The only show I managed today was Generra, where I got to work with some pretty exciting new technology in hair extensions.

The lead stylist was Peter Grey whom I have had the pleasure of working with a couple of times before and the look was very 90’s grunge. Quite street style crossed with girl X (which I think is a NYC term for it girl). The girls’ hair was parted on one side and pulled back sleek and clean into a pony tail on the opposite side to give the effect of being undercut or shaved off. Then the hair that was left out was set on large curling irons (yes, we even used the Kavanagh 1.5” iron) and lots and lots of Redken Workforce 09. Then, a new technology in Hair extensions was used to add volume and length. Easiwefts, by Easihair are human hair extensions on a sticky backing tape that can be attached into the hair in such a way as to last up to 6 weeks. They can also be easily removed by spraying an alcohol based removal spray on and they simply slide out ready for re-use…

No lumps! And when it comes to extensions no lumps is not a phrase that we ever get to use.

Then the hair was straightend atr the ends and some Redken Glass run through to give it a worn in feel.

The boy’s hair was tough. Real tough. Think Steve Mcquuen in the Great Escape. Slicked back with lots of Redken Touch Control Mousse (and I mean lots! Like about the size of three oranges in your hand lots!) and then loosened up with the fingers, it looked as though the boys had been sweating and fighting and pushing their hair off their face. Well, apart from the fact they were all really skinny and beautiful and didn’t look like they’d had a fight in their lives.

However, it was good to see men looking like men.

A big shout out to my mate Sarah Illingworth who got over to Gwen Stefani’s show LAMB. I unfortunately was busy with the fat leopard but from her photos the hair looks super cool. In fact, probably cool enough to get behind the velvet rope where the fat leopard dwells. At Gwen’s show was Kelly Osborne looking like she’s feeding her pet glove a nice drink of whiskey and milk. Kelly’s looking pretty good in platinum blonde. And so is Gwen. The focus however, should be on the model’s clothes and the hair.

The models all wore Betty Page style waves with heavy blunt fringes above the eyebrows. This look can easily be re-created by sectioning the hair into four quarters with vertical partings all coming from the highest point of the head. Then, in each section, starting at the bottom, take a horizontal parting about 1.5” deep and comb it back away from your face. Spray it liberally with Redken Workforce 09. Give it a half a twist and then spiral wind it round a small-barreled curling tong (I know, why don’t you use a Kavanagh .75” tong?). Clip it with a dinky and let it cool while you repeat the same technique on the next section above. Do each section in each of the four quadrants and once it’s cooled, give it a good brush through with a Mason Pearson type brush.

My computer is remarkably sluggish. I am transferring 7071 photos to my hard drive as I write this so I can free up some space. Good news though, the buttons are all working fine… I’ll just go play some solitaire while the remaining 2000 odd photos transfer then I can upload this story.

It’s 2 am…

One game of solitaire and there’s a little over 1000 photos left to transfer… uh oh, it’s started going backwards! Oh man… my computer sucks.

mmm… sleep…

Thanks DimitySO

Redbull Takes you Backstage NYFW A/W 2010 day 2

REDBULL TAKES YOU BACKSTAGE:

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK A/W 10 FEBRUARY 2010.

Day 2

So I’m in New York now. I still haven’t showered and my d and m buttons are still only working intermittently…

I had to go to New Jersey via san fransisco. My flight was delayed 8 hours. No surprise. I actually pumped my fist and whooped when they announced that we were actually taking off and we would be landing in Newark, New Jersey!

2 hours sleep, a 4 hour flight, and at 4-30 am local time we touched down on a fluffy white pillow like landscape. It looks pretty, sure, but man its brutal! Cold? Hell yeah it’s cold. So glad I brought my Yohji Yamamoto pants and huffer peacoat.

A half hour cab ride into manhattan and I was at my accomodation, rearing to go. Lucky I have friends here. Lucky they get up at 5-30am to let me in the door. Lucky I’m not the cab driver who got stuck in snow curbside after dropping me off.

First show is at 9am, it’s for a new label called the falls. The inspiration behind the collection is ‘borrowed from the boys’ and it’s a fluid mix of delicate knits, floaty pleats and chunky cardies circa 1992. A little grunge a little bit pretty girl. I can imagine Chloe Sevigny wearing these clothes. A lovely Irish cahp by the name of Leon Gorman is in charge of the hair for the Cutler team and Redken. It’s a really natural hair look inspired by Sienna Miller’s do at the Academy Awards last year. The hair is lightly backcombed and then brushed out to distress it a little before being loosely pulled back into two pony tails at the nape. Each of these is plaited, then wrapped around the head and pinned into place. A light spray with redken Workforce and Robert’s your mother’s brother.

Then we rushed uptown to the Altman Building to see Australian Haute Couture master, Toni Maticievski. Rodney Cutler is in charge of the hair and as always tries to extend Toni’s vision by pushing the boundaries with the hair. Toni would rather no hairdo and Rodney has managed to convince him to do a do. And do a do he does.

The hair is first flat ironed smooth and I’m happy to see a few Kavanagh irons around. Then it’s brushed into a high ponytail, twisted into a knot and folded and sprayed shiny with Redken Forceful 23. Rodney and his team then clip gold leaves into the hair with exposed bobby pins for a truly sparkly and simpy spectacular look that is both simple and striking.

But here’s the kicker… I got a call from TVNZ asking where my pics were. I was still at the second show shooting the pics for the spot. They tell me that my live cross is two hours earlier than I anticipated.

I shoot madly, taking pictures and asking questions. Jump in a cab, fang downtown, plug in the camera and start downloading pictures and emailing frantically at the same time.

I empty my pockets. My wallet is not with me. I search. No, my wallet is not with me…

Panic sets in. I’m trying to work and call the credit card control centre to cancel my credit card and email the taxi company to see if I left my wallet in the cab, but they won’t take calls and it costs 19.95 to place a lost and found on their website. Ok, but I don’t have a credit card coz it’s in my lost wallet…

And I get an email. From a hero. He’s got my wallet and he wants to give it back…

It’s a sign. The world is full of good people. Thank you.

Thanks DimitySO

Redbull Takes you Backstage NYFW A/W 2010

REDBULL TAKES YOU BACKSTAGE:

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK A/W 10 FEBRUARY 2010.

Day 1

A massive snowstorm has hit the east coast of the USA shutting down almost all of the ajor airports and preventing flights fro landing.

The d and the m button on my laptop are only working intermittently.

I arrived in LAX from New Zealand to discover that y connecting flight to NYC has been cancelled and the next available flight is the next morning at 6.16am. So I call some friends, and have them pick me up. No worries, I’ve allowed a day contingency so it’s a nice surprise and a great opportunity to catch up with them. At their place I realise that I don’t have any luggage and I’ve been wearing the same clothes now for around 40 hours…

My friends loan me a toothbrush but no underwear or socks.

I spend an hour on the phone to the airline after the internet tells that my 6.16am flight to NYC has now also been cancelled.

I can now get to Newark, New Jersey via San Fransisco. It’s not quite Manhattan, but it’s close, and the airport is open.

We go to great little Italian restaurant for dinner. There are a number of paparazzi sitting outside. They ignore us. Expected.

I sleep like a baby in my friend’s office and wake to shower and put the same clothes on again. I am starting to smell bad. Maybe I should have bought that shirt even though I didn’t reall like it…

My laptop freezes and doesn’t want to restart but with some gentle coersion and the threat of a hammer to the usb port it wakes up and the d and m buttons still only work intermittently. I’m going to get a new machine as soon as I get somewhere.

At LAX I discover my flight from San Fran to New Jersey is now delayed 6 hours. I ring my buddy in NYC. It’s a blizzard there. Shops are shut and nobody is out. I beg him to go to shows and take photos and also take photos of the street because I need to do a live cross to TVNZ and there needs to be pictures. Begging him I almost miss my flight to San Fran.

I get on my flight to San Fransisco, we taxi for takeoff, then we stop and the engines are turned off. According to the captain, they have stopped planes landing in San Fran because of the weather. Lucky y New Jersey flight is delayed. So now I am writing this as we sit on the tarmac with the engines off waiting for an hour til we can take off.

The d and m buttons still only work sometimes...

Uh Oh, hungry…

Oh look, a movie.

Thanks DimitySO

Scarlett Johanssen's hair from Relator Video Clip

I have been asked how to re-create Scarlett Johanssen's hairstyle from the relator video clip with Pete Yorn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRtydnIycCY

Now I just have to say, I didn't do Scarlett's hair for this clip, (as much as I would have liked to!) but i can tell you how to re-create it real easy.

First of all, you'll need a few things:

A shampooed and conditioned head of hair past your shoulders

Mousse (Redken Full frame 07)

Wide tooth comb

Blowdrier

Large barrel curling iron (1.25" or 1.5")

Brush (either a paddle brush or a large round brush)

Tail comb

Setting Lotion (Redken Hot Sets 22)

Hairspray (Redken Forceful 23)

Some clip in hair wefts (human hair so you can set them)

Time required:

Allow yourself 45 to 60 minutes

Start by applying a generous amount of mousse to your towel dried hair. Depending on your hair's texture and density, you could use up to two grapefruit sized handfuls. Comb it through thoroughly to distribute.

Blowdry your hair section by section with a large brush to smooth it out and control it. Don;t cheat and try using a flat iron, coz you'll have trouble putting a curl back in.

Once your hair is blowdried, create a clean centre part. Taking a section parallel to the centre parting and approximately the same size as the barrel of your curling iron, mist it with redken Hot Sets 22 and set into a barrel curl with the curling iron. Clip the curl in place while it cools.

Continue working down both sides and down the back with horizontal sections until you've set your whole head.

While your hair is cooling, you could set your hair pieces with the same iron.

Take the clips out of the cooling curls and give your hair a brush through with a large paddle brush.

Clip in the hair pieces around the back and sides to create volume and body.

Drag your fingers through while spraying with Redken Forceful 23 to create texture and lock the style into place.

And there you have it.

Add a bit of Botox, Restylane and a boob job and you'll look exactly like her...

Air New Zealand fashion week

It's taken me a while to get round to talking about ANZFW. And, if I'm honest, it's partially because it was a bit of an anticlimax after NYFW. I'm kinda glad I only had a couple of shows to do. The week started off crazy with a K and two EEs (as in krazee). I arrived back from NYC on Saturday morning, straight to Hamilton for my Bro in law's 40th birthday party, then down to Wellington on Sunday to prep for a massive 3 hour fashion week special on the GoodMorning show. We had viewer makeovers, a fashion panel, and a three round, two minute hairstyling challenge with 65 hairdressers and a live studio audience. Crikey! Tuesday I had 17 hairstylists doing 17 flat iron pincurl sets and then stitching the models' hair up into bobs. Luckily I had a couple of days to get my head around the next show, which was my absolute favourite for the week.

Federation, a sweet little family owned and operated streetwear brand gave me free reign with the hair. My team was awesome! They backcombed the girls hair section by section, sprayed it with Redken Workforce 09 then flat ironed it to create a mad dishevelled texture. Once the hair had cooled, it was brushed out into a fuzz with a mason pearson brush. A triangular section was created on top by taking a diagonal parting from midway between the crown and the high point of the head to the outside corner of each eye. This top section was overdirected forward and then twisted and pinned into a massive coif. the res of the hair was brushed back and secured vertically up the back just off centre back with interlocking pins. it was then rolled into an oversized french roll and stitched with embroidery thread to secure it. loose bits of flyaway hair were allowed to fall out as the girls walked to create a romantic, rock'n'roll mash up of a hairstyle.