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.

NYFW S/S 10 final wrap up

It was only a few days ago that I arrived home from New York, but it seems like a world away now. I had the most amazing time creating some fun hairdos on incredibly beautiful girls for amazing, talented designers. i think my all time favourite backstage experience was Betsey Johnson. Held at New York's awe inspiring Plaza Hotel on Central Park, the DJ busted out Beastie Boy's hits, and Betsey sprinkled petals around the room, while the hair stylists had fun building, big, mad hairstyles. The brief from the lead hairstylist Peter Gray, was literally, go mad. have fun, the bigger the better.

The Tadashi show was a little more controlled, with lead stylist Rodney Cutler looking for a youthful, relaxed look to the hair. Hair was sprayed with Redken Workforce 09, then twiwted and heated with a dryer before being brushed out to create a airy, cottony texture. The it was simply twisted and pinned low behind each ear before being twisted again as a whole into a chignon at the occipital bone.

Brazilian Designer Carlos Miele showed a sexy and sophisticated range complimented by elegantly dishevelled hair. The hair was was set on large curling irons and then brushed out to give a light carefree wave.

Backstage at NYFW with Redbull

Another amazing day of fashion and hair at NYFW for the S/S 2010 collections today. The day started early with prep for Australian designer Tony Maticievski's show. The collection was stunning with catwalk couture gowns in distressed neutral tones coupled with a super cool hairdo. Lead stylist, one of New Yorks finest and Australian expat the legendary Rodney Cutler designed a chic, rock'n'roll frech twist with a textured coif on top. The hair was pulled back sleek and smooth on the sides with a shiny natural finish and secured with an elegant twist at the back. then the top was backcombed and placed section by section into a dramatic messy high coif. The whole look was finished with flowers and brooches in the hair.

Then there was the Rebecca Taylor show. It's so exciting to see Kiwi designers showing at the pinnacle of fashion and she is a real sweetheart too, so it makes her success even nicer. The hair was gorgeous. It was quite severe with a hint of cuteness, which really offset the fun nature of her collection. Lead stylist Dai Mashishita designed a chignon look with an edge. The hair was first smoothed at the roots and midlengths with straightening irons, and then parted severely down the middle and pulled down and back into a ponytail at the nape. any flyaways were smoothed out by sprayin Redken Workforce 09 onto our hands and lightly smoothing it over to keep the hair looking natural and product free. then the hair was formed into a bow shaped chignon at the nape using elastic to secure it rather than pins. All in all it was a very tricky hairdo to do especially on the Senagalese girl with afro hair cut into a short crop!!!

Red Bull Takes you back again

My second day here at NYFW S/S 10 (abbreviating now!) and I spent the day at Karen Walker's show. It was so nice to have a rest from doing hair and just be interviewing and taking pictures. I got a great interview with Karen and a good look around backstage on camera, and if all goes well it will be on TV in a few hours (technology allowing!) (how many parentheses and exclamation points can I use in one paragraph?!)

My new favourite redhead was on the KW show again today. The hair was beautiful, shiny, healthy and natural looking with a slight polish.

Hair was blowdried smooth, and then lightly bent around a large curling iron to create a polished but slightly dishevelled look.

Red Bull takes you Backstage at NYFW

After a solid six hours sleep I seem to have shaken off the jetlag that was making all the words on my screen look like swimming ants. And so I'm now able to share with you some of the highlights from backstage at New York Fashion week Spring/Summer 2010 collections.

Yesterday I worked on two shows, The first was Twinkle, where the hair was set into beautiful floaty glamourous waves. The Lead stylist, John Ruidant called it a rock'n'roll look and many of the reporters thought he was saying duck'n'roll. There was the usual chaos and mayhem with girls arriving late, hair wet from the rain, acting like divas, but John was calm and all in all the hair was really beautiful. The makeup was interesting. Orange lips. And when asked by a beauty editor what the colour was called a makeup artist replied simply 'orange'. succinct.

The next show I went to was Cynthia Rowley. The hair look was a 'sci-fi/punk' look according to the lead stylist Bokhee. although, I thought it was pretty much a fifties look. The hairstylists were struggling to share the leads vision as the look seemed to evolve over the prep time. After two hours, only 5 of the 18 girls were finished. And with only half an hour to showtime, we were still waiting for over hale of the models to show up. And it was raining. The sort of heavy New York rain that is the nemesis of everyone on the beauty industry.