I always get excited when London Fashion Week gets near, because it means that my team and I get to collaborate with some great designers and create hair backstage, which is an amazing high-energy hotbed of creativity. This time around, we were fortunate to work with Pierre Garroudi, whose show took place in February at his gallery in the Archway in London. Garroudi's quite the talented designer, and his sexy, futuristic, contemporary designs make a high-impact statement while still managing to remain classic and timeless.
 Beverly C |
Naturally, my goal when working backstage at any runway show–and this one was no exception—is to create hair that fuses seamlessly with the collection, not overshadowing it. To make sure that happened, my team and I met with Garroudi about a week before to talk about his inspiration and discuss the clothing. He wanted the hair to be avant-garde and was very open to the geisha look that Yumi Nakada Dingle and I had suggested. Memoirs of a Geisha is all the rage in London; geisha-inspired dresses are in all the major magazines, and building interiors are seeing a massive surge in Japanese-style patterns. It's not surprising that many of these motifs are trickling down to the catwalks. By the end of our conversation, we had all agreed that the hair needed to be big, with maximum volume providing the essential structure to the shapes.
 Pierre Garroudi meets with Beverly's team |
On the day of the show, we took the hair from ear-to-ear, from the top of the crown, and pulled it into a high ponytail before applying Label.m Gel. We worked a bit of Label.m Volume Mousse into the rest of the hair, parted it from the center, and then let it dry a bit before crimping it to add more volume on both sides. Next, we rolled the ponytail under the top of the ear and sprayed it before backcombing the sides of the hair into the big geisha shape. To finish the look and give it a bit of flair, we pinned in a colored pom-pom. It was a little bit of the past reinterpreted for the present, and we were happy to be part of it.
 Creating big hair backstage |
 A model sports the geisha-inspired look |