National Post (National Edition)
‘ PROS BEYOND CLOTHES
Once a designer’s fashion week show is ready, they call in the hair and makeup specialists to complete and compliment the runway looks
It’s all about adapting to the wilderness,” fashion designer Laura Siegel explains to the team of hair and makeup specialists who have gathered in an attic studio in Toronto’s Queen West fashion district. “Think of a grizzly bear that had to adapt and evolve into the polar bear to survive. The grizzly bear’s home is the forest so I used lot of greens and the polar bear hunts for fish so I used a burgundy blood colour. Let’s go with that.”
It’s a brisk March Monday, and there are only eight days before the 25-year-old designer’s fourth collection takes to the fall runway at this season’s World MasterCard Fashion Week in Toronto. Her line is ready and her models are chosen. The only thing left to do is finalize the look with hair and makeup. Today is trial and error day.
FIRST, THE HAIR
In a sunny brick room at the back of the studio, international Redken artist Jorge Joao and his creative consultant Cindy Duplantis are wrapping curling irons around locks of a model’s hair. After this morning’s consult with the designer, Joao’s decided on an initial plan of action.
“There’s a native, almost Inuit feel, with the whole story of the polar bear and grizzly bear. We want that disheveled texture but we want to keep it clean and controlled,” he explains, “We have the centre part, texture along the sides and the back with a little more organization to give it a very natural but slightly modern feel.”
As Fashion Week’s lead hair stylist, it is Joao’s job to create looks for each of the 28 shows of this season’s fashion week. He’s been working for Redken for seven years and this will be his third season as their master of runway hair — and yet, he says, he still doesn’t know what to expect. Designers, like most creative types, have a tendency to make game-changing decisions at the very last minute. As in, backstage with an hour until show time. And when that happens, Joao has to go with.
“I’ve had shows where the look was done, sealed, and on the day of, it was like, ‘ You know what, I have an idea, we’re changing it completely,’ ” he laughs, “It’s not about us, it’s about the designer’s creations. It’s about delivering their message.”
This season, Laura Siegel’s message is a strong one, and in keeping with her signature clothing style, it’s made up of many, many layers. Inspired in part by her recent trip to India and a newfound interest in an animal’s ability to adapt to climate change, Siegel’s fall line maintains the ethnic, bohemian look she is known for through layering and handmade prints.
“India is always an inspiration, not necessarily the main one but it’s always there. I think I always relate my lines back to culture. This time, it’s how we would adapt in the future if we were in the same situation as the polar bear,” she explains.
To communicate this blend of nature, culture and the climate of the future, Siegel decided the hair should look as untouched as possible.
“I want natural waves, like she hasn’t done anything to her hair,” she describes, “The centre part is very key. It brings in a little bit of a futurist element to the looks.”
After 20 minutes or so, Joao and Duplantis are ready to present their work to Siegel. The model, a Bambi-eyed beauty of just 18, towers over Siegel, who stands no taller than 5’3”. With a few tilts of her head and several steps back, Siegel isn’t satisfied just yet.
“The hair needs to be messier, the curl is too defined. I want it to be weighed down, especially at the ends. More natural and soft than bouncybeautiful,” she says.
Joao nods and immediately comes up with a solution — rough clay. “It’s got more grit to it so it will take apart the curl and mute the prettiness. Too pretty in a salon or on the street , great. On the runway, not so much.”
A few comb-throughs of clay and a half bottle of hair spray later, Siegel is happy. “It’s crazy how much work goes in to making things look natural,” she laughs.
THEN, THE MAKEUP
The Tuesday show at the David Pecault tents will be the second time Siegel shows her fall collection, the first being at New York Fashion Week in February. There, the model’s were made up to look like dramatic Indian-esque travellers; their faces were pale, their eyebrows invisible, their lips a shade of dark burgundy. To finish the look, a thin line was drawn down the centre of the girls’ foreheads — an ode to the bindi.
For the Toronto show, Siegel and lead makeup artist for Maybelline New York Canada, Grace Lee, decided they’d keep the same concept but try moving the pigment from the forehead to around the eyes.
Lee is the Joao of makeup. Just as he is responsible for all 28 hair styles on the runways, she is responsible for the makeup design. Like Joao, Lee believes this trial day is all about finding Siegel a look that translates the essence of her collection.
“The best thing about Laura is that she’s open to new ideas and let’s me do my thing. If she kiboshes it, we will start over.”
Keeping the words “tribal” and “arctic” in mind, Lee used a shimmery white eye pencil and draws lines along the model’s lash line. “I want it to look like I’ve gone along the eye with a paint brush, or as if someone did their makeup with their fingers,” she says.
When Lee finished with the eye makeup, Siegel was called in to see the results. The white lines on the dark-skinned model, paired with the dark lipstick, were too much. Lee went back to the drawing board. The second time Siegel was called in, Lee had it. The final look: a delicate white line along the lash line with bold burgundy lips. Simple but dramatic.
Fast forward to Tuesday, March 19: It’s the day of show and everyone on the Laura Siegel team is running around backstage getting ready. It’s 3:30 p.m., only 30 minutes to show time and makeup and hair decisions are still being made.
The white eyeliner was out, the bindi line’s back and now there’s eye shadow involved.
“We went back to the original look because it made more of an impact than just the white eyeliner. Sometimes you have to try new things before just sticking to the original ideas,” says Lee, “but we did add a warm orangey-brown eye shadow around the eyes and we kept the burgundy mouth.”
Over at the hair tables, Joao and a group Redken staff are frantically trying to find a way to pin Siegel’s handprinted scarves around the model’s dishevelled curls — something they thought would be simple to do and did not test during the trial day last week.
It’s 10 minutes until the Studio runway room doors open, and only three of the 13 models are ready to go with scarves securely bobby-pinned and taped to the back of their heads.
It’s a rush to the finish. An assembly line is formed. The models line up, Siegel drapes the scarves, the Redken people attack the model’s head with pins and she’s sent down the runway. Each look was completed seconds before the model’s toe hit the runway.
When Siegel returned backstage after her final bow in front of the appreciative audience, the backstage crew exploded into laughter and congratulations. The stress dissolved and Siegel was escorted into the media lounge to meet the press. It was all over, until next season.