Crafting beauty: Greg Murrell & Zambesi

As well as being a bloody great guy, Ryder salon owner Greg Murrell is one hell of a talented hair stylist both in the salon, behind the scenes and on the runway. He has had a long-standing role as one of the key creatives in the collaborative process that goes into producing the runway shows and campaigns for my favourite local label Zambesi for many years now, so I sat him down and chatted about working with such an iconic name.

How long have you been working with Zambesi now?
The collaboration has been going for 13 years now. In that time i have been the hair director for all of their fashion week shows in Auckland, London and Sydney, their advertising campaigns and the many other events that they have been involved in.

Can you remember what the first ever hair brief you received was?
The first thing that I ever did for them was a show for their customers in their Vulcan Lane store. The look had a number of small plaits that we then wrapped around the head. I remember being very nervous but the hair ended up looking great!

Is there one aesthetic that has remained constant over that time?
Liz (Findlay, Zambesi co-founder and designer) definitely likes to have an element of long hair around the neck. That has been fairly constant. She also likes height at the crown. We have probably explored many ways of fitting both of those elements into the look. One thing I love about working with Liz is that she is not interested in hair that is "on-trend". As soon as something becomes too fashionable or obvious she will want to head in the opposite direction. Quite often we have gone for a look that is almost opposite to the aesthetic of the previous season.

Do you think of a particular muse or reference when creating hair for Zambesi?
Well I think that the Zambesi woman is adventurous, individual, free-spirited and has an intellectual approach to fashion. The hair has never been street hair. There is usually a language involved with the hair, which helps to animate the collection. There is a merging of fashion, art and rock and roll culture that seems to suggest new ways of looking at ourselves. With some of the shows there has definitely been a particular muse in mind such as RAFW Spring/Summer 07 where we were channeling Liz's Greek heritage and the model's had wet hair like they had just come out of the water in the Greek Islands. They then smashed plates at the end of the show.

How much input do Liz and (menswear designer) Dane have into what you create?
It is always very collaborative. They will usually tell me what is in their heads and how they are feeling about the presentation of the show and collection and I interpret things from there. We will do an initial hair and makeup test to get things started and I will go away and think about it and often play around on a mannequin head. Sometimes it just pops straight away, and other times there has been more thought and toil.

Has it just got easier with time, i.e. do you think of yourself as a member of the extended Zambesi family now?
Well I know them so well and what they like that the collaborative process is quite comfortable, but I think it is a challenge to constantly come up with new ideas. The tension that exists in any creative process probably helps to prevent any complacency or staleness.

What has been your favourite look over the years?
One of my favourites was Spring/Summer 2003 at Mercedes Australian Fashion Week. The hair was crimped and backcombed and put into two ponytails at either side of the model's nape. It was very voluminous and round, reducing in and then the ponytails were backcombed for volume as well. Some girls had shorter hair so they had mini ponytails and the girls with longer hair had big ponytails. They looked like escaped naughty French schoolgirls.

What can you tell me about the latest campaign shot (above), for Winter 2010?
The campaign was shot outdoors in a forest and the hair needed to be fairly uncontrived and free. On the model, Zippora, I did some tonging to pump up the natural movement in her hair as it had to last all day. It did need a little twist or hyper-reality added to it to give it some drama. When this was done I grabbed the hair in random bunched sections and fixed these with butterfly clips to confuse the texture further. I applied heat and left the sections to cool. The clips were removed and the hair had an irregular wave/curl with a little random frizziness like Zippy had been running around in the woods for days.

Any key products to creating the look?
When I was tonging I applied Kms California Dry Wax to help get a better set and after the clips were removed I applied Kms California Moisturepair Revival Creme through the hair to calm it slightly to finish.