NZFW: Stephen Marr for Cybele Autumn/Winter 13

Every year at New Zealand Fashion Week the team from Stephen Marr – under the guidance of their preternaturally fabulous Creative Director, Lauren Gunn – are responsible for the Lion’s Share of the best hair on the catwalk, and their talent and creativity never ceases to amaze me.

Lauren once told me “each designer we work with has quite a different look when it comes to hair, and some are more wearable than others. All are adaptable though”, meaning that with a few easy steps their look could be transformed from the runway to the “real” way with little effort.

She has always maintained that the beauty of the salon team having long term relationships with designers – helping them solidify their identity, if you like – means that “each time we get together during the year for a show or a campaign shoot we are working on refining their style, and the hair looks that work with it”. She cites the look that her team creates for the Cybele show each year, which loosens a little for mini campaigns and lookbook shoots in terms of wearability and softness. “I suppose you could say that the work that we do for Fashion Week is very aesthetically pure and conceptual,” explains Lauren, “and then we take that and morph it into various other versions for the designers during the year. It’s important that you approach hair and make up for a show with a very strong idea in mind, to give it the drama and the wow factor that you need for a runway show.”

This year Cybele’s hair look combined a strong silhouette with quirky detail. Much like her collection for Winter 2013, the lines of the hair were clean and fluid without the stiffness of retro references. The real bang of this hair look comes in profile, with hair swept up and away from the cheekbones into a double loop and falling into a ponytail down the nape. “We tried to create a style that reflects both the otherworldly, haunting nature of Cybele’s signature print and the modernity of her collection as a whole,” said Lauren, and it’s surprisingly easy to recreate a real way look at home:

Step 1. Prep your hair by brushing through a few generous blasts of Kevin Murphy Session Spray to give it a clean static texture, split your hair into two sections, taking one section in the top, from temples to just below the crown.

Step 2. Sweep the lower section back into a ponytail, leaving a loop of hair big enough to fit two fingers, when you last pull through the tail.

Step 3. Sweep the top section into a ponytail just above the first, again leaving a loop of hair when pulling the tail through for the last time.

Step 4. Wrap a clear plastic hairband around both loops so that they become a double bun and the tails sit snugly at the nape.

Hot Tip: To get a fresh youthful finish, spritz some Kevin Murphy Texture Master in the roots of your front hairline and press it into your temples to smooth flyaways and add some shine, leave all the other wisps and wayward strands alone to do their thing.

* all photos by Jessica photography *