Life on the fashion week road – 2

Paris, Wednesday 16th January 2013

Paris always throws something special into the mix and I am excited to get to work on my first show of the day, Valentino. The show isn’t until 5.30pm so we have a little more time to prepare, but that doesn’t mean croissants and croque-monsieurs for the team. Valentino is showing in Paris for the first time and precedes the labels first dedicated men’s store to be opened in the near future, so the pressure to impress is on us. Hair is kept short at the back and sides with groomed sharp partings – a continuing trend that I know my clients back home will be pleased with.

Raf Simons With Valentino a success we head to Raf Simons for the final show of the day. As I sit in the car racing through the streets of Paris I begin to experience a mid-fashion-week lull, but when we arrive backstage the atmosphere is electric that any feeling of fatigue is soon swept away. This had to be one of my favourite shows as it was so much fun to create. Using various thicknesses of straighteners hair was styled to resemble lattice plywood and swept into side partings, which was both original and playful and worked brilliantly with Simons’s eccentric collection. Still on a high from the show, I struggle to sleep, but with Louis Vuitton tomorrow I’ve got to be on top form – one sheep, two sheep, three sheep…..

Thursday 17th January 2013

I eventually dropped off to sleep in the early hours of the morning, but am up early for Vuitton today feeling sharp and rearing to go. With a Himalayan mountain as the backdrop to the catwalk, Louis Vuitton, as always, is putting on a show to be remembered and hair has to be as impeccable as the collection. Side-partings rule the day once again, but worn looser and with a distinct aristocratic feel and the pretty-boy models remind me of dashing, sophisticated gentleman explorers in elegant smoking jackets, tuxedos and trenches.