A few weeks ago, I designed the hairstyles for Celia Kritharioti’s runway show for the Madwalk Fashion Rocks event. It was a last moment assignment so I spent a week without hardly any sleep, to prepare. The combination of lack of sleep/food with inhaling massive clouds of hairspray, was hallucinations-inducing.

Initial sketches and tests.

Back at the studio, preparing enough hair for 18 girls. The lineup of models kept changing and thus, the hair colors that were required.

6am call, I fell into an assembly line trance, models sitting down, getting done, next.

I don’t remember much from that day, most of it I later saw in photos online.

18 girls in 13 hours, in a hairstyle that required 1 hour and 20 minutes, getting it down to 45 mins for each model, with the help of the assistants that my agents got for me. When it was over, I felt exactly as if I was drunk. Loved it. Fell inside a taxi and slept the way home.

[Big thanks to Giorgio Constantine and Haris Farsarakis for their awesome backstage photos, scattered in this post.]

One of those lightweight, spring-y “trends” shoots, that require nothing more than a ponytail..
For Vogue, coming out this month.

Fascinating, the level of fine craftsmanship that went into the making of these exquisite shop window mannequins. Pierre Imans in Paris and Irwin Culver in New York, early 20s. Due to the fact that they were made of vulnerable organic materials such as glass, wax, paper and human hair, so few of them survive today in good condition but I’m hell bent on acquiring one to study.

Been researching the Petitcollin dolls, made in Paris in the 50s. Strung celluloid bodies, hand painted features and mohair wigs, very light weight and with a delicious satin skin finish. More often than not, they look like children dressed up and padded up to portray adults. I like what I found under the rather exquisite [for their dime store status] outfit.

I have an extensive vintage combs collection, this type is my favorite and quite rare. You kill three birds with one stone; comb, tease and section, all in one tool. And if they’re made of lucite, I’m in lust. Ah, they don’t make them like they used to.

Researching the old ways, the best ways.