Stevie English – Behind the Scenes
On Monday I had the privilege of being invited to the set of the Stevie English Australian Hair Fashion Awards shoot at their Glebe salon. The AHFA’s are held annually and celebrate Australia’s talent in the fields of hairdressing and make-up artistry and with entries closing on 6th November there was no time to lose!
Being designed with the environment in mind Steve’s salon epitomizes eco street style from its funky décor and visionary staff through to the choice in high performance yet thoroughly green product ranges – O&M and Kevin Murphy. So it was that on a wet and chilly spring morning the tongues, defusers and bobby pins came out.
Game on!
The salons art director Verity ran the shoot making sure that her styles were impeccable and that the models were not bothered by us “other bodies” on set. With what seemed like tens of styles to create, make-up to check and lighting to fix I began to think that there must be two of her. Steve, having done his bit the night before and first thing this morning (as chief colourist) was having fun feeding the troops and recording proceedings for his blog. Grey was chosen as the colour theme – a shade not usually renowned for its beauty but transformed by the addition of some strategically placed Green, Violet, Blue and Black shading.
So, let’s meet some more of the team.
Georgie, Zoe, Naomi and Ruby were there other stylists on set and were carefully following Verity’s direction to transform the grey bobs into something sexy, dramatic and edgy. All are regular stylists at the salon and are well known for their attention to detail and skill.
The makeup artist for the day was freelancer Joel who would like nothing better than to be whisked away to Paris to work on the Italian edition of Vogue Magazine. He was putting his brushes to good use creating a look that was more edgy than traditional beauty yet still “mainstream” so as not to overpower the hair. Raquel assisted, keeping her head down painting nails and spotting the hair during shooting.
Andy and Dave from Andrew Goldie Photography were the photographers capturing some amazing shots of the girls under difficult circumstances (it was cold and the audience were a little off-putting!) These guys are masters of Beauty photography!
Hollie the first year student was on set to observe, take notes and assist with the styling and the models (Britney, Sophie, Britney, Carla, Clemency and Meg) who were all fabulous were provided by Chadwicks modeling agency.
So, when do we find out if they won? The finalists are due to be notified by 14th December but as the competition isn’t drawn until April, we may be in for a nail biting few months. I loved the looks that were created and have to say that my favorite was the one inspired by what Margret Thatcher hair might have looks like after having a good time in the back of a taxi! Then the purple curly one was great too. All I can say is as Grey is THE ‘hot’ new colour at Chanel I am sure that it will bring on gold for the salon.
Realize Beauty 