Wild hair at Westwood

It was all about light and shadow when it came to the make-up at Vivienne Westwood Red Label. Mac's Gordon Espinet played with creating shadows and highlighting parts of the face to mimic light hitting the face from one side. His trick to get the luminous skin was to mix Face and Body in white with equal parts of C1 or C2 and Strobe highlighter. Hairdresser Peter Gray talked through the polaroid board, explaining how the look evolved. He was all about the texture - he wanted to get hair the texture of mohair, challenging the idea that only smooth, silky hair is desirable. So after prepping with Tec Ni Art Volume Architect at the roots and Playball Texture Tonic through the midlengths, hair was messily backcombed ('like a client would do it," he said!) and curled without brushing it through then tucked up into exaggerated shapes. But it still felt soft like mohair. Out front, everyone had to budge up to accommodate Janet Jackson, but like a game of fashion musical chairs, that left Ke$ha and pal without a seat, so they stormed out. But a PR chased after them, swapped a few seats around and everyone could sit down and admire Gordon and Peter's expert work. Oh, and the clothes of course!

Model image: vogue.co.uk

Alex Box & Lyndell Mansfield at Hannah Marshall.

Backstage at Hannah Marshall's London show was pretty cramped and hectic as you can see from these pictures, but that didn't stop Alex Box and hairdresser Lyndell Mansfield coming up with this stunning look. The theme was based around cult 80s director Jean Paul Goude with a Grace Jones influence, so Lyndell came up with using wig nets to create a flat-top, square shape to the top of the hair (Grace Jones' trademark) combined with a soft, textured ponytail that would move as the models walked - I'm no runway photographer, but I think this shot gives you an idea of how that worked. She explained that the ponytail by itself is something you could do yourself. She backcombed the hair, then clamped down on it, using L'Oreal Professionel Tec Ni Art Hot Style Constructor to create a mass of soft, static hair. For the make-up, Alex Box created a dramatic lip by using Mac Pro Lip Mix in Blue blended with Lip Mix in Black to reflect the velvety textures of the clothes. She cleverly changed the contours of the face, extending taupe shadow up over the brows and out at the sides, sculpting their cheeks and adding silvery highlighter, making the models look ethereal and otherworldly. Not exactly a look for down the pub, but a fantastic showcase of her skills.