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ere to begin? When it comes to the look we saw evolving at Vivienne Westwood Red Label, we’re a bit lost for words. There was simply too much to take in. And Mark Hampton of Toni & Guy Hair Meet Wardrobe, the man responsible for creating 30 different hair looks, agreed. “Today is hard to explain,” he said. “The girl is ultimately a bit of a punk, she’s a rebel, but that’s where the inspiration finishes. Every [model] is getting her own look.” Luckily for Hampton, he had a little help from the designer’s vast history. “Some of these looks you’ve seen before,” he explained. “A lot of it is out of the archives, but we’re really working with the character of each girl and then deciding here and now whether they get some kind of quirky topknot with a parting down the back of the head, or maybe a mohawk constructed from a plait.” (Perhaps the multiple references to the past had something to do with the anticipated release of Dame Viv’s personal memoir.)
It was a similar story on the other side of the room, where makeup artist Val Garland said, “We have 30 individuals here, and with Vivienne Westwood it’s always extraordinary, never ordinary. We’re working with completely bare faces—no foundation, nothing—and then we’re adding one idea to each face.” From tire tracks to arched, Marilyn-esque eyebrows to blobs of green slime, there was no shortage of imagination backstage.
Marian Newman’s manicures were just as off-the-cuff as the hair and makeup. “I’m really looking at each girl’s nails and seeing what would suit them. I’ve left some nails completely bare simply because they already look great,” she explained. “Otherwise, some have banana press-ons, some have one of the MAC Nail Transformations over white polish, and some have diamond-like appliqués. I’m deciding as I go—I love working like this!”
