Backstage glances
Making Fashion Week models picture perfect is the job of the army of hairstylists, makeup artists and manicurists who work backstage at the fashion shows each season.
With a couple of dozen models to prepare for the catwalk, it’s a chaotic scene as technicians wield blowdryers and brushes, and apply lipstick and eyeshadow. A model often has a couple of people working on her at once.
Included in the backstage battalion at many shows for the fall-winter shows was Matthew Morris of Denver, a salon owner who’s also enjoying newfound celebrity as a contestant on the Bravo TV show “Shear Genius.” Morris has worked at the shows before and says it’s a professional highlight. This time around, he did shows for Aveda and also worked with individual designers.
His favorite shows this season? Not those by new or avant garde designers, but a couple of old timers: Carolina Hererra and Oscar de la Renta. Herrera, he said was “super polished and couture-like to go with the formfitting dresses.” Oscar had “beautiful curls and waves,” a la 1970s socialites or Jessica Rabbit.
These styles were in stark contrast to the prevailing look of the shows – a messy, tousled style which Morris described as “real girl hair – like you went to bed and just got up the next morning and walked out the door.” Funny that such an unkempt look requires so much hairdressing.
Matthew’s rising star in the industry is gaining the notice of industry heavyweights like Orlando Pita, who invited Morris for a private tour in his New York studio of the archives of styles he has created for major fashion collections and photography layouts. “It was like going behind the curtain on ‘The Wizard of Oz,’” Morris says.