Frederic Fekkai for Marchesa Fall Winter 2010 Presentation

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Wednesday February 17th, 2010 – Chelsea Art Museum

With all the focus on the clothes, bags and shoes this New York Fashion Week, most people often overlook two key accessories that can leave editors either loving or hating a collection: hair and makeup. But with the fashion bar set so high at the latest Marchesa Fall Winter 2010 show, it would take legendary coiffeur Frédéric Fekkai to deliver the “cirque chic” style that Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig had in mind when they created their latest collection.

Backstage at the Marchesa show, we met up with Lead HairStylist Renato Campora from the Fekkai group and watched as he and his team worked on teasing, brushing and dry shampoing a bevy of models. By the 7th day of fashion week, many of these models‘ don’t even remember what their original hair looked like much less be able to tame it after all the abuse it’s gone through. But little by little, we watched Renato Campora as he took some of the most disheveled sets of hair we’ve seen and transform it into an effortlessly tousled, bouclé, and courtesan coiffure.

As he explained it to us, the technique is somewhat simple but the result is pure glamour. He first used the Frederic Fekkai Coiff Extra Control Styling Gel to restore manageability to the model’s hair, which he then followed with a simple wash and blow dry process. Then he added the secret ingredient necessary to get that hay-like, matte feel to the hair –  Frederic Fekkai Au Naturel Dry Shampoo.

Now I know that you’re probably thinking to yourself “I don’t want to seem stupid here but what the heck is dry shampoo and how do you even use it?” Well, that’s at least what I thought at first, until I saw it being used on the model and understood what it can do. Using the Frederic Fekkai Au Naturel Dry Shampoo, Renato peppered the model’s hair, brushing it into the strands, helping to build hair volume but yet give it a matte finish as well. He then teased the hair, wrapped back the middle strands around pencil-shaped tin foils that were later bent to hold everything in place. He then repeated this process 4-5 times around the entire head, checking to see that everything looked semi-symmetrical. His assistant then took to using a flat iron on the curls, for 30 seconds each, to give it that final curly dimension.

After adding the Frederic Fekkai Sheer Hold Hairspray to the top ensemble, a loose back braid was created & tied with a black bow to compliment the Marchesa look. But the Fekkai hair styling technique wouldn’t be complete without final attention to the proportion of the hair to the face. Renato looked at the model’s faces from every which way to make sure the hair was ‘just right’, sometimes even redoing 30 minutes worth of curls just to make sure it was balanced.

If you just stepped into the backstage room right before show time, you’d think the building was on fire and the exits were all sealed. But amidst the chaos, you saw two camps take strands of hair and thread to form one cohesive oeuvre d’art. Curious to see the result? Check below for images on how the looks turned out (and you’re curious and have no plans this weekend, well…you now have something to try out).

Get the Look – Hair: All products by Frederic Fekkai. Renato Campora used Frederic Fekkai Au Naturel Dry Shampoo to make hair full and dry, and add texture. He also used Frederic Fekkai Coiff Extra Control Styling Gel for hold. Then Renato used the Frederic Fekkai Sheer Hold Hairspray to the top ensemble, a loose back braid was created & tied with a black bow

Get the Look – Makeup: All products by Le Métier de Beauté. On lips, Talia Shobrook used Miami Lipstick under Bali-Or-Kona lipstick, which was blotted in the center. On eyes, she used a bluish-green shadow called Blue Steel and then mixed it with a new product called Magic, which was used all over the face.

Find exclusive Frederic Fekkai Hair Care Collection via Fekkai.com, via Nordstrom.com, and via Bloomingdales.com

See our pictures below: