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LFW - following the RUSH session team
Date Added: 2010-02-26
London Fashion Week is the place for inspiring new fashion and trends, but it's also the place for the most daring and fearless hair looks around. This season Salon Business Online was lucky enough to get up close and personal with the newly-formed RUSH Session Team, who were experiencing their LFW first - being the lead on two shows on the On | Off stage. With arresting hair looks, hours of prep work and Salon Business' Web Editor hot on their heels, it's been a busy week for RUSH...
Day 1.
Its 9am on Friday morning and I’m stood round the back of a building in a loading bay somewhere near Holborn. The reason I’m here is to follow one of the hottest hair teams at London Fashion Week – RUSH. I am greeted enthusiastically by Sam Burnett, co-leader of the team. “Its freezing this morning,” he says to me through chattering teeth. Sam has worked at RUSH for ten years, starting as a junior and moving up through the ranks to managing his own salon. Co-leading the team with Sam, is Tina Farey, who, as editorial director of the Artistic Team, has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the hair world.
“We have assisted on many different shows before, but this year we are actually leading the hair for two designers.”, she says as we travel up in the service list to the On | Off backstage area. This year is a special year for RUSH, not only does the salon group continue to go from strength to strength, but the team is doing more with London Fashion Week than ever before. With Fashion TV, Ramon Gurillo, Belle Sauvage and assisting on other big shows (such as the Central Saint Martins MA event), the team are going to have their work cut out of the next few days, I’m excited to follow them.
The team starts setting up as soon as we get to the backstage area in London’s Victoria House, home this season to the On/Off shows, where new designers can showcase their work.
The backstage area consists of open brickwork, with some makeshift wood walls around us and tons of mirrors, power points and rails of clothes. Tina explains the process to me before she starts, “when we get there we set up our equipment, then we liaise with the designers, this morning the models are due to arrive at 10am”. As we walk out of the backstage area the On | Off team are shooting a video for their website, which consists of a blonde-haired model dancing energetically around the catwalk space. “ I love fashion week”, says Sam. “I came here last year and just loved the fashion and the clothes.” Tina, a veteran of LFW has a several designers which she personally follows. “ I like Lavin, Balenciaga and Gareth Pugh, ”she says.
My time following the team is set to get frantic and busy as soon as the models arrive. I start asking about the preparation involved in putting together the hair for the show.
“Tina held a meeting with everyone last week,” says Sam. “Our team consists of 4 main stylists, 2 assistant stylists and 3 assistants. The assistants need to know the sectioning patterns. One of the hair looks has a plait on one side and our assistants have been practising every night to make sure they get it right for the show. “ Sam adds.
Tina begins to talk to me about the hair look for the first show, Ramon Gurillo. “The theme is oversized knitwear. The hair is going to be very organic. It is based on an expensive look, polished on the roots area with matt products, and then,working with the knitwear, we are going to put more texture through the ends by brushing it out.”
It certainly must take a lot of planning to see what hair looks will complement the clothes featured in the designer’s collection. How did the Rush Session team end up coming up with this look for Ramon’s show?
‘Myself and Sam went along to meet Ramon. He supplied the models for us. We then did a make up and hair test. It was great to have that consultation with the designer, he was really open to ideas, which was great,” says Tina.
After a busy morning following the team around I sat down to enjoy the Ramon Gurillo show and see the hair creations come to life on the catwalk. The show was an inspiring mix of spidery open dresses, intricate loose knit weaves and chunky cardigans. The collection, entitled ‘Where the Birds Always Sing', mixes key colours like pearl grey and charcoal with red, bronze and ink blue. The collection uses fine merino wools, alpaca, llama, silks and cottons with strong cocoon-like shapes as signature silhouettes. The hair felt almost ethereal with sleek matt texture around the roots and tousled length which complimented the heavy knitwear perfectly. The make up featured heavy golden lips and simple, barely there eyes.
The RUSH Session Team
Tina Farey
Sam Burnett
Jasmine Redstone from RUSH Croydon
Andreas Hinteregger from RUSH Moorgate
Rio Sreecharan from RUSH Kings Cross
Sam Millard from RUSH Tottenham Court Road
Ben Hendry from RUSH Walton-On-Thames
Sarah Rhodes from RUSH Centrale
On | Off was created in 2003 to nuture fashion talent by offering a unique bridge between the official British Fashion Council scheduled designers and off schedule designers. L'Oréal Professionnel is the offical hair sponsor of On | Off. RUSH were invited to do these shows by L’Oréal Professionnel.
