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Backstage Fashion Week Adrenaline & Evolution Under Pressure
An Account with Hairsmith’s Deborah Dominic
Deborah DominicMy biggest motivator in life is pressure. Put me in intense situations, and I fly. I run a salon with 10 employees, yes. I have a five-year-old daughter, yes. Plans for world domination and an event & education list as long as my arm, yes - but those are my daily life.
My favourite day in the salon is a manic Saturday; I simply adore the multitude of weddings. I work on location every year in far-flung destinations with bridal parties bigger than some villages & twice a year I like to put myself under the most immense pressure ever and work backstage as a session stylist for fashion week. We all know that fashion week is THE highlight in the fashion calendar. The glamour is immeasurable & everyone wants to see or be seen attending shows & sitting FROW.
Backstage is a whole other world. Models, designers, hair stylists, makeup artists, choreographers, dressers, photographers, videographers, agency members, PR members, organisers, sponsors - all in one room prepping like their lives depended upon it. All to make the show happen. Models arrive in jeans & trainers, no makeup and a topknot. They walk onto the runway transformed.
We spend 30 minutes with some models, sometimes longer working hair, retouching hair after makeup, fittings or rehearsals. We hold hands with the nervous ones and share lunch with the laid-back seasoned ones.
There are unwritten rules of working backstage; images of designs must not escape prior to the show, you treat everyone with respect, if your work isn’t 1000% where it needs to be, it must be taken down and done again, no questions, you must have every piece on your equipment list and must never be late to call time. Session hair must be executed fast and immaculately as the designer’s show will be photographed and undoubtedly published worldwide. Once upon a time, these pictures would be released the next day. Often now shows are online almost immediately after they have closed, and to a worldwide audience.
Deborah DominicThe pressure on the designers is, of course, immense and the backstage atmosphere is electric. No egos from those contributing to the show are brought over the doorway. There is no time for panic, worry, ego, indecision or doubt as everyone is working together to make it happen and fast. The pressure forces you to focus on your tasks in hand and nothing else. As a busy woman with multiple facets, my time backstage becomes purely about that one thing and it is quite liberating. These shows are exhausting but unify those stylists and contributors with pure passion for being creative. We are not seen or part of the show, we just love that we have helped create its final result.
I’ve worked for numerous seasons backstage with my brand partner Label.m, who are this year celebrating 15 years as an official hair care sponsor for London Fashion Week. In that time, I’ve won an industry award through them for my passion and dedication within the industry including being part of the backstage session team.
I’ve worked for big designers, and I’ve worked for those starting out. I’ve been paid handsomely for some and funded myself for others purely because I wanted to be on the team. Possibly the most intense show was flying to Milan and back in a day to complete a show with over 60 models in 30 plus degree heat! I’ve met and built lasting relationships with fellow stylists from all over the country. We work together time & time again on various creative projects and wonderfully we as a community recommend each other for work and events. Fashion can sometimes be described as fickle, but the relationships built behind the scenes are anything but.
Deborah DominicOf course, this year we have had the world turned upside down with a devastating pandemic, and whilst our industry all remains in conversation, many events and fashion dates were seemingly cancelled or reduced. Fears for the industry and the way it works were indeed widely publicised, but designers have overcome by taking their collections digital and it doesn’t stop there. Malan Breton created a digital show with hair by international art director Phillip Haug (part of the session team I work backstage with for Label.m), and the results were breathtakingly beautiful. The hair test was created in real life by the art director and then transformed into the model avatar.
I didn’t get to work in the backstage merry-go-round that I crave, but I did get a chance to stand quietly and observe imagery online. The results are futuristic and breathtakingly serene, but I can’t help wondering how much glorious & exciting high octane still went on behind the scenes to produce it. The beauty of fashion - always evolving.