Diary of a session stylist: london fashion week autumn/winter 2011 with gary gill

Gary Gill is the Creative Director of Monroe Hairdressing and the winner of numerous awards. His editorial work has featured in American Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Vanity Fair, ID and GQ Style. He has styled celebrities including Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse and his show work includes Louis Vuitton and Julien Macdonald.

At London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2011, Gary worked on the Christopher Raeburn show.

Initial Meeting

At the stylist/designer meeting we ran through the concept of the show, which is to be held in an old disused tube station. We looked at the designer's collection and did some rough drawings for the hair, which after discussion the designer liked and then I did an on the spot test on the stylist's assistant, to give a rough feel of how it would look.

Hair Test

Today I got to meet up both with the designer and make-up artist, Natsumi Watanabe. Christopher's designs have a military feel and so I wanted the hairstyle to reflect this and keep it quite sleek but maintaining beauty. I decided to put the hair in a side parting, with a scalp braid down the parting, smoothing the hair down and secured at the back into a flat, rough roll.

Christopher and Stylist Harris Elliott loved the sleek look and the braid, but felt the back was too soft, so I changed this to be smoother and more controlled. I wanted to incorporate Christopher's design into the hair so we cut up a cap to make a pattern for him to make peaks for a sexy military feel.

After this I developed the hairstyle further for a sharper look, turning the scalp braid into a cornrow and did this from back to front and plaited the remainder which I ran back down the cornrow and secured. The back developed into a tight twisted S shaped roll. 

With the boys, we all agreed rather quickly to keep it sharp with military inspired cuts leaving maximum length on the top where possible.

Christopher Raeburn AW/11 Presentation 

My team backstage - Daniel Martin, Mirka Hajdova, Mariesa Ferraro, Leanna Sutherland and Brooke Neilson - were amazing, focused but relaxed and we had a great team togetherness and understanding, which for me is imperative.

We had 4 boys and 4 girls and cut all the boys first. On the girls, I did a demo, which everyone followed to the letter. The girls' style looked simple but was technical and intricate to do, so we worked in pairs.  My hero product for today was Wella Professionals Shimmer Delight which we sprayed on at the end on all the models and brushed over with a make-up brush to achieve a really high shine finish.

As always with LFW, it starts off calm and culminates in a manic frenzy to get all the models finished on schedule! One model arrived late from another show where she had a hairdryer dropped on her head and lots of product in her hair from the previous show. After a lot of TLC, a sandwich and all hands on deck, we had her ready and raring to go with just a minute to spare!