After my interview with Holly Silius on my previous post, I am now holding a competition for a reader to win a pair of Holly Silius lashes and a night at The Box in Soho, London for the launch of Holly’s new eyelashes line. If you want to win, just answer the following question!
Who was film director John Waters’ muse?
A ) Julianne Moore
B ) Divine
C ) Zoë Irwin
Send your answers to zoenicolairwin@googlemail.com
The party will be in March. I will let you know the date shortly!
Holly Silius is a make-up artist with a difference. She has taken an incredibly creative concept and made it into a business. ASOS and Urban Outfitters have taken on her range of lashes and now her nail line will no doubt have the same huge success. Shimmer Twins – Treasure Lashes are so unique and current but Holly makes them sound so simple. When we met on a shoot, she reignited my passion for the new so much that I immediately picked up on a project to design hair accessories with the jeweller Maria Black that I had been procrastinating on. She’s the type of girl you meet and want to be her friend: she makes everything fun and possible. I asked Holly if I could take a peek into her make-up box and her head!
Zoë Irwin: How did you become a make-up artist?
Holly Silius: I became a make-up artist primarily because of my love and flair for the arts, which I studied all the way through school and at A-level. I loved painting, making sculptures and the idea of art on the body and face, as well as it being active. I studied Art at college and pursued a degree in Special Effects Make-up at London College of Fashion. I then worked across film, TV and theatre but concentrated on fashion and music – that’s where most of the creativity is.
ZI: What led you to launch your own lashes range?
HS: I launched my lashes Shimmer Twins – Treasures Lashes because I’d made some lashes out of peacock feathers for a party I was going to and some for Jaime Winstone for a music video we were doing. After that I got lots of requests to make bespoke ones for friends going to festivals, parties and events. I then got to use them for a new American rapper called Kreayshawn for the cover of iD.
ZI: How did the lashes end up on the cover of i-D?
HS: I was booked to work with Kreayshawn for a possible cover shoot, so I whipped out the lashes and asked if they wanted to use them: Kreayshawn and the team loved them.
ZI: What was the hardest part of launching your own range?
HS: The business side of things: the organisation, the legalities, the paperwork, the packing, the constant emails and the never-ending complications! Basically the boring stuff – it’s not just about designing and getting the product out there. There is a whole other side that I didn’t even know existed, if I had known I may not have even started this whole thing but there’s no going back!
ZI: Where are they available to buy?
HS: You can buy them online at ASOS, Urban Outfitters, Claudia Pink Boutique and at Hula Nails on Brick Lane in East London. Hula Nails is also selling 150 pairs of the limited edition i-D multi-star lashes, too.
ZI: What’s your favourite pair of lashes?
HS: Oh God… maybe the Peacock – but that’s not even been perfected, let alone become available – or maybe the Twiggy or the Red Hearts. I don’t know: I love them all!
ZI: Can offer a few tips in applying lashes?
HS: I always apply a black line to the base of the lash line to stop a gap appearing from real lash line to fake lash line. Let the glue go tacky and apply with the eye looking down but not completely shut – the lash will settle and lie better.
ZI: What night-time pursuits do you enjoy?
HS: I love raving and dancing. I don’t do it as much now as I have to get up to answer emails from factories about eyelashes! I go to all sorts of places from East London warehouses and tranny drag parties to Dalston cul-de-sacs, The Box in Soho and Shoreditch House. The most fun party I went to recently was with some male ballerina friends to Dalston Superstore. I didn’t even know I was going to go out, let alone stay out – I had too much fun to even think about leaving! It was all about pink prosecco and ’80s grooves. My first time at The Box club was with a shoe designer friend, the Lucy in Disguise crew and Jaime Winstone. I don’t remember whipping my Addicted to Love-inspired ponytail around like a mentalist or losing all my belongings, but I’m told I had fun…
ZI: What kind of things you love to take snaps of?
HS: I have got so many images of shoots I’ve done and beautiful jewellery pieces I’ve seen, as well as graffiti, crazy nails, places I have visited and anything inspirational or obscure.
ZI: Who inspires you?
HS: The actor Divine, performance artist Leigh Bowery, Topolino magazine and the photographer David LaChapelle. Also my dreams – I wake up and sketch what I’ve dreamt!
ZI: Can you tell us your favourite products?
HS: I love…
Images of Scarlett Johansson on the Late Show with David Letterman and at the We Bought a Zoo film premiere with a ’50s-inspired hairstyle have appeared everywhere – one newspaper ran images of the style shot from every angle. It looks incredible and will encourage lots of clients to ask for the same. In my vintage styling books, this style is comparable to a ’50s pompadour. The front section replicates the quiff, while the sides are in tight ’40s victory rolls. The pompadour was sported by any stylish man of the ’50s and took its name from Madame de Pompadour, a member of the French court and mistress to Louis XV!
Rita Hayworth wears this look in the 1944 film Covergirl. It seems that if you are a hairstylist trained in a different era, certain styles can seem so difficult to work out how to do, especially when they were styled on movie stars and singers by session stylists that specialise in film – many have no training in these skills.
I trained in the ’80s, so I am fabulous at cutting a Gary Numan or a new romantic-inspired shape, but the glamorous styles of the ’40s and ’50s are quite alien to me. So I’ve purchased many books on period hairstyles and these have helped so much. The photographs in the books have often disappointed me as they have seemed over-sprayed and unpolished, but then I realised that this was from the way they had been shot: in my old film books the images were just shot in a flattering soft focus! So I take the techniques, section patterns and curl direction and make it my own. The best book on this is Vintage Hairstyling by Lauren Rennels – you can get the method from this and easily learn that Scarlett Johansson style.
Number two on my list of favourite books is The Hair Bible by Philip Kingsley. It is clear, concise and covers subjects like scalp problems, grey hair and hair nutrition. I have always recommended to every stylist that I work with that they should buy it and keep it close by. Clients ask so many questions whilst they are having their hair styled and this book gives accurate and easy-to-understand answers. I have often overheard stylists struggling to answer questions like, “why does my hair go grey?” Although the stylist does know the answer, they have struggled to explain why to their client. It has so many fascinating facts and also has the final word on the many hilarious hair myths that fly around.
This book is the perfect reference for those unanswerable questions and in my hair world Philip Kingsley is most definitely a God.
Keep an eye out for this beautiful documentary about the extraordinary veteran New York Times fashion photographer. It’s a bittersweet story about a man who loves fashion and the city he lives in. Every self-respecting fashion blogger and street photographer owes a huge debt of gratitude to the man who has been documenting the way we dress for more than 40 years. I bet you wish your grandpa was like him!
So far, no release is scheduled for the UK, but here’s a clip to tease you!
In Broadway market in East London I often visit Our Patterned Hand, a wonderful fabric and haberdashery shop. It has fluoro and check ribbons and elastic in many colours. I collect elastic to match hair colours, like vanilla for blondes and all shades of brown, but also some fun colours! It is useful to carry a bag of ribbons and thread – I have recently been sewing hair up instead of pinning it. I use a large haberdashery needle and elastic to make a simple running stitch and tie it at the end. As you pull on the section it gathers the hair up and is so easy for the model or client to undo. I have also been cornrowing sections of the scalp and sewing into this as a base for my stitching. Usually I cornrow the nape of the neck and sew into this to create neat shapes.
When I shop in Our Patterned Hand I always find something wonderful to use, although I am often beaten to it by session stylist Kenna, as his salon and workspace is opposite! This week I picked up some gold-coloured elastic that I have never seen before.
Large department stores also have haberdashery departments that hold a wide range of elastics – it is so worth keeping a box of such things in the salon or in your kit.
Fashions in Hair: The First Five Thousand Years by Richard Corson
When I review my favourite hair books this always comes in at number one. It’s the book that I have seen used the most in fashion hair. When I worked assisting Guido it was used as a reference on many shows, including Alexander McQueen where it was used for shapes and silhouettes. I have lent it out to actresses in period dramas and theatre to take to their stylists, and its uses in editorial work are endless. It can be an inspiration to looks and styles, but for me it’s most helpful as a reference for shoots and shows.
It was first published in the ‘60s and is a comprehensive historical survey of men’s and women’s hairstyles through the ages. It gives you details of how the hair was constructed and, for the trend-obsessed among us, it analyses the fashion in their social context, which is fascinating.
I tweeted pictures from it recently when I realised the men I saw in London Fields were all wearing their facial hair inan 1840s’ style and so I used pictures from the book to illustrate. I was immediately tweeted by a few journalists for a quote, so in this way the book has helped me give more accurate quotes for magazines and newspapers.
It now has additions from Caroline Cox, the fashion historian who I secretly want to be, well it’s a pretty open secret! She is the incredible historian that works with Vidal Sassoon and teaches on the Project X course.
Decades of Fashion by Harriet Worsley
This compact book comes with me in my session kit. It contains hundreds of wonderful photographs of 20th century fashion from the catwalk, the street and from film. It’s a complete bargain at £9.99 – I cannot imagine my cost per use as it is one of my most read books! It contains so many iconic images and is divided into years that come with explanations of the period, as a hair reference book it is incredible. The author is a teacher at Central Saint Martins and a great fashion journalist. It has also appeared in The Independent’s 10 best fashion books. Adore!
A few years ago, I did a shoot for L’Oréal with Luke and Daniel Hersheson and I was impressed to see their luxurious session kitbag. Instead of using Screenface or Muji bags favoured by most session stylists, their kit was made up of Louis Vuitton pieces to hold their brushes and pins.
Since then I have kept my own styling kit in a mixture of coloured bags and cases that I change every six months. I prefer Marc Jacobs as the bags come in many sizes and can be washed easily. Liberty has a range of see-through cosmetic bags in fluorescent tones that brighten up the kit beautifully. But this season I have pimped my kit with a Christopher Kane Neon leather bag that is laser-cut and made me swoon when I saw it in Grazia.
I bought two, so I could take one out as a clutch bag. It is such a bright pop of colour – it looks amazing and makes people smile. The other one is in my kit to hold elastics and ribbons.
Why not put your salon kit in a clutch bag? With pages and pages of vintage bags on Ebay, it’s easy now to find something unique to pull out your brushes from pre-blow out!
Jameela Jamil is the new face of nails inc. It’s a perfect link-up as she is an icon for the brand’s key customers and her style is documented in endless newspapers and magazines. I adore her look – it’s completely individual and a mix of vintage, high street and designer.
I have cut Jameela’s hair for the last few years. Although she usually cuts her fringe in between, she is an expert at it and has made the shape her own, she knows exactly where it needs to fall. Also, she has perfected the art of washing her fringe without touching her makeup, and freshens it up like this during a shoot or throughout the day, which keeps it always really full and bouncy.
I styled her hair for the nails inc campaign and beauty shoots and I kept her hair very much like her everyday style. Her hair is super long and thick, so I layer products throughout to keep a glossy, luxe feel. I use Shu Uemura Essence Absolue through the mid-lengths and ends as it gets completely absorbed into the hair, keeping it light and fresh but it’s still super-nourishing. Then I use ghd Style Root lift spray and ghd Style Curl Hold, which I blow-dry in with a medium round bristle brush and pin up each section to cool. I tease up all the roots as I take each section down with a teasing brush and spray hairspray into my hands and shape it.
It is one of the best blow-outs I get to do as it’s super-satisfying! We exchange stories and giggle throughout, she turns up at the shoots with suitcases of clothes and hats and jewellery and I get to watch her put her looks together. She’s inspired me to collect more vintage and mix-up styles from my wardrobe.
There is a video from the shoot below. It’s interesting to see her take on the new nails inc colours, as well as the insane new metallic nail effect.
http://www.nailsinc.com/jameela-jamil
I love, love, love this! Shot by David Sims, the beautifully quirky Saskia de Brauw is the model. The Zara looks are 70s-inspired and feminine frills are made boyishly chic with this super-wantable, got to have it haircut. Thank you Zara for shooting a soft, cute cut that when placed on billboards has the power to inspire so many women to want a new shape. I so want to look like this.
I buy so many books on hair and beauty. I have collected hair books by stylists from all over the world for many years and I use them for teaching and in my own work.
Techniques vary so much from country to country, so you can pick up new ways and tips that specialise in different areas of hair. I buy books from American hairdressers for tips on celebrity red carpet styling, Italian stylists for intricate braiding and setting, and antique books for finger waves and Marcel waves techniques.
To save you time, I thought it would be a useful to feature some of my favourites. So many of the books I have bought have been good, but I’ve also got hold of some terrible ones – mainly because a cover or title has drawn me in. I usually buy from Amazon as some books are hard to find in bookshops, but now I mostly use the library. The library system is so good – I just go online and order the titles I want and they are delivered to my local library. It allows me to get anything that I am interested in. But I also go to the library just to sift through, as this often leads me to something that I would not normally have thought of.
This week I came away with the Vidal: The Autobiography, which I cannot believe I did not read sooner. It is funny, inspirational and the perfect read when your client is driving you mad, your feet are sore and you’re wondering just why you chose this craft! It shows how magical the world of hair can be and where it can lead you in life.
I also picked up Mahogany Hairdressing from 1997 and found a cutting technique by Richard Thompson that has been used on all of my clients this week. It’s genius.
Antique fashion books are used constantly in fashion as designers pull things from the past and remix them into something new, but in hair it has only been with session stylists that I have seen this use of books from the past.
On my course at Central Saint Martins I was taken to many shops, most of which I had not come across before. Our tutor knew the owners and so we were given a talk about the inspiration and passions behind each store. One of my favourites is The Darkroom, it is so beautifully put together by the owners. It’s a new concept on Lamb’s Conduit Street, London WC1, curated with an eclectic mix of high-end fashion, interior and lifestyle accessories, alongside bi-monthly art and sculpture exhibitions. It has won several awards already and was asked to do a pop-up shop in Paris last year in Bon Marché. I left with many items but it is worth going to view just to take in the design. If I were putting together a salon I would take inspiration from the layout and style, particularly the use of colour. The Darkroom website is also very good but you really must visit the store.
http://www.darkroomlondon.com/
trend noun
1 general tendency or direction.
2 fashion; mode.
So where does a trend come from and how do we spot it?
This is my fascination and it has driven my hairdressing career like nothing else. What I find most interesting is the street styles that come up as if from nowhere. In the last year, the British brand Barbour has doubled, maybe even tripled, sales of its wax jackets. It was something not driven by the brand but from the streets of London. Such was the increase in sales that Barbour itself investigated where this trend came from. The company found out there was a group of mainly black men that were being seen on the streets wearing the Liddesdale jacket, a quilted jacket from the classics range. The Arctic Monkeys started to wear Barbour, as did fellow musicians Mr Hudson & The Library.
At this point, Barbour invited Mr Hudson to the factory in the North East and to press days. Maybe Alexa Chung went out with her boyfriend Alex Turner’s jacket on, or maybe it was her own, but at this point she was snapped at Glastonbury in the jacket and in turn so was Fearne Cotton and Kate Moss. One of the designers Andrea Freeman then worked on a collaboration with Anya Hindmarch and other exciting designers that are yet to be released. Sales are up, the brand is getting bigger and the whole thing was entirely organic. The power of a trend from the streets of London, this one is called a Heritage Trend.
I’m watching this with hair trends too as I walk around and sketch and snap, I will post a few soon. But I am writing this in a pine forest in Dalaman, Turkey, as I am on a Bikram Yoga retreat. I learnt about Barbour from an inspirational woman that I sat with at dinner, she used to work there and now is starting her own label. In between backbends and half-moon poses, I was also lucky enough to meet Helen Storey. But more of that later!
My first week of study began with the Cool Hunting course at Central Saint Martins. To focus on a subject for a period of time with expert instruction is so important. It was liberating and inspirational, having many tasks to do as well as homework was challenging. The assignments that I was given throughout the course opened my mind to so many things that I now carry with me in my day-to-day work. We walked around galleries and had lectures from curators that gave an insight into the art world I would never be able to access alone. My favourite part of the course was the exhibitions.
But most of the course was on the streets of London, so I learnt just as much walking to them, as I was looking through the eyes of a Global Trend spotter. The Victoria Miro held my favourite exhibition, of Chantal Joffe paintings, whose complex, fictional portrayals of heroines engage with key moments in literature, painting and feminist history. From my years working as a session stylist responsible for taking inspiration from designers with artists references, I began to wonder how I would interpret this artist in my work as I walked around. I visited 10 galleries, bookshops and photography exhibitions as well as cake shops and boutiques. I perhaps learnt just as much from seeing London through the eyes of the other 15 students, as I was the only British woman. I watched as they changed their personal style throughout the week. It was interesting to see their take on London trends.
As a hairstylist I feel it was one of the most important courses that I have taken, from the teachers to studying itself. As a creative director, it is something that I would encourage my team to do.
When in East…
Here are some of my favourite galleries:
Between Bridges: 223 Cambridge Heath Road, E2
Matt’s Gallery: 42-44 Copperfield Road, E3
Chisenhale Gallery: 64 Chisenhale Road, E3
Seventeen Gallery: 17 Kingsland Road, E2
Flowers East: 82 Kingsland Road, E2
I have been hoping to study at Central St. Martins for 10 years, ever since I set foot in the school with the L’Oréal creative team to work on the hair for student shows. I’ve attended a few different colleges in the past 10 years to help with aspects of my career. I went to voice classes for three months when I was doing hair seminars to help me project my voice to large audiences; and I went to French school for a year when I joined L’Oréal to be able to understand more about the brand. Central St. Martins teaches courses that range from a few days to years.
As a creative consultant and having put ideas out there continually, it was time to replenish the pot! To sit in a classroom with students from all over the world to listen, absorb and be inspired. Central St. Martins does this and so much more. And so my 18 months of study have begun and I have decided to take many aspects of creative direction to focus on. When studying the course brochure for the first time I realised that I wanted to do 10 courses! My first four are the most directly linked to my everyday job. Cool Hunting Fashion, a course run by global trend predictors; Luxury Branding; Contemporay Collage; and Fashion Journalism. And so I spent my first week at Central St.Martins on the Cool Hunting Fashion course.
I felt that the occasion deserved a fashion-inspired school kit and so I purchased a Comme Des Garçon pencil case and agonised over my first day outfit. What do you wear to the school that trained fashion geniuses Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney? I have often taken photos of the students outside and so the night before my first day almost my entire wardrobe was waded through to put together my outfit! In my next post I shall tell you the highlights of my incredible week.
I just came back from a trip to Lanzarote with the amazing Urban Outfitters team to shoot their summer collection.
I have been working with them recently and they are so much fun! They have re-ignited my urban topknot hair obsession, but most of all they’ve changed the way I think about putting my looks together. We rose at 4am to start the hair and make-up and catch the sunrise on the beach, and kept ourselves amused with multi-layered outfits that took us from the freezing morning to the scorching midday sun.
I thought I would share some of our pictures with you in a photo diary that was shot by Zoe Newsome from Urban.
When in Paris I always visit the Cyra Lydo shop, which is crammed full of brushes and pins and all sorts of hairdressing equipment. It is right at the top of Passage de l’Industrie, the street where you’ll find all the wig and beauty and hairdressing supply shops.
I usually stock up with enough pins to last me a year – I take along an extra case to carry them in! They’re not only very reasonably priced, you’d be hard pushed to find anything like them in England. I find them to be stronger and they come in more colour tones.
I also buy brushes, mainly the very slim dressing brushes that I call “The Kitten”. The bristles really smooth the hair and I give them away to all the women whom I style for red carpet events – in the same way a make-up artist would leave them with the lipstick they have used. The brushes are the perfect size for a clutch bag and as they are shaped in the same way as a pintail comb, they are incredibly useful for lifting and teasing the style through the night!
I also stock up on hair sponges as they come in the super size that is never available in England. When I worked at the catwalk shows I was always sent to Cyra Lydo to buy equipment en masse!
My favourite memory of this store came on the day of an Alexander McQueen show, when we coloured the models’ hair copper a few hours pre-show. I was sent in McQueen’s beautiful chauffeur-driven car, which waited outside while I brought 50 shades of copper and red. These were then mixed and layered onto the girls until McQueen declared himself happy with the results!
I also buy hair slides and combs.
If you go to Paris it is so worth a trip there.
Cyra Lydo
25/27 bd de Strasbourg
75010
Paris
Nearest Metro: Strasbourg St Denis
It was my fifth Elle Awards and this year it was held on St Valentine’s Day. From the second the invitation arrived I knew it was going to be incredible. It sat on my desk sparkling and neon bright, my Mason Pearson brush and I counted down the days!
My first stop was the Elle offices. I have styled editor in chief Lorraine Candy’s hair for five years now, she is one of my favourite women and at the awards she is the most photographed woman, posing with all of the winners and either compering or opening the awards. I like to find a style that makes her feel the most ‘herself’, so this year we went for something really soft and undone as she was wearing a structured, black Roland Mouret dress.
I whizzed from there to my friend Lisa Snowdon with only an hour to go. She had the most amazing Vivienne Westwood corset dress and we decided to go for a classic pleat that would look like she had just flung it up herself. I blasted mousse in then twisted it up. Once up, I pulled out pieces and teased and sprayed them.
I wore a David Szeto dress that I share with Lisa! This glossy number has attended so many events I was worried not to have something new in that girl way! But when I got to the awards I walked straight into Brix Smith-Start, who told me that I was in fact wearing ‘the Brix’ dress that had been designed for her by David himself, I suddenly felt much better! It is hard not to feel completely under-dressed at the Elle Awards as you are walking among the most beautiful actresses and models in exquisite gowns that have often been designed for the very night by Givenchy or McQueen. My humble little black number from Browns pales in the company of such frocks!
The room was filled with silver balloons and the table decorations matched the invite. They were a origami design that I just loved! Later, Jameela Jamil, who is a client of mine, told me that her friend had designed them all and they had taken months to make.
I always get starstruck completely at these awards and this year it was over Tom Ford and Courtney Love. I sneaked off to have a cigarette and met her in the smoking area. I say met… I actually grinned from ear to ear at her and said ‘Hi’ and admired her Givenchy gown. She was her super-cool, nonchalant self. I wanted to say that I’m glad her gown had been rushed in from Paris on Eurostar by Givenchy that morning (as I had overheard) and it looked just beautiful. The Awards were amusing this year with Vivienne Westwood making everyone gasp and giggle during her awards presentation. It was a sweetshop of eye candy.
I took a trip to Paris last week in the middle of Paris Fashion Week and so I thought I would post you some of my finds in the next few weeks!
MARCHÉ AUX PUCES DE SAINT-OUEN
At the end of the Metro at Porte de Clignancourt lies Europe’s largest flea market with 2500 stalls.
The art and the vintage clothing is what always draws me there.
This year I spent a day there people watching and window shopping for Chanel, Dior and Yves Saint Laurent jewellery and bags. It was funny sitting back and watching Americans dressed head to foot in Comme des Garçons, and Japenese girls teetering on six-inch heels, cooing over Chanel bags selling for thousands of euros.
I bought a collage of Brigitte Bardot. There are two shops inside the antique section with such incredible collections of jewellery and handbags that they are more like museums than shops. Beautifully displayed with the owners giving you a fascinating history lesson on the pieces. It made me yearn for a Chanel bag, they hold and often increase their value. I brought an old dressing table brush, mirror sets and hair pins.
Something about Paris makes me become so cliché French, piling on extra Kohl make-up and strolling around in Breton tops! Ha! But such an escape I recommend.
