The word on every style lover’s lips, London Fashion Week (LFW) is the sartorial event of the year – and Yazz stylist Jess Lyon experienced the buzz of the event before it had even begun! Heading down to the capital on Thursday, September 4, Jess (a stylist at our LA Fitness salon in Yeadon) nervously boarded the train from Yorkshire to make the journey to the big smoke.
Jess was in London to participate in the prestigious TIGI Inspirational Youth at Salon International Excel, an event which attracts an audience of 1,000 hairdressers from across the globe.
The organisers behind the event – now in its ninth year – invite a group of UK stylists to London, challenging them to an intensive training programme which doesn’t just cover hairdressing, but presentation skills, team building, photographic session styling and model casting. Ending in a presentation of the hair the stylists have created in fun LFW shows, the event is a huge deal in the word of hairdressing – and our Jess was there to experience it for herself!
Meeting the remaining nine members of the event’s team at Battersea’s Bed Head studio, Jess says the group ‘instantly hit it off’. “We were met by Maria Kovacs who demo-ed some of the work the creative team has previously created at fashion weeks.” she tells us.
Jess went on to say how much Maria inspired her, saying her creativity leaves her speechless, referring to the way she can effortlessly mould hair into any shape she wants. “I have learned so, so much from this lady, it’s unbelievable,” Jess continued.
“After Maria demonstrated the looks it was our turn to work on hair; it wasn’t as easy as Maria made it look but I learned some helpful new techniques which I can’t wait to share with the team at Yazz.”
A week or so later and it was back to London for Jess for LFW itself, taking place from September 12 to 16. Jess, who completed her initial training on September 4 and 5, says she was itching to get back down to the capital. “I love the buzz of London, and this time it was more exciting than ever as I was actually going to be working on shows for London Fashion Week – it seemed unreal,” she says.
Working on four shows for the spring/summer catwalk, including the KTZ show on Saturday, September 14, Jess says this was her first real taste of working backstage at such a large-scale event.
“I loved every second of it,” she says, “we were allowed to watch the show after working backstage, I felt so proud to watch the girls walking on the catwalk that I had done the hair for. Suddenly all the stress of the backstage work was more than worth it.”
Jess also managed to rub shoulders with a celeb, meeting Paloma Faith who’d been watching the show.
Day two saw the young stylist work on the Marios Schwab and David Koma shows. “Still buzzing from Saturday night, I couldn’t wait to get backstage again,” Jess says, “The backstage atmosphere is indescribable – it’s buzzing, but every team pulls together to make the whole thing run as smoothly as possible.”
During the Marios Schwab show, Jess says the hair was almost so natural it looked untouched – certainly a skill for any hairdresser. “It looked amazing; this is when my gratitude kicked in – how lucky was I? I was working with the TIGI Creative Team and they were sharing with me the most innovative and creative ideas.”
Later on at the second show, Jess discovered the hair had a little more structure. Assisting on the show, she discovered how skilled David is, saying he “just takes everything in his stride”, and adding that she was “honoured to be stood beside him, watching him produce his final looks” and with the opportunity to learn ‘from the best’.
On Tuesday, September 3, Jess had the chance to see the final show of London Fashion Week, with Osman. Up at 4.30am to meet the creative director for an early 5.45am start, Jess says the show ran smoothly and the hair looked amazing.
“We all watched the show again and afterwards, Nick Irwin, global creative director of TIGI, congratulated us all. The whole team worked so well together, I have definitely met some friends on this journey, as well as some inspirational people. We met two weeks ago and already have such a strong ‘family unit’. I can’t wait to see everyone again and have another experience of Fashion Week in February 2015!,” Jess continued. “Until then, though, I intend to stay on cloud 9!”
Don’t forget to keep an eye on our news section here on the site to read more exciting posts like this, and make sure you join us in giving Jess a friendly pat on the back for her hard work if you see her snipping away in the salon!
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