The 90s
Continued from page 2 of Australian hairdressing history in the 90s.
Helmet colourist Kathy Gilbert featured in Highlight magazine. Hair (right) by Glenn O'Reilly.
Whitaker soon earned a reputation for the images he was producing for awards like Hair Expo.
“It was the beginning of the hairdresser awards and people had been taking their own pictures and not spending any money, using the apprentices as models and getting a few tops out of their wardrobes,” he says.
Whitaker surrounded himself with an editorial team, including fashion photographer James Calderaro, who had assisted Richard Avedon, Bill King and Francesco Scavullo and brought a new level of professionalism to the game.
“There was no way James would shoot the apprentice,” laughs Whitaker.
The strategy paid off and the industry sat up and took notice of Whitaker and Calderaro’s arresting black and white images which won Whitaker the 1997 and 1998 Hair Expo Hairdresser of the Year Award.
“By now,” says Whitaker, “you were seeing pictures of beautiful girls with beautiful hair that didn’t have to be a silly haircut to win an award.”
For the Wynne-Hoelscher’s this was music to their ears.
“I think that’s the biggest legacy of Hair Expo,” Anthony says. “We were finally turning people around. Until then, a lot of hairdressers didn’t get it; they were still thinking you had to do hair to impress other hairdressers but other hairdressers don’t sit in your chair – the people you have to impress are the consumers.”
Cleo magazine fringe story. Hair by Glenn O'Reilly.
In 1995 British hairdressing phenomenon Toni&Guy opened their first salon in Darlinghurst, Sydney. Their strong graphic advertising images and branding captured the attention of stylist Sandy Chong, who had opened her first Suki salon in Newcastle in 1985.
“Toni&Guy used great models who were quite edgy and they reintroduced the unisex thing, with lots of funky looking guys in their shots.”
Australian Fashion Week kicked off in 1996 and provided a local vehicle for session stylists like Stoddart, Murphy and Brent Lawlor, to showcase their talents. Stoddart was contracted to L’Oreal and remembers directing twelve shows in one year.
By now Renya Xydis’s editorial career had really taken off.
“The biggest thing for me was Collette Dinnigan inviting me to do her show in Paris in 1997 under the directorship of Sam McKnight,” says Xydis. “He was my hero. My dream was to work with him - I would have gone just to pass him pins!”
Xydis was invited back every season to work with McKnight and this opened doors for her to the Paris, Milan and London Fashion Weeks.
“Now, for the last nine years I’ve been working with Eugene Souleiman twice a year. I basically travel overseas to get trained every year and then I go to New York and do my own shows like Sass & Bide.”
The new generation of editorial stylists coming from under Xydis’s wing includes Darren Borthwick and Sophie Roberts.
The mid 90s also established the cult of the celebrity, a trend which was to continue to gain momentum. Jennifer Aniston’s ‘Rachel’ cut and Meg Ryan’s short shag were the two most requested styles in salons around the world. In 1996 Joh Bailey firmly cemented his position as Australia’s leading celebrity hairdresser when he coiffed the locks of Diana, the Princess of Wales for her visit to support the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.
Having begun as a reflection of what appeared on the international catwalks and influenced by hair associated with a particular personality, by the end of the decade clients had embraced the idea that the hair on their head could be what suited them as an individual. There was always structure, a cut of consequence, highlights and some type of product behind this apparent effortlessness but it served, better than at any time in the history of hair, to frame the personality of the wearer: the woman with hair that moved who certainly knew where she was going.
Find out about the other amazing decades in our Australian hairdressing history features.
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