AAFW 21: O&M X Jordan Dalah

The fashion obsessed poured into Carriageworks for the first day of Afterpay Australian Fashion Week (AAFW), after Fashion Week’s one-year hiatus, and with five days of trends, hair, beauty and pure fashion ahead of them. Jordan Dalah kicked things off with a bold show on site, with O&M and industry icon John Pulitano providing complementary hair direction.

“Looking at Jordan’s collection, it has that little bit more quirky, Avant Garde vibe, so the whole idea was to cast models who has a quirky hair cut, maybe some cut off bangs, and if they didn’t they were happy to have them, so we cut them in,” John said. “It was about celebrating their look, it wasn’t about moving the hair out too much from what it looked like.”

Using the O&M Atonic Thickening Spritz, the hair team dampened down the hair first to elevate its natural texture, then flat waved the hair to further highlight this aesthetic. This natural texture spoke to a theme that celebrated individuality.

“Flat waving always works better because a round curl on hair that dried naturally always looks too done and we didn’t want it to look too beautiful,” John explained.

Three models were given big hair looks – in John’s estimate, weighing three kilograms on their head, as John said “I don’t know how they held their head up”, – as Avant Garde, dramatic statement looks, following the same hair prep and then blow drying the hair in a backwards motion. The team then applied a heavy dose of ZALA Hair Wefts and blended it together with O&M’s Original Queenie Firm Hold hairspray. John credited Atonic as a hero product for natural texture with necessary grip and grunge across the looks. This hair prep allowed for the hair to tie in the whole show aesthetic.

“With the collection it seemed to be focused as quite period pops but then were these quirky bits as well, so I felt like the hair, the bulk of it, was meant to juxtapose that,” John said. “Even the three bigger looks weren’t meant to be created in a really period way, it was more about taking that period inspiration and then giving it a slight rawness to the ends so it wasn’t too clean, sexy or too drag queen at the same time. You have to really be careful how you would style something like that.”

“With the other girls that’s when the modernity came back in, with just cool hair cuts, little disconnected front bits and that’s how we, sometimes on runways, bring a bit of newness into a collection that has a bit more of a theatrical vibe to it,” he continued. “So sometimes it’s better to go find something that juxtaposes that rather than go with it and make it to in theme.”

And with that, AAFW is off and running.

Get the look:

First prep the hair by applying O&M Atonic all over to give the hair a rough, creamy texture, followed by a hairdryer to pull the hair backwards.
Using padding and 8 weft hair extensions, fill out sections of the hair to create length and volume.
Add the final touches with O&M Original Queenie Firm Holding Hairspray to lock in the hair through the top whilst creating an airy finish throughout.