Backstage With… Garren

Beauty Intelligence

Ever wondered about the hairstylist behind Victoria Beckham's new cut? Well, his name is Garren and he's also styled the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna. Last night, though, the only heads he coiffed were those of the models at Anna Sui. For the lowdown on this runway look, plus more on Victoria Beckham's `do, check out my chat with Garren...


What was your inspiration for the hair at Anna Sui?
Anna was the inspiration and, of course, it's natural hair. But you know, the girls' hair has been through four shows today so I've decided to use a waving iron—which gives it a little bit of texture without giving it too much curl. It just gives it a nice, soft bend. But if the girls' hair is really dead-straight, we'll leave it dead-straight. It's really about the look—the haircut, clean hair, conditioning. It's pretty organic, meaning the way they would wear it if they just shampooed their hair and let it dry. It's not a defined look, it's just a healthy head of hair.


Garren works his magic backstage at Anna Sui's show

What products are you using?
We're working with their natural hair texture so we're trying not to mess with it. If they didn't have a lot of product in their hair, I would use the Designing Spray Tonic. It's alcohol-free and has all kinds of vitamins. It gives the hair a lot of shine and takes the frizz off of it. It's very light.

Does this hairstyle reference a certain decade?
[The hairstyle is] like mid-60s. And of course, you know, cutting the hair is what's really coming in. People have taken advantage of that. Agyness [Deyn] has a definite look. And that's what's missing from a lot of fashions today—no one has a personalized look. They all kind of look the same with this long, wavy hair. So I'm all into redesigning and redefining what a woman should look like.

Yes, you recently gave Victoria Beckham a new cut. Can you tell me more about that?
She called and she wanted to do something new. So we discussed it, we worked it out, and we came up with this very gamine look. Kind of reminiscent of Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby and Audrey Hepburn. There will be variations of it, and people can be a little more daring now. They don't have to be all one unit.

Who should get this haircut? Does it only work with certain face shapes?
You have to have the right look. You should have a very small face shape. If you have a very definite sense of style, you can carry it off.


Jessica Stam rocks soft waves on the runway