# 119 What the Hakaan?

When my backstage invite & show ticket were issued to HAKAAN the week before the big event, my expectations had been piqued by the knowledge that i-D's Edward Enninful was styling, hair god Luigi Murenu was on 'do' duty and Lucia Pieroni would be making faces... that's an extraordinarily high-profile team for a Turkish designer who until the event itself had never been heard of in London. And then I arrived and saw Natalia V stride past, followed by Anja Rubik, Lara Stone and MariaCarla Boscono. Even those who were part of the backstage team seemed surprised by the sheer supermodel weight (purely figurative of course) being hurled around the room. And that was before Kate Moss and Carine Roitfeld showed up. Cripes!

So, squinting through the whorls of ciggie smoke backstage (TUT TUT) I jotted down the tips & tricks being employed by the hair & make-up crew, snapping away on my i-phone, which I lost by accidentally dropping said phone into a bowl of steaming ho-fun noodle soup. DAMMIT. But while I no longer have my photographic evidence, I do still have my notes - so here's the scoop:

1) Hair, courtesy of the John Frieda team, was "boy on top and girl in back" (nice). While Luigi wandered around, getting models into seats and fine-tuning each and every strand, his team fed Unique Wiiv 100% Human Hair pieces through the under sections - the adhesive strips pressed up as close as possible to the scalp and heated up with a hairdryer which set them in place. These back bits were then blow-dried, along with intermittent spritzes of Elnett Hairspray to keep flyaways in check, and when dry and smooth, tonged with a slim-barrel iron. These very loose waves were then brushed out to give an imperfect frizz-fine finish.

2) The top sections were centre-parted, sozzled in John Frieda Luxurious Volume Mousse, until completely 'wet' and dried with a Mason Pearson brush for a sleek, shiny finish. Models with thicker hair were treated with John Frieda Frizz Ease too, which was rubbed over the crown as a finishing, patina-amping touch. This top section was then pinned in place and flattened with a temporary layer of gauze while models toddled off to make-up.

3) In make-up, the girls had their brows bleached (feel for the darker-haired models who had to sit through 2 rounds of Jolen) - but Anja R escaped sans-peroxide, Lucia brushing Estee Lauder Maximum Cover Camouflage Make-Up through her brows instead. On eyes she was using the quad - (I'm pretty sure it was the Eye Shadow x 4 Colour 3 Quad) - and worked the brown/purple (Jungle Moon) into the eyelid crease. She then worked highlighter over tops of cheekbones, brows, forehead and the orbital bone, and used a minky brown bronzer to contour cheeks and subtly colour foreheads. Finally, a layer of balm over lips, buffing them to smoothness and a lash-curl and girls strutted off for their walk-through.

4) Skincare spied on the bench: La Roche Posay Hydraphase XL - which artists massaged into clean skin before using foundation; Embryolisse (ever-present at the shows it seems, even if it's not for me!); Bioderma Eye Make-Up Remover (gentle, yes, but not great on waterproof mascara); and a selection of Giorgio Armani Foundations, including Face Fabric.

Oh, and the clothes?

Pretty Fakaan great.