MAKING THE MODEL - PART 1
Giambattista Valli at the Royal Ontario Museum - Daniel Fiorio L’Oréal Professionnel Portfolio Artist
Friday April 3, 2009 - When they reach the end of a runway, models strike a calm pose, but the frenzy they experience backstage tells a different story. In New York and Toronto, Aveda, L’Oréal Professionnel, Wella Professionals and CND artists helped set spring/summer 09 trends while working behind the scenes at some pretty major shows. Here, we break down what it’s like working in the most coveted of places: backstage at a fashion show.
When Italian designer Giambattista Valli brought his couture collection to Toronto for a gala fundraiser, Daniel Fiorio and the team from Salon Daniel were on board to recreate Valli’s original look from Paris Fashion Week. “I’ve developed a relationship with the designers I usually work with, so more and more I get sort of carte blanche,” says Fiorio. “But this was unusual, because Valli didn’t meet me until the day before the show,” he says of the fast-paced experience.
INSPIRATION
“When you look at Valli’s clothing, there is fantastic structure, with a lot of femininity and softness,” says Fiorio. “We operated the same way—an updo inspired by the idea of what a model would look like after getting undressed.” Fiorio and his self-professed “dream team’’created a strong structure with high polish and shine and then broke that up by pulling out pieces of hair.
PREP
The day before the evening show, Fiorio prepped four models live for the designer. “Valli is very definite about getting his look right. I prepped models with much longer hair and much shorter hair so Valli could see how I could correctly create the look with a challenge,” explains Fiorio. “Once I got it down myself and sorted out how I was going to technically execute it, I immediately met with my team and broke it apart for them, detailing what to do and what not to do, because I knew the following day would be very busy.”
SHOW
The Salon Daniel team was onsite four hours before the 9 p.m. show. “When we first arrived, I did the first model,” says Fiorio. “Nobody does anything until I demonstrate and can verbalize the look and the ‘why’ behind it.” Once the team set up and models began to arrive, Fiorio worked at a slightly slower pace so he could assist. “Working backstage makes my team and me better stylists, because it helps you understand material, shape, texture, colour and mood,” he says. “After sweating quite a bit, it was very rewarding when Valli pointed to some of the models and said they looked better than in Paris!”
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- By Anupa Mistry
