Backstage Beauty Stylist Olivia Mairéad on Diversity, NYFW Chaos, and the Eckahus Latta Show
Get into beauty inspiration, the need for more Black hairstylists, and backstage from the beauty team’s perspective.
“I feel like sometimes I've worked on teams that are all white hairstylists, and I've been like, what is going on here?” is a sight Olivia Mairéad has seen backstage more than she’d like to admit. But for the New York-based backstage beauty stylist and assistant to key hairstylist Dylan Chavles, she recalls catching herself “stealing models out people's chairs” in order to ensure models of color were going down the runway looking up to par.
The fashion industry, despite strides in representation, still grapples with the broader issue of diversity throughout the entire process, like having diverse stylists who know how to work with models of color, hair texture, or skin tone. Yet, Amid the chaos and unpredictability of fashion week, Mairéad is known for her meticulous attention to detail, ensuring models feel confident and cared for beyond being mere placeholders for clothes.
Following Pat McGrath’s viral moment during the Maison Margiela Paris Fashion Week Couture show, the growing emphasis on beauty in the industry has been underscored. Yet, this spotlight often prioritizes larger, more conceptual looks over sustainability and integrity. “I feel like my focus is always on making people feel beautiful. It's more about how people feel and less about me using someone to create something big,” she continues by saying,” I think big sculptural hair is beautiful. I think crazy wigs are beautiful, but I just feel like I find myself in a place where I'm focusing more on what are we working with now, and not just like creating something different and putting it on their head.”
Below, the hairstylist talks Eckhaus Latta F/W 24 beauty inspiration, the need for more Black hairstylists, and the chaos that ensues backstage at NYFW.
With the Pat McGrath moment that happened at Paris Fashion Week, I feel like there's been a bigger emphasis on beauty. How do you think that will inspire and change the tone of how beauty is prioritized during fashion week?
I think in fashion, the pendulum is always swinging, and sometimes we find ourselves in a place where it's very neutral, very plain. And models can sometimes be treated a little bit like coat hangers, like no hair, no makeup, just the clothes. And then sometimes we get that Pat McGrath look where it is a 'look' head to toe. And I think we're really stepping into a place where we're gonna be pulling looks from top to bottom once again, and I love that. I think that's so fun. I do love the clean, classic beauty, you know, just pay attention to the clothes, but to pull a look, that's how you get everyone talking. I still see people posting about Pat McGrath's look today.
On your Instagram, you explained in the past that doing big looks wasn't your main priority. Can you kind of speak to why that may be?
I feel like my focus is always on making people feel beautiful. It's more about how people feel and less about me using someone to create something big. And I think they're both amazing and they're both beautiful, but just for me, I think the reason why I do hair is I feel like my hair's always been trivialized ever since I was a kid. So, when I started doing hair, it was always about maintaining people's wealth, health, and integrity. So when I can make someone feel beautiful and feel really cool, I feel like that's always my number one goal.
But that doesn't mean you shy away from doing bigger looks in a sense. It just helps you hone in on your own craft.
Yeah, absolutely. I feel like, for me, it's about the time I spend with my clients, with the models, or with anything along those lines. And it's always like a collaboration between me and whoever I'm working with. And it's never just my thing. I think big sculptural hair is beautiful. I think crazy wigs are beautiful, but I just feel like I find myself in a place where I'm focusing more on what we are working with now and not just creating something different and putting it on their head.
For the Eckhaus Latta show, how do you even prepare for fashion week? How are you communicating with your key stylist, Dylan Chavles, maybe the week prior?
So for the Eckahus Latta show, we did a test together and with the stylists, the designers, with Dylan and with Daniel, the makeup artist, we decided to go with something more natural. And for the hair, the idea was hydrated healthy, you know, how would they wake up and go because it is a ready-to-wear look. So they wanted something that spoke to that, something that spoke to getting up, throwing an outfit on, and walking down the street. We used Oribe, and we just kept everybody really healthy and hydrated and just made everyone feel really beautiful, clean, and simple. And that is my jam.
We spoke kind of briefly about how, in the industry, there's often a replication that we see between white models and Black models and how they often are trying to emulate the same look when, in fact, it should vary. Can you just talk a little bit about your experience with that and what is your method and process to make sure that doesn't happen?
For me, I like to ask a lot of questions when I get on shows with people who I don't work with a lot, and let's say we do a demo or a test on a white model with long wavy hair and they say, ‘Oh, this is how we're gonna do it.’ I'm like, ‘How are we gonna do this on shorter hair, more textured hair, curly hair, kinky hair, just anything? How are we gonna execute this look for someone else?’ And that's another reason why I love to work with people's natural hair because I feel like it's easier to translate if the artist you're working for, if your key is saying, we want everyone to look hydrated fresh out of the shower, a wet hair look, it's easier to translate between models. I feel like the more sculptural you get, the more difficult it is to translate a look from one person to another.
And so when we do more natural things, I feel like it's way easier to figure out who's getting what for the Eckhaus Latta show, because it was hydrated, moisturized, and how they look naturally. We got to customize each look to each individual person. That is something that I love to do. With one of the models, we spent a pretty decent amount of time just going through and defining each one of his curls with some curl cream with a little bit of gel.
Do you ever think about if you or another black stylist weren't in the room, what would be going on and what conversations would be happening?
Absolutely. I've had conversations with so many black models, specifically black models sitting in a chair, and just like knowing that this person is not confident to do their hair. And they say, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it. I got it.’ And they don't even ask any questions. They don't say, ‘Oh, what do you normally put in your hair?’ or ‘How do you normally style it or anything?’ And I know that models don't get to choose what look they're gonna get, but I think having conversations with a person in their chair about how they're feeling, how they like to do their hair, and just anything of that nature is so important. And I feel like a lot of times there are a lot of stylists who don't have those conversations 'cause they feel like maybe it'll hit their ego a little bit. You know, if they just say, I'm not well versed in this, I'm not super comfortable in this. Or help me figure out what we should do here. Again, it's a collaboration between you and the person in your chair, and you need to learn to have conversations with them. I feel like sometimes I've worked on teams that are all white hairstylists, and I've been like, what is going on here? Like, I've caught myself stealing people out of people's chairs, stealing models out of people's chairs. Like, I'm gonna fix what's going on here. And that sucks. But sometimes you gotta keep it pushing. And I think it's important for everybody to take time to learn how to do different people's hair, call people up, do trades, say I want to do your hair for free so I can figure out what I'm doing. It doesn't hurt to put your ego aside for a few minutes.
What would be your advice for anyone looking to get into beauty backstage styling?
I would say reach out to hairstylists that you really admire. Reach out to their agents, try to get on their teams, post your work, which, you know, I'm kind of speaking to myself in the mirror here. I am not so good at posting all of my work all the time. But I think posting your work, even if you're not obsessed with it, just get used to posting it. And then you can always take down what you're not super proud of in time and refine what you want to see on your page. But really, just put yourself out there and, like, learn how to do everybody's hair. Learn how to do everything. Get a mannequin head and start braiding. Spend time. Do your friend's hair. Just have fun with it. Learn what you really like. Hone it on your craft. Not everybody has to do every single thing, but you should have an understanding of everybody's hair under your belt. I think going into fashion week, saying, oh, this is what I normally do. And not having an open mind to learning how to work with different people is not the best way to go into it.
You also did the Giovanna Flores show. What was the difference in styling considering that Eckhaus Latta was ready-to-wear, and this one is more conceptual?
I think it's still technically under ready-to-wear, but it was definitely a little more conceptual. The hair was more sculptural than the Eckhaus show, which was so fun. And I think Dylan has a really good vision when it comes to taking an idea and being able to put it on different hair textures and not have everybody look exactly the same. Everybody's look, I think the goal was a more out-there version of office hair. We wanted them to feel like they kind of threw their hair up, ready to go to the office, were running out of the house, putting one shoe on while you’re wobbling out the door type of vibe. And I feel like she has a really good vision when it comes to being able to put that on different people, put that on different textures and work with different models and different hair textures to get to achieve the look.
Everything is super slick back but also, in a sense, very editorial in a way.
Yes. Extremely. We did a lot of crimping, we did a lot of teasing, a lot of pinning. And it reminded me honestly of when I was 16 and in hair school, and we had to do this pinned-up hair look. And I was a bit of a rebel in hair school. I never wanted to do exactly what the teacher told us to do. Like, I think it's called a French twist, and it's like this very like office hairstyle. And I didn't wanna do a regular French twist. And so I decided to make a bird nest out of the French twist, and I crimped all the hair, and I teased the shit out of all the hair, and I made this huge, like, tornado kind of looking French twist that was just like a bit ridiculous. But I won the competition in class because it was definitely creative. And this whole fashion show reminded me of that. And it really took me back to why I started doing hair in the first place.
What are three essentials you must have in your kit? Dylan is like you need to come right now, what are you grabbing?
Rat-tail combs with the metal end. My Mason Pearson brush and a blow dryer. I feel like for almost anyone, I can figure out what I'm doing with my Mason Pearson, my tail comb, and a blow dryer — I can make something happen.
What is something you'd like to see more of backstage and less of backstage in the beauty realm?
Ever since I started doing Backstage, I see a lot of diversity backstage. I see more diversity during Fashion Week backstage than I see on set. I'm gonna be so real. I would like to see what's going on backstage on Fashion Week translate into the rest of the year. I would like to see more teamwork. I feel like sometimes there can be a little bit of an ego situation going on back there. I would like to see less ego, more teamwork, and more diversity throughout the rest of the year outside of just Fashion Week. I see a lot of black hair stylists getting hired to work Fashion Week, but I don't see them onset the rest of the year. That kind of stresses me out.