Greg Murrell

Greg Murrell is a Fashion Week original who this year is busier than ever coming up with looks to complement designer styles. Murrell and his Ryder Salon styling team are working on the Stolen Girlfriends Club show tonight and Huffer tomorrow. He is also creative director for the KMS California hair team on the week’s Contemporary Salon shows, giving him a range of established and emerging designers to work with. His first show of the week was Ingrid Starnes yesterday.

“I think it’s important to work with each brand’s aesthetic, but for the [hair] look not to become predictable,” he says. “In the back of my mind are feelings about trends and movements that I have noticed, but sometimes I just have to disregard what is happening elsewhere and find solutions that appeal to my sensibility and work well for the designer.”

Where are you at?
For Huffer we are moving things away from the expected, and with Stolen Girlfriends a new imagining of their rock and roll aesthetic is planned. It was also exciting to work with Ingrid Starnes for the first time on her contemporary salon show. Ingrid was after a look that had a nice floaty and free texture which was pulled back from the face and fastened in a loose deconstructed chignon at the nape. Strong but sensual.

Explain the process of coming up with a look?
We will usually meet up about a month before the show and start talking about the themes for the collection. We then meet for a hair and makeup trial on a live model about two weeks before the show to test it all out. We keep working on variations of the agreed look until we choose the right feeling. Often it is dependent also on the makeup look.

What happens backstage?
We usually have a two to three-hour call time before the show. Generally we will have the show look storyboarded out and team members are assigned tasks. As director I supervise this and help the team of between six and 10 people to complete the look to my satisfaction. I generally do the finishing.

What was the very first fashion show you worked on?
I think it would have been an in-store for Zambesi in Vulcan Lane in 1997. I did some braided looks from memory.

What was the most memorable show you’ve done?
There have been many shows at Australian Fashion Week over the years and it is hard to pick one, so I will pick the two shows that I did for Zambesi at London Fashion Week. I love that city.

How has NZFW changed the game?
Well, before NZFW, we didn’t really have an organised and cohesive fashion industry. We just seemed to have people who made and sold clothes. With NZFW, the media suddenly became interested and it became possible for specialists such as hair, makeup, lighting, show producers and so on to work with fashion in a much more regular way. The level of professionalism grew accordingly.

Do you take a different approach for Australia?
I still prepare the same way but the reality is that it is not in Auckland so I don’t have all of my trusted lieutenants with me. I usually take three of them with me and complete the team with associates from Sydney.

What’s new in terms of products/techniques?
KMS California is relaunching at Fashion Week with brand new packaging and formulations. I’m excited to be able to get my hands on some of their new products.

A last line on doing fashion shows?
It’s really fun to work on a creative project where other specialists are doing their thing as well. It’s very satisfying and it’s also a chance to stretch out a little and do something you wouldn’t usually do in the salon.

- Janetta Mackay

By Zoe Walker, The New Zealand Herald, Friday April 24 2009.

Photo by Babiche Martens.

Hairstylist Greg Murrell is a well-known face within our local fashion and hair industries - and now his work is being acknowledged internationally, with a Master’s Award from the Australian Fellowship of Hairdressers.

Murrell, who owns Auckland hair salon Ryder, was given his award at the Australian Hair Fashion Awards at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday night. One recipient from Britain, Australia and New Zealand is selected to win the annual award, which acknowledges “masters of the craft in hairdressing”. The fellowship said that Murrell’s 25-year career “highlights the very essence of what the Master’s Award recognises” and called him “one of New Zealand’s finest”.

This year is shaping up to be a momentous one for Murrell - as well as winning the award he also celebrates the 10th year of business for his Auckland salon. He opened Ryder in 1999 after working with Paul Huege de Serville at Servilles for 13 years. “Paul gave me great training, and taught me that if you are passionate enough about something, you will be successful. The time came along when I needed to escape, so to speak, as by this stage I’d developed many of my own ideas about things. So I took the plunge and opened Ryder… It’s been quite a journey!”

He counts the relaxed ambience of the salon as key to it’s ongoing success. “Going to the hairdresser is an escape from your life, so it needs to feel very comfortable and unhurried.” He clearly knows what he’s doing: he has clients who have been coming to him for almost 20 years.”I really think that these relationships with clients become like friendships which endure,” he says.

But it’s not just his work at Ryder that has shaped his career - Murrell works as an educator and is the New Zealand artistic director for KMS California. He also works extensively with local fashion brands and publications to create hair looks for editorial, fashion shows and campaigns and has worked with the likes of Black Magazine, Stolen Girlfriends Club and Zambesi, which is something he clearly loves.

“It’s a great feeling to be acknowledged,” he says. “I remember quite distinctly starting out in my career and looking up at all these highly skilled people who I wanted to emulate. I guess I can say that I got there! This sort of career acknowledgement isn’t something I expected or aimed for, but I have worked in a very passionate and energetic way since my career began. It’s nice that someone was watching!”