The Alaïa scraped ponytails. Those Haider Ackermann bulbous bouffants. And of course the higher-than-high hair at Marc Jacobs and Maison Margiela couture. These were all topics of conversation at Vogue’s 2024 Forces of Fashion session with hairstylist—no, hair artist—Duffy.
Cheekily titled “Hair Apparent,” the session went all the way back to the start of Duffy’s career. “I discovered hairdressing at 13,” he shared. “My mum put me on the train to London and walked me into Vidal Sassoon.” From there he started his apprenticeship in the salon, which included sweeping up, making tea, and washing towels. It was also how he met Eugene Suleiman—“he was one of the greatest then, and to me, he is still a god,” Duffy says—and learned about runway hairstyling.
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“For me, hairdressing is about complementing the other people within that creative environment,” Duffy shared about his workflow, his incredible team, and the joy of frequently collaborating with Pat McGrath. (The makeup artist known as Mother had just taken the Forces stage an hour before him.) “It’s not about a curl or a bit of back-combing. For me, doing hair is about what I can do to change the silhouette that you perceive of the person in front of you.”
