Press - VOGUE: MODEL ANJA RUBIK JUST GOT A DAVID BOWIE RED DYE JOB FOR THE SAINT LAURENT RUNWAY

In recent seasons, Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent shows have become synonymous with spectacle, and tonight’s Spring 2019 collection was, of course, no exception. It wasn’t just the striking set (models appeared to walk on water as they splashed through Paris’s Fontaine du Trocadéro) or the high-voltage ensembles (chain mail frocks; star-spangled suits; glittering one-pieces), though, that quickened the pulses of those sitting front row, but also Vaccarello muse Anja Rubik’s freshly dyed lengths.

“I was like, Uh, hell yeah,” says New York City colorist Lena Ott, who was asked to transform Rubik’s signature baby blonde into an electric copper shade inspired by David Bowie’s orange hair in the 1976 sci-fi film The Man Who Fell to Earth. After highlighting and combing bleach through the model’s hairline to make it brighter, Ott removed an inch-and-a-half section before applying a temporary tinted mousse to Rubik’s lengths for just five minutes. The result was a fiery two-tone hue that wouldn’t require multiple salon sessions to remove.

“I knew from experience that the mousse comes out more easily than a semipermanent dye,” notes Ott, who received an anxious call from Rubik beforehand. Any cause for concern, though, proved ultimately unnecessary. Once Rubik saw the finished product “she loved it so much that she asked me if I had brought the same color in permanent!” Ott recalls with a laugh. Consider it proof that a renegade beauty risk is always met with reward.

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