NZFW Beauty: Hair here

It was a case of Park Avenue princesses beautifully combined with punk piercings at Trelise Cooper. Dramatically coiled conehead updos, suede-soft skin and an intensely matte burgundy lip gave her towering models a glowering glamour.

This effect was oddly enhanced by the metal hardware clipped to their ears, noses, lips and cheeks. Worn with grungier clothes, the "piercings" would have sent different signals, but here they became just another embellishment among the many elements the designer loves to mash up. Anyone for spikes with their sequins next season?

Playing with notions of punk and pretty was a feature at other day two Fashion Week shows, but most heavily favoured one or the other style. At Nyne and Stolen Girlfriends Club, the beauty looks went respectively from androgynous to witchy, at Deryn Schmidt and the Weddings show, from feminine to Stepford Brides.

It was more fun checking out the faces than the fashion and hair really was the hero. None more so than that by Grant Bettjeman, who described his uplifted look for Cooper as a "Mohican pony tail." His team then had to transform the models for the second part of the show - 10 minutes to change 15 girls - wrapping their hair across their forehead and up around padding into a spectacular swirl.

Amber D for M.A.C directed the makeup, custom mixing lips and adding dimension to the deep burgundy with an apple-red outline to diffuse the darkness. Skin was buffed to velvety perfection and nail stylist Leah Light also custom-mixed a black and white velvet-textured polish for fingers with grey for toes.

Stolen Girlfriends Club was the day's other big show, with the designers' requested look being described as pagan punk by M.A.C makeup director James Molloy. An eerie eye was created with an unsettling red underline, and inky blue-black shadow taken right up to the mascara-ed brow. Grey Murrell for KMS followed the brief with hair, giving it a windswept look.

Molloy did a mostly monochromatic makeup at Nyne, but unlike too many tonal looks, this had depth due to a bold brow and taupe contouring. Hair was rope plaited.

A side-swept pinned up bob was a lovely look at Deryn Schmidt, where Wella stylists showed a simple way to expose the back of the neck and achieve styling variation with a classic cut. The Weddings show also softened upswept hair, this time into a soft back bun. The bridal makeup, by Merce Saranjam for Bobbi Brown, was a fun doll-eyed look with coral pink lips and cheeks and false lashes top and bottom. Show style for sure.

- VIVA