Mia Wasikowska, who covers the July issue of Vogue Australia, is sporting hair coloured by Crown’s very own Kathy Gilbert. We sat down with Editorial Stylist, Sophie Roberts, who Kathy worked with to achieve the look.

“The nature of the shoot was quite cinematic – landscape images that would accentuate Mia’s natural beauty. She has a very intelligent, quirkiness to her beauty. I wanted to create a look that was simple and uncomplicated but had presence.

There was a lot invested in how we were going to make Mia look because it was more than just creating a style or a character for the shoot. She was in between roles and growing out her cut and colour so I had the opportunity to cut and restyle her hair. She was also just about to head to The Met Gala where she was being dressed by Lucia Prada so it was a great opportunity to give her a look she could take with her.

Because Mia’s colour was growing out Kathy’s brief was really about creating the right tones. I love how Kathy works. She really looks at skin tone and texture and considers the upkeep for a model. She is also great at working off a cut.

For this shoot she created dimension with the cut while maintaining the depth of the roots. She worked in these really beautiful, intelligently placed, slices of colour that gave a ropey texture. She also cleaned out the blonde and created a gorgeous Nordic tone which is something we are seeing a lot of in blondes at the moment”.

“Kathy is so generous with her time and loves to be involved in the creative process. I’ve known her since I was an apprentice, some 15 or so years ago, and feel like we have a great understanding. I tell her about the aesthetic I’m trying to create and she then brings another dimension to it, whether it be creating a new colour or doing an incredible colour correction which might be subtle but transforms the tone of someone’s skin. As a stylist who is not in a salon it’s wonderful to have that kind of collaboration”.

Kathy agrees “We play well together. There is something so professionally satisfying being part of a successful creative collaboration. We highly value these collaborations at Crown – our business was founded on one”.  

Another longstanding friend and colleague who worked on the shoot was makeup artist, Kellie Stratton who has, as Kathy put it, “such an incredible ability to accentuate natural beauty.”

Of course the right products were quintessential to creating the look and Sophie chose from the R&Co family of styling products. To give Mia’s hair that sultry texture, Sophie used Oribe’s Dry Texturizing Spray, to give her a full enduring lift during the shoot, she used Oribe’s Maximist Thickening Spray, and for conditioning and frizz control, she used Oribe Gold Lust Nourishing Hair Oil.

As for the inside word on the stunning heroine of Tim Burton’s Alice: Through the Looking Glass, well when she is not living the “Hollywood life” working with the likes of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway, she likes gardening, bricklaying, and living a super happy “anonymous life” right here in Sydney – All of which you can read  about in recent July edition of Vogue Australia.