Styles: Reign by Charlene Fernandez, Australia

2021 Australian Hair Industry Creative Awards: Best Independent Stylist of the Year

For many years, I worked for someone else. I was a creative director to over 200 staff in a Melbourne chain. In 2020, I made the big and bold decision to start my own hairdressing business. It was a huge step that altered my world in so many profound ways.

Reign, my first solo collection, was inspired by this experience. Not only does it express my own individual flavour and aesthetic, it also shows a message of empowerment, enlightenment and, most of all, triumph. It’s about my own self-realisation that I have the talent, and now the confidence, to be unstoppable in this industry and unstoppable in life. More so, I intend this collection to symbolise all women rising up and believing in their own ability to achieve anything they put their minds to.

Winning the 2021 Australian Hair Industry Creative Awards: Best Independent Stylist of the Year Award has meant so much to me after years and years of hard work. It’s a validation that I am on the right track and it’s only the beginning!

Hairdresser: Charlene Fernandez, @charlenefernandezhair, 2021 AHIA Creative Individual Stylist of the Year (awarded across Australia and New Zealand)

Photographer: Liane Hurvitz @lianehurvitz_photographer

Fashion Stylist: Emma Boseley @emmaboseley

Make Up Artist: Shella Ruby Martin @shellarubymartin

Production: Steph Cammarano @stephcammarano