From Surry Hills to New York Fashion Week

Featured in The Carousel · 24 September 2026 · By Marie-Antoinette Issa

There are some experiences that remind you just how far a love of hairdressing can take you.

This September, Marc and Sabrina swapped Surry Hills for New York, joining the Mr Smith team for New York Fashion Week and working backstage alongside international hair teams across a packed schedule of shows.

Backstage at Fashion Week is a very different world from the salon. The pace is fast, the briefs can change quickly, and every model, texture and look brings something different. Marc and Sabrina worked under hair directors including Junya Nakashima, Amy Farid and Freda Rossidis, helping prep models and create the finished runway looks.

For Marc, one of the best parts of the experience was being surrounded by so many different approaches to the craft.

It isn’t about bringing a runway hairstyle back to Sydney and recreating it exactly. It’s the techniques, textures, finishes and little ideas you pick up along the way — then finding ways to make those ideas beautiful and wearable for the person sitting in your chair.

Marc also spoke with The Carousel about working on Indigenous Fashion Week shows during the trip, the atmosphere of New York during Fashion Week, and what he sees coming through in hair: beautiful shine, movement, strong shapes with softness, dimensional colour and, most importantly, individuality.

We came home tired, inspired and very ready to get back behind the chair.