Hairdressers probably won’t like her for it jokes Karen Walker but she’s become an advocate for the colour grey.
Her hair grew out white/grey over the Level 4 lockdown and when her hairdresser called to book an appointment after lockdown, she faced the decision of ‘to colour or not to colour’.
She chose the latter.
“I really thought about ‘why’, ‘why do people colour their grey, and it didn’t sit well with my feminist ideals,” Walker explains. “Why do women especially feel the need to hide signs of time like that? There’s nothing wrong with having a youthful attitude or being youthful but why try to hide the signs of the decades?”
For Walker, 51, who has coloured her hair for the past 10 years, there is no more hiding. And she’s rocking it. It turns out that blue eyes like a bit of white hair and she’s had people throwing lots of compliments her way “though I don’t think anybody would dare tell me it’s not working,” she laughs.
Being a role model
She was recently honoured with her own one-of-a-kind Barbie doll sporting white/grey hair. Every year Barbie celebrates role models around the world who are breaking boundaries and Walker is the official 2021 Barbie NZ Role Model. The idea is to show girls that they can be anything.
As New Zealand’s most internationally renowned fashion designer, Walker is known for her innovation, business acumen and as the face of her brand.
Of course, there is more to Walker than being a fashion arbiter, though she points out she is the brand too. “There’s always an intertwining when it’s your own business. It’s never a take the game face off and leave it at the door situation,” says Walker.
That’s where the authenticity of the Karen Walker brand comes from, and one of the reasons why it has been
