STELLA GIBSON AND THE ARTFUL BLOW DRY

Posted by Bethan Holt, Junior Fashion Editor at Large

Stella Gibson, played by Gillian Anderson (thebelfasttelegraph.co.uk)

I think we can collectively agree that The Fall was pretty great, even if the series did come to a bit of a rubbish end last night, probably as a ploy to make us all hyped for the recently commissioned series two. Much has been made already of the silk shirts worn the detective lead Stella Gibson, played meticulously by Gillian Anderson, with articles in both The Observer and the Evening Standard reporting increased demand for the luxuriously feminine and really quite sexy button-ups which Anderson's character wore throughout The Fall's five episodes.

The silk shirt component of Gibson's wardrobe is pretty accessible. A five minute swoop around Matches/ Net-a-Porter/ Zara and you've bagged one. For me, the most compellingly mysterious aspect of the DSI "look" is her perfect, artfully tousled (but not too much) blow dry. It's just neat enough to look professional and just voluminous enough to enhance the sex appeal which so frustrated/ enticed many of the show's characters. Now I know this is a fictional drama- even if some of us did start worrying what would become of us on our way to bed- but how exactly did Gibson manage to pull off such unfailingly perfect hair when her character was allegedly working all hours, kipping in a sleeping bag in her office with no more than the swimming pool changing rooms or police station loos as hair doing places? 

This isn't the first time I've considered this how-does-she-do-it conundrum. In Borgen, Birgitte Nyborg is portrayed with a strikingly similar gently blow dried waves to Anderson's The Fall character. Even in the midst of all-nighter crisises, Nyborg manages to emerge to her morning press conference with her artful blow dry still impeccably in tact. This is the power style which says the woman beneath is wielding just as much control over her hair as she is over her murder case/ government. 

Valerie Trierweiler (via guardian.co.uk)

The artful blow dry exists IRL too. The French President Francois Hollande seems to be particularly fond of women sporting the look. His current partner Valerie Trierweiler is never seen without her shoulder length hair gently tonged into a perfect tumble of just the right amount of volume and waves. Meanwhile, his political rival and ex-wife, Segolene Royale is of a very similar school of coiffing thought, though often appears a bit more strait-laced, with fewer waves and more tucking behind the ears- but who can blame her when she has a regional council to run and political allies to keep on side? After all, the artful, lasting blow dry is so much harder to achieve- and keep- than a nice silk blouse.