Bangkok--12 Sep--L' Oreal (Thailand)
It’s the story of a dream. A dream born in the studios of Hollywood more than 50 years ago. It’s here, somewhere between the late 50s and 60s, that designers found their inspiration for their fall/winter 2012-13 collections. Designers revisited the eternal beauty of three golden age icons, who went simply on a first name basis; Liz, Twiggy and Bridgette Bardot. These iconic women continue to inspire us as symbols of glamour, sensuality, and elegance today. Perhaps, because ultimately, beautiful things stay beautiful - forever. This season the catwalks paid tribute to the mid-century ages, revising the classic ‘NEW LOOK’ popularized by Christian Dior and his ideas of dressing for pleasure and indulgence. At other shows, the codes of the 50s and 60s were revisited via A-line coats with rounded shoulders at Jil Sander or the structured, cinched-waisted suits in brown and copper, eggplant or violet, seen at Prada and Stella McCartney. The same period was revisited in hair, which was either incredibly voluminous (think bouffants and beehives at dSquared and Oscar de la Renta) or boyish and almost androgynous at Lanvin and Balenciaga. In all the cases, the look was twisted with modern texture and intense, vibrant colour. It’s the same essence that inspires “RETRO NOUVEAU”; for it is good to look to the past, but only to inspire us to the future.
Odile Gilbert, celebrated backstage and Hollywood hairstylist, presents the new collection for which she acted as Artistic Director, “Retro Nouveau” told us about her inspiration behind these 3 looks “Without a doubt, we have seen a trend towards haircuts and styles that are increasingly glamorous and sophisticated with a modern lightness. I think that every 21st century woman has a desire to revisit that retro sensuality, but with a modern touch. The collection “Retro Nouveau” brings both of these desires together.”
Being backstage, you’ve obviously seen a lot of what is coming from the autumn/winter 2012-13 runways?
Of course! We are coming out of a period where hair has been very natural, easy, almost D-I-Y. Now I have the distinct impression that we are returning to a worked elegance that suddenly feels new. So while we see a lot of hairstyles coming back from the 50s and 60s, they are always fresher, lighter, and more touchable. We don’t want women to look like they are coming straight out of a vintage Hollywood film, but simply have that slight touch or influence. This is why we picked everlasting beauties for this collection: Twiggy, Liz Taylor and Bridgette Bardot.
To add more modern touch to those 3 looks, we use the latest colour innovation from L’ Oreal Profesionnel called “Shadow Illusion”, by creating a shadow effect on the roots, hair gains volume and texture. It’s for thisreason that designers like Hussein Chalayan and Jean Paul Gaultier played with a similar colour technique on their autumn runways. At other shows, like Etro and Versus, backstage stylists reinterpreted this look with styling products and unique partings. Naturally, the roots are usually at least 2 levels darker than ends. And to get the illusion of depth, one most follow this principle. But it’s important that your hairdresser works on creating a subtle fusion between the multiple shades.
INGENUE BLOND
For hair that’s short, why look further than under the pert, button nose of the first icon of the cropped ‘do — Twiggy? In the 60s, this breakthrough ‘twig’ created a firestorm of a provocation, blowing open doors to a new generation of youth and freedom. Today, her followers continue to push the boundaries, mixing masculine and feminine code with both grown-up and child-like references. For this season, her reincarnation plays with a cool blond that distinctly British
Gilbert reveals her inspiration behind this look that “Recently, there have been a lot of models and actresses that have chopped off their locks, so we thought immediately of Twiggy! On a blonde, this looks and feels incredibly modern. But what keeps it super fresh is the dishevelled styling and the delicateness of the blond. It can’t just be one golden blond or it looks like a helmet. So we played with various frosted shades to create a colour with dimension and depth. It’s subtle and fresh.”
VIXEN VIOLET
She was the ultimate women, the American dream, the mythical temptress. Liz Taylors seems to have written in the code of glamour, as if they had never existed before her. Her sensual mouth, her voluptuous tousle of curls, and her icy eyes became her weapons of seduction, forever immortalized in the history of Hollywood. An eternal inspiration, revisited in a mysterious violet veil that only amplifies her seductress status.
“At the Moschino show, we wanted to revisit the slightly backcombed and sexy hair of Brigitte Bardot, but looking at the more seductive and playful side. I think that this type of hair is always influential. It’s beautiful, sculptural, glamorous, but forever modern because Brigitte was a liberated woman. For the Moschino show, we were actually inspired by her look in the 1963 film Le M?pris (Contempt)” said Gilbert
SIREN
COPPER
Flamboyant, fiery, captivating, these are a few of words inextricably linked to the image of Bridgette Bardot. She owed her sensual aura to her tousled, disheveled locks with seductive volume for an irresistible kiss of glamour. Her French touch continues to captivate the world, even today. Our new B.B. is just as fiery and her flame of copper hair is surely the one of many reasons why.
For this model, we were inspired by Elizabeth Taylor. We wanted to do something very voluminous, midlength, that recalled the style of Mad Men. We worked with a layered cut that came to life with waves and some sweeping sections of rich violet, almost aubergine. It’s spectacular.
Transformation of these 3 beauties iconic with “RETRO NOUVEAU” Collections are now available at L’ Oreal Professionnel nationwide