Groove Prophet.
Stylish Horizons. By Rhianne Muir.
Gone are the days when being on trend was enough to stay at the top of your game. Your clients are now privy to runway shows at the mere click of a button, know all about up and coming styles and want a ‘do that puts them miles ahead in the style stakes. How does the humble hairdresser keep up? By becoming a trend pioneer of course! Knowing styles, colours and shapes long before the masses will set you above the rest and improve both the desirability and profitability of your salon. All you need is a sprinkling of know-how from Goldwell and WGSN…
Trends don’t just get plucked from obscurity and thrust onto shop shelves and magazine pages – they take years of careful research and analysis by companies such as WGSN. The Worth Global Style Network is a trend forecasting agency that predicts trends in fashion and lifestyle up to two years before you see them on the runway and high street. How? They collate and interpret various pieces of data, which is used to forge the themes and key looks for a particular season. This is then relayed to clients including Topshop, Dolce and Gabbana and David Jones, where you will find it proudly hanging in-store in the shape of this season’s must have item.
So how does all this relate to the hairdresser? Think about your clients – how many of them ask for celebrity inspired hair cuts or have snapped up some key pieces of the season and want to spruce up their locks to match? Everything we are exposed to in mass culture and the media affects our expectations of the salon experience, and by keeping track of hot new film releases and the latest musos, it’s easier to predict what your clients want. So if you’re clued up on the next big thing before it lands, chances are that you’re going to know what your client is after long before they take the hotseat.
Goldwell Fashion Forward Look & Learn seminars are the brainchild of a heaven-sent collaboration between Goldwell and WGSN, showing bright young things like yourself how to translate what’s hip and happening in media and culture into cutting edge hair. In a series of nationwide seminars held recently, WGSN spokesperson Sue Evans presented how cinema, celebrities and musical acts like Marina and the Diamonds and Paloma Faith are spearheading current trend directions, before she took the audience through three current and future 2011 trends – 360°, My Space and Faux Real. Goldwell’s Shane Henning then presented his adaptation of the trends. As Shane puts it himself, “trends keep my work fresh”. Wise words indeed!
“Trend forecasting is integral to the fashion style industry,” explains Sue Evans, WGSN’s Senior Catwalk Editor and prophet of all things stylish, “as it determines colour, trend direction and fashion direction – everything that people in the industry need to know to be ahead of the game.
“This is so important to hairdressers too, as you have to have a point of difference from everyone else. Customers today are so aware of trends, and it’s important to the industry that you’re aware of them too. If you’re not up with these trends then you’re not part of the vanguard.
“We start with a think-tank two years ahead of season, where we ask questions like ‘Where’s the market going?’ ‘What are people thinking?’ and ‘What movies are coming out?’” Sue explains.
One of the themes presented during this seminar was 360°, which is heavily influenced by 3D and Avatar, a film WGSN was tracking two years before its release. “360° is about looking at things from a different perspective, as we have 360 degrees of a person to look at, rather than just the front,” says Sue. Shane Henning’s catwalk adaptation featured styles that were simple from the front but hold elaborate hidden surprises at the back, where you wouldn’t otherwise look. Think twists, undercuts, disconnection and fishtails nestled away at the back of the head.
“The next step is to use that information to decipher the colours from the season – that’s the first thing we forecast,” explains Sue. “If you’re a fabric manufacturer you need to know the colours way ahead of season. There’s a whole network of colour forecasters who will meet and form palettes together. Then we start putting trends together.”
On the agenda for Faux Real are playful mixes of acids brights and hyper-colours, which translated into hot reds and magentas on Shane’s models, plus marigolds for brave blondes. Styles were loud and proud, featuring engineered plaits, and frizzy, voluminous outward curls. Focused on making the real look fake, Faux Real isn’t a look for the timid! My Space is based on a palette of warm, vintage tans, reds and inky blues, which translated into burnt gold and honey tones and rich ginger with hints of blues and blacks on the catwalk. An exploration of what we choose to surround ourselves with, Shane’s hair featured serious architectural styling and sculpted, moulded structures. Side rolls and quiffs are integral to this look, with sleek bobs, geometric lines and bold shapes.
Fabrics and prints closely follow suit, leaving WGSN with a complete fashion trend to pass onto retailers and the hair and beauty industry. Sue’s top picks for Autumn/Winter 2010/11? “The vintage military look, the 50s (think Mad Men), and the 70s.”
Sue also adds that next winter’s wardrobe staples will include “an aviator jacket, a cape or caped knitwear and a pair of 70’s flared trousers, which give you every girl’s dream – super long legs!” And the good news is, these kinds of looks aren’t difficult to translate into a desirable hairstyle for the client. “Adapt looks to clients – make a suggestion and tailor a trend for them,” Sue enthuses. “As soon as they see celebrities sporting it, that makes the concept of change easier for them.”
You heard the woman… start trendsetting and go get ‘em!