There were a couple of things to celebrate in the world of Alfaparf this week – 30 years in the business of hair and the birthday of industry legend Richard Thompson. Two significant milestones celebrated in style at the Alfaparf Melbourne Global Show – a party of education and inspiration held exclusively for Australian stylists and salon owners.
Guests were first treated to a live demonstration showcasing Alfaparf’s new men’s colour and care range, Man Uomo. The ammonia free colour caters for the loyal male client (who visits the salon more than women on an average nine times a year) to whom time and style is of the essence.
With a developing time of just five minutes and boasting blueberry extract, the Man Uomo colour conceals 10 to 20 per cent of greys on up to 70 per cent grey hair and is available in six nuances. The line continues into care and style with a silver shampoo, conditioner, stimulating tonic, matte paste and wet gel.
Richard Thompson and Senior Creative Director, Neil Atkinson were next to the stage and announced the evening’s agenda.
Attendees including AHFA Australian Hairdresser of the Year, Joey Scandizzo and AHFA Colour Technician of the Year, Marie Uva, learned they were going to be treated to two new collections developed by Richard himself, and the anticipation was red hot.
First up was Nuovo Classicismo. Designed for the ‘shop window,’ this collection is the more commercial of the two and demonstrates the consequence of creativity meeting balance and symmetry.
“It’s about focusing on the fashion world at the moment. Because of the worldwide recession, rather than extreme things, we’re focusing on trophy items and mixing them with something we already have in the wardrobe. Rather than representing what is classic, Nuovo Classicismo is about working out what will be the new classism of the future,” said Richard.
A series of cuts proceeded to unfurl that were nothing short of phenomenal. Richard in particular had a magical manner of making hair move to the music of his mind – a subtle brush with his fingers and each strands salutes like a soldier to his sergeant, instantly conforming to the request for structure and solidity.
“If you don’t know much about Mahogany, the strength of technique coming through in cut and colour is very important to us. We’re not just here showing hairstyles, it all comes from a technique that can be changed to suit different individuals,” said Richard.
The beauty of Richard and Neil’s cuts were the hidden bits – the bow-fringe and disconnected piece often concealing perfected linearity or devilish tapering, and always flushed with complementing colour.
Mahogany Colour Director, Tai Walker was on hand to walk guests through the Alfaparf mixations and techniques applied to each look, the palette for Novo Classism favouring smoky violet, chocolates and deep copper.
The second collection, Crown Affair, was designed more with education and inspiration in mind, and as a result contains lines and a palette to inspire the nuttiest creative.
“Crown Affair means a few different things really. When we started it was actually about what it says, the crown - either flat military style or full crowns. It then evolved to represent where fashion is at the moment in the UK – a movement that is relating to a confused mash of cultures - and proceeded to borrow direction from a new Paris-born dance move called TechTronic which is influenced by the rise and fall of Earth plate tectonics,” explained Richard of his similarly mashed list of inspiration.
“What you’re going to see in the haircuts are things that aren’t normally put together like vintage with modern and taking military and making un-important. You will notice square shapes that are longer at the back and shorter at the top – that classic 1970s technique going from longer to shorter,” he explains.
Strong uniform colour placement and V-shaped sections paraded bright coppers, intense red and the crowd pleaser, metallic lavender.
The show wound up a with a catwalk-style parade of all the evening’s looks – leaving hairdressers eager to take new-found knowledge and key trends back to the salon floor.
Look out for the exclusive interview with Richard Thompson in INSTYLE's January-February 2011 issue.
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