If there’s a way to draw you straight into a fashion-centric sphere you barely knew existed, David Jones just discovered it, erecting a series of translucent screens along a winding, full-room runway to envelop you in season Autumn Winter 18 in its entirety. With models walking through the large warehouse-style room of The Locomotive Workshop at Australian Technology Park, and a circular centrepiece with David Jones spelt out and the latest looks in greater than life size form, this was a runway experience to make you feel like Alice, through the looking glass.
The screens were the talking point – a collection of clear, savvy backdrops that, at different times, showed flashing colours, shapes and patterns, flying doves, drops of water, city scapes, performers and parading models, and even the David Jones ambassadors themselves, all with the actual (live) models visible behind them and through them. With the models interacting with the screens and the images moving to the music and complementing each fashion aesthetic, this was a runway show built for the 21st century.
Different categories of high end fashion, think brands such as Camilla, By Johnny, Ginger & Smart, Dion Lee, Aje, Macgraw, Zimmermann, Romance Was Born and Carla Zampatti, were clearly delineated by lighting, effects and music choice, and intermittent live performers punctuated the runway show and provided the ideal finale. Still, amongst the many collections, fashion perspectives and artistic decisions, the hair, by Aveda and Hair Director Teri Robertson-Kirkwood stayed constant, with luxury and opulence, and one very distinct look, leading the way. Think of it as an ideal statement look, to complement bold fashion ensembles and a runway show entitled ‘Take The Leap’.
“We have the ponytail but it has two different finishes to do with the ribbon, which is the structural focal point. So we have clear ribbon and we have black frilled ribbon, which is actually elastic, who would have thought elastic would be pretty?” Teri said of the hero look, which was built around the idea of hair adornments.
“The brief was about pushing boundaries and making women feel like they can push boundaries but still feel like they’re not silly,” she continued. “When I saw the collections I just thought I had to produce something couture. They just had the couture shows in Europe so I went and did a bit of research and all the research is pointing to volume somewhere on the head, but a lot of the looks also have detail close to the face, so we’ve gone with that feeling and have a nice, close, tucked behind the hair look, and then natural volume and that structural detail that’s either transparent or black.”
Invati Advanced was essential in prepping the hair, while the range’s Revitalizer and the brand’s Volumising Tonic and Texture Tonic were necessary in creating juxtaposing textures, from smooth details to the big hair at the back of the look. Models with hair too short to be tied back into the ponytail and leading ladies and ambassadors such as Jessica Gomes and the all-new Victoria Lee were given bold, luscious blow dries, rather than the principle look.
With a hair look dually bold and feminine, the models paraded down the runway as if they were a very chic army emerging from the screens, an enthralling mix of real and virtual, as if the VIP audience was sitting in a fashion-centric episode of Black Mirror. Fashion, music, special effects, beauty and hair were used to pull you into that universe, where trends rule and fashion is for all of the senses. We never wanted to leave.
For more information visit aveda.com.au
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