When you not only meet, but find yourself interviewing the lovely Kim Coles within five minutes of arriving at an event, it’s hard to not be impressed. And lucky for me, my experience at Saturday’s “Texture on the Runway” event did not disappoint.
“I have a curly soul,” Ms. Coles told me and another social media reporter, Terri. Amidst a buzz of blow dryers and scurrying models, we learned Kim’s natural hair journey, her favorite products and just how amazing and down-to-earth she is in person.
But I would never be a good blogger or social guru if I rambled on only about my brush with the “Living Single” star. Or how I ran up to Nick Arrojo and awkwardly asked to shake his hand – awkwardly because I burst out of nowhere, rather than, as I intended, calmly sauntering over to him and mentioning how thrilled I was to meet him and hear about his new American Wave system, which revolutionizes the way salons can add curl and wave to straight hair.
No, I’d rather tell you about what an incredible event I experienced on Saturday. Top hair stylists and product lines like Matrix, Curls Unleashed, Hair Rules, Minardi, and (as I clearly knew”> Arrojo, came together to shout out to the fashion world that texture should and needs to be on the runway. Texture, whether through Matrix’s neo-Victorian crimps and braids or the boundless bounce of Curls Unleashed’s explosion of all curl types, is something that can accentuate style, and I am confident that the show dazzled the fashion industry, not to mention the packed room in attendance.
My favorite moments of the day happened while interviewing top stylists and having the opportunity to see the varied techniques that each used to bring out various hair types and styles that they featured. While Minardi used blow dryers and pin curls, Curls Unleashed wowed with twisting and stretching individual curls using curl definer and gel.
“Texture on the Runway” also showed me that curly hair can be versatile. The way to change a curly ‘do is not by straightening it, but by employing different scrunch vs. fluff moves that change the entire shape of the hair, while still maintaining its natural structure.
I’m proud to have been a part of “Texture on the Runway,” and it’s powerful statement about the synthesis of fashion and texture. Matrix’s Nick Stenson told me that, before today, texture was never (and he stressed NEVER”> seen on the runway. I hope that, in showing how much curl and wave can do, we can allow texture to do more and to be a fixture in fashion weeks to come.
