As of today, there are only seven days left until the first ever textured hair AS fashion runway show in New York City. Hosted by TextureMedia, the parent company of NaturallyCurly.com, the event was inspired by the fact that last fall, we hardly saw any texture on the runway, and it left us wondering where the heck it was!
We decided that if designers weren’t going to put textured hair on their models, then we would! Fast forward to present day and we are here in Austin, TX in a flurry of a hectic mess making sure that this fashion show goes off without a hitch so that it can truly change the conversation about textured hair.
This is the Texture Revolution, and if you thought that the movement wasn’t moving fast enough, take a look around. CurlyNikki is heading off as an invitee to Grammy after-parties, we are hosting a hair fashion show in the middle of New York City’s spring fashion week and we have an immense amount of surprises, updates and all around joy to spread with everyone in the coming months! We may not be burning our bras to prove a point, and thank heavens we aren’t burning our hair anymore, but we are getting noticed – and it is about time!
In the meantime, we caught up with some of our favorite stylists to get their take on the event, the conversation and what is going on in the fashion world, and how we are about to change it!
Celebrity stylist and founder and creator of Curlisto hair products, Christo, offers his take on what curly hairstyles we’ll be seeing on the runway.
What natural hair texture trends have you seen on the runways, heck, if any?
During my experience at New York Fashion Week every year, we come across some models that have natural, super tight and coily hair texture. I usually like to work with this style and not against it. Therefore, I convince the designer that they should let this texture do its own thing. Most designers agree to let the models wear their natural coils and put them in a dress that will represent the most natural look.
For us not so up to speed on the runway stuff: what exactly is considered a “runway” style, and how does texture play into that?
Runway style has a thousand meanings. The runway is the inspiration of the designer’s clothing and accessories coming to life; hair and makeup is a tool they use to best accentuate their design. Hair does not play a leading role, but is the best supporting cast to best show case their designs. Like I mentioned before, if the designer’s clothing has a natural feel, that is when you will see natural textures on the runway.
So are any of those runway styles achievable at home? Can you deconstruct one for us – in laymen’s terms, please!
Yes, these styles can be achieved at home. One style that I used last fashion week was the “suddenly twist,” which is easy to do and extravagant to behold.
- Tease your hair by taking hair from the crown area and use a light hairspray like Curlisto shaping spray. Use a teasing comb to tease from the top down 2-3 times. Spray some more hairspray and move on to the next section.
- Once you finish the bottom layer, smooth out the front and comb off to one side keeping lift. Twist your hair off to one side and secure loose hair with a clip.
- Braid the bottom layer to a side French twist in the same direction as the top layer. Wrap the hair into a low side chignon and secure with bobby pins.
- Take the remaining hair from the top layer and twist it to the end. Then, sweep it down and around the chignon before again securing with bobby pins.
What do you think about Jourdan Dunn’s tweet this past fall during Paris’ Fashion Week about how stylists backstage don’t know how to deal with natural hair?
I understand the frustration of Jordan Dunn because some stylists do not know how to deal with textured hair. If you want to be a true stylist, you should know how to work with all hair types. There is a definite need for true stylists who can work with all hair types and are not afraid of textured hair, so that women with textured hair will not have to let go of their frustrations backstage at fashion shows.
As far as runway hair, are these looks really something that women at home can pull off?
There is a 50 percent chance that you can pull off a runway look in real life. Runway styles are sometimes wild and avant-garde to represent a designer’s vision or time period. These designers sometimes base their looks on different eras, past or present. Therefore the styles might be too out there to try and carry off today.
Any predictions for what might be coming up for the spring runways?
We will see a lot of reds this spring, specifically strawberry blonds. Blonds will spice up their look with strawberry highlights. Red eggplant with dark brown low lights will also be very popular this spring, but with no limits.
