Runway S/S18

RUNWAY JOSH WOOD
Nina Agdal for Redken Shades EQ
ALEXANDER WANG shows have a certain power
about them. Each season, the fashion and beauty
worlds watch his New York catwalk with bated breath,
wondering what new looks will be pulled out of his
magician’s hat: once it was an army of bleached-out
heads, another time it was model Katie Moore’s fresh
scarlet crop. For S/S18, it was the turn of Stella Lucia,
whose pink waves set social media alight.
The man responsible for transforming the Austrian
model’s blonde hair was of course Redken global color
creative director Josh Wood, who worked on the show
with regular collaborator and Redken global creative
director, Guido Palau. Together with Alexander Wang,
they sought inspiration from Kate Moss, who boldly
walked the Versace runway in 1999 with a pink head
in a sea of neutrals. “We wanted one model to really
stand out,” explains Josh Wood. “In the past we have
had a lot of models changing their hair for a show, but
this was a relaxed look on all of them.”
With Alexander Wang adored as a fashion god
among millennials, it’s no surprise that Josh offered
up a pink shade for Stella – but this isn’t just any pink.
Josh with Mads-Sune Lund
The crystallised shade is pretty in some lights and edgy
in others, forcing you to consider it from every angle.
“I’ve called it Rose Quartz,” says Josh. “It was always
going to be a pink, but moving away from baby pastels
to something grungier. It shows that you can have a
personalised tone of pink that suits your complexion.
There’s not just one shade.”
This gemstone effect was created using Redken’s
colour line-up and, to avoid backstage stress, the
colouring process was done the day before the show.
“It took about eight hours,” admits Josh. “Some of
this time was spent doing treatments, as we had to
maintain the quality of the hair.”
After all that hard work, all Stella required on show
day was a tousle, courtesy of Guido. Her international
modelling career meant that she had to be back to
blonde for Milan Fashion Week. “Stella was scheduled
to walk for Gucci the following week, and she was
booked to have white hair, so the colour we did for the
Wang show had to be something that we could wash
out,” admits Josh’s first assistant, Mads-Sune Lund,
who was on hand throughout.
The world of hair has been rose-tinted for a while
now, with everyone from Katy Perry to Helen Mirren
by way of Lady Gaga flirting with a little blush through
their blonde. Research from L’Oréal Professionnel
has found that nearly a quarter of women (24 per cent)
are more likely to try a bright or pastel hair colour
now than they were a year ago. The report also
discovered large increases in clients wanting to
experiment with the pink hair trend right across the
UK, and colouring hair now tops the list of reasons
women visit hair salons.
But have we reached peak pink, or will we continue
to see it over the coming season? “It’s definitely going
to stay as a huge trend,” says Josh, who recently worked
on a Redken Shades EQ campaign that features the
grungy pink at Wang. “It’s popular with clients as it’s
flattering and doesn’t stain hair. Now we’re going to see
more dusty shades of pink.” Make ours a rosé, all day.
H O W T O
GET ROSE
QUARTZ
Pre-Lightened Hair, Level 10
Formula one:
2 oz. Redken Shades EQ Pastel
Pink + 2 oz. Shades EQ Processing
Solution processed for 20
minutes on clean, dry hair. Rinse,
shampoo, and condition with
Redken Color Extend Magnetics.
Formula two:
2 oz. Redken City Beats Ballet
Pink + 1 oz. City Beats in Clear +
1/8 oz. City Beats in East
Village Violet + 1/8 oz. City Beats
in Midtown Magenta processed
for 20 minutes on dry hair. Rinse,
shampoo, and condition with
Redken Color Extend Magnetics.
Spring/Summer 2018 RUNWAY 49