The Outliers Issue 1

MARC JACOBS A/W18
Josh Wood (left) and Guido backstage at Marc Jacobs
In a show that saw 80 per cent
of the models donning hats,
you know it must have been
pretty spectacular hair on the
remainder to have ended up on the
cover of The New York Times. That
was down to the talent of session
stars Josh Wood and Guido.
An illustration of the power
of collaboration, the duo worked
with the designer to deliver a
darker take on ’80s nostalgia,
referencing classic Sassoon
techniques with the cuts, and neon
from an ’80s nightclub for the
colour. It was a fusion that excited
the world of fashion, something
that isn’t so easy to do in 2018.
Marc had a clear view about
what he wanted to create, looking
at a very specific time in the ’80s
using extreme silhouettes. “It
felt night time, colourful but in
a dark way,” says Guido, global
creative director for Redken. “I
went back to what had an impact
on me at the beginning of my
career. I started at Sassoon, those
haircuts were my blueprint for
hairdressing.” After each model
was cut, colour took over.
The designer set Josh the task
of colour-matching every single
piece of fabric the models would
be wearing. The Redken global
color creative director found it
all reassuring. “With designers,
colour is so subjective. We had
20 samples of fabric that we were
trying to match to the hair. It’s
much easier than Marc saying ‘I
want a fuschia pink’, because his
fuschia is very different to Guido’s
fuschia… there were goals we were
trying to achieve,” he explains.
“The more clear the brief, the
easier it is to deliver.”
It was an intensive project.
Three days of conversations
before anyone arrived at the test,
and then three 20-hour days with
Josh’s team working in shifts.
And some shades were more
of a challenge, namely chartreuse.
“We had to bleach the hair to a
very specific shade of mustard
to avoid a banana yellow. It still
needed a lot of underlying pigment
to get that green-gold. That was
done five times,” Josh admits.
In fact, three formulas were
fused together. Formula one
(Redken City Beats in High Line
Green) was blurred into formula
two (Redken City Beats in Yellow
Cab plus a drop of Redken City
Beats in Times Square Teal) and
blurred into formula three (Redken
City Beats in High Line Green +
Redken City Beats in Yellow Cab
plus a drop of Redken City Beats in
Brooklyn Blue).
“We were up and down those
stairs in the Marc Jacobs studio.
Precision colour, where placement
is everything, is not easy to do over
a kitchen sink.”
The end result was one that
thrilled both designer and the
wider fashion world alike. The
models in question have since
been used in the Marc Jacobs
seasonal campaign and used
by Guido in a magazine shoot.
And it was a first for Josh Wood,
seeing himself name-checked in
the show notes. “It was a career
highlight for me,” says Josh. “Marc
said that what I’d done exceeded
expectations, he’d never seen
colour like that. It’s a pretty proud
moment when you’re allowed
to do something for a genius
and you’re introducing them
to something rather than just
meeting their expectations.”
The Outliers 21