Bonaveri Magazine

Ostrich feathers for Obsession as said, in
8 colours. Emma and I looked at the mood
together; it was clear that the afro would make
so much more of a statement, and I am really
happy we decided to go with all afros.
You design the wigs, and also you make them
or do you have someone make them?
No, I do everything. But I have a few assistants
that help out when I need them.
What is the material you use for them?
It’s usually synthetic hair fibre. It comes in a big
range of colours, and I hand mix the colours
together to make it right. It’s very different
making that than doing wigs for people. I used
to do wigs for drag queens, I have done some
for a few drag queens like Ru Paul’s Drag Race
TV program. I have done a few wigs for people
from that TV show. In this case it’s much more
styling, not so much making.
Do you follow fashion and runways to see
what’s going on and get inspired?
Some. Did you see the big feather hat by
Valentino? I do follow Philip Treacy, who
designed those big ostrich feather hats for
Valentino.
It seems that feathers now are quite cool and
current.
Yes, for sure.
The world of visual display.
Way back, when realistic mannequins were in
Vogue, wigs and make up went hand in hand,
they fit together. A realistic mannequin just
looks weird without a wig, or make up. It could
look OK if doesn’t have any make up either, but
if it has make-up it has to have a wig. No makeup
without a wig, but you can have a wig without
make up. I mean, I prefer both but it is possible
to have just a wig. I feel like wigs and things
like that and make up are super important now,
because of online shopping.
Nowadays in visual merchandising everybody is
trying to create an experience rather than just a
shop window with the mannequins displayed in
it. People now are creating whole stories rather than
just a mannequin with clothes on it.
Something that can sound easy but actually isn’t?
A customer could say to me: I want a bob. But there
are so many different ways you can make a bob. Let’s
think for example of men’s wig.
Men’s wigs are quite hard to do: you would think they
would be easier because they are short, but actually
doing short wigs is one of the most difficult tasks,
because there is so much room for error. While with
long hair in female hair styles, from a bob and longer,
there is a lot of room for mistakes because you can
always hide them and make them look better, but
not with men. When it’s short it’s short, if you cut too
much off, it’s gone! I would pick out every single detail,
starting with the hairline.
How is one trained in this niche?
There are no schools where you can learn this.
There are a few courses but so-so. But the reason to
take courses or go to school doesn’t really work for
mannequins because there is not enough work to
have lots of people do it. It’s a niche industry and this
is the niche of the niche as I said. If I count on my
fingers, in the UK now, there are probably less than 10
mannequin wig makers in the whole country.
What does it mean to be a mannequin wig maker in
2020?
As I said before, there are not many people that do
the job that I do. This is due to changing trends within
the industry, and whatever is fashionable at the time.
Because this has become such a small part of the
industry we work in, this has never enabled wig studios
to grow. I was lucky enough to be bought in to a team
of mostly older people, and was trained the classic
way by some of the original Rootstein wig makers. But
being a young hairdresser I quickly recognised that
things needed to change if they were ever going to
move forward. It all felt very old fashioned, which don’t
get me wrong, is often beautiful. But ‘Classic’ doesn’t
work for every client, they need to have options. That
is why I started Peluca Studio. To modernise and move
forward an almost forgotten part of the the Visual
Display industry.
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