Wella Professionals debuted their first couture fashion partnership at Paris Haute Couture Week in July with grand couturier and official guest of Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, Yiqing Yin. Celebrating the launch of Couture Color, Wella’s most premium hair color service, master colorist and Wella Professionals Global Creative Director, Josh Wood created a beautifully bespoke color, uniquely crafted for the Yiqing Yin couture collection for Fall/Winter 2015/2016.

Using a  blend of shades to create an ethereal white blonde, Wella Professionals and Wood collaborated closely with Yin to understand her inspiration and process.

“Couture is a completely free platform of inspiration, creation and expression," Yin says."I love the idea that when I start, I don’t know where I’m going to finish. I always start from one visual that really inspire me or sparks an emotion.”

For this collection Yin explored the process of a snake shedding its skin, the transformative moment when it casts off the past and celebrates new beginnings.  This inspired very light, nearly weightless, shimmering and floating fabrics.

“When I was presented with Yiqing Yin’s storyboard, I knew I wanted to create a weightless blonde, one without color and so pure that it becomes almost transparent, a little like the translucency of the discarded python skins that have been used within the collection," Wood says. "Working in partnership with Yiqing Yin and her team, we selected a model with the right length and texture so that the weightlessness of the color would be exaggerated as the girl walked.”

Using Blondor, Wood  created a totally desaturated starting point.  Using ILLUMINA Color shades, he added soft pearl and ice blonde tones for subtle sections of lightness that would accentuate the form of the final hair style – a textured knot tied loosely at the nape.  “It was important for some of the hair to be restrained in this delicate knot so that the hair pieces left loose would float as the girl walks, thereby accentuating the lightness of color and weight.”

FORMULA:

  • Blondor 6%
  • ILLUMINA Color 10/ 10/36 and 9/03

STYLING PRODUCTS:

  • Wella Professionals EIMI Ocean Spritz and EIMI Dry Me to add a light, matte texture to the hair
  • Wella Professionals EIMI Stay Essential hairspray to hold the style in place.

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