NYFW Peter Som: Eugene Souleiman for Wella: It's All About Color

"I'm very into giving designers a look that's JUST for them," says Eugene Souleiman for Wella Professionals, backstage at Peter Som,"something completely tailored." With Peter's collection, it's very strong in terms of color and we both kind of felt the girls NEEDED color in their hair."

And, color he delivered! Weft after weft of hair was applied to the models' existing hair to help create a vibe of "great clothes with bad hair," according to Souleiman.

"I wanted the hair to feel completely unnatural--featuring greens, violets, pewter blues and a hue of silver," he said. "Applied in a patchy, spontaneous way--almost as if the girl colored her hair one day and then the next day decided 'Maybe I want to try another color.'"

The product used to create the texture was NOT a curling iron or flatiron, in fact the hair was styled primarily with the hands! The texture was created using Wella Professionals' Ocean Sprits. "It's a really great product to take away shine from the hair and create organic, dry texture."

 

Aura Friedman painted the wefts using Wella Professionals High-Lift Blondes and Color Touch Relights/Special Mixes.

"The color is really a fusion of metallic pastels--almost like this girl went to the salon and said I want this color and that color, I want everything and I want it to all melt together. Then she let it fade," she says.

"It's a great evolution of the pastel trend--but the metallic makes it more luxurious or dusty looking."

So what was the prep work like? It took a total of 12 hours, working with a very small team. "To show the team an example of how I wanted them to paint the wefts, I showed them French Impressionist paitings," she said. 

 

 

"Some of the teals in the hair came from the water around the lilly pads. The Soft pinks came from the flowers, and the green came from the elaves in the buds. The palette works really well together--and I wanted the color applied in patchy way like that."

Here's how they colored the wefts. First, they lay them all out on a table. The artist had the colro in front of them, and they painted the color right on.

"I didn't worry about saturation of the strands," she said. "If some hairs weren't colored, that was ok--the idea is that it didn't have to look too well done or manicured--more organic."

MODERN had the honor to interview Rebecca of Zoya nails for the scoop of the look created specifically for Peter Som's color extravaganza. Three colors were used in a mint/orange French manicure: Sharon (orange), Neely (mint) and Jacqueline (beige).

 

 

"Neely is the base, and Sharon is the tip color," Rebecca said. "We're SO excited about the collaboration and the polishes will be available in limited quantities at zoya.com following the show."

  

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