On Tuesday January 10, 2017, Wella Professionals kicked off the opening of the 2017 North American TrendVision Awards by inviting their Wella Professionals Artistic Team to present their interpretation of one of the 2017 Trends at the Wella Studio Los Angeles.

Top Artists and Design Team members from both the US and Canada teamed up to present a look inspired by either the Spring Summer trend Optical Illusion or the Autumn/Winter trend, PastForward. The 40 stylists who presented at the Trend Reveal event were grouped in teams of two and presented their trend inspiration as either a Creative Vision or Color Vision category entry.

The 2017 Wella Professionals Trends are: 

SS17 Optical Illusion – This trend is about bringing out the ultra-authentic self through intelligent manipulation of style in color, cut and texture. By enhancing dimensions and creating the Optical Illusion of expressive shapes in hair that take you on a journey from real to ultra-real, even surreal.

AW17 Past Forward – This trend is about defining the new sophisticated emotionality in hair and beauty. Hand-crafted aesthetics – a seemingly random flaw or fingerprint of personality – to create a beautiful über-authenticity that drives out the ghost of the boring, over-groomed perfection. Instead, character creation is daringly “normal”: honest, uncomplicated, decidedly comfortable and effortlessly you.

The National TrendVision Awards are now taking entries; hairdressers can enter either the Creative Vision category or the Color Vision Category.

Color Vision - The Color Vision category is open to hairdressers of all ages. This category recognizes the best-in-class color work.

Creative Vision – Creative Vision category open to hairdressers of all ages. This category offers the freedom to express your creative vision by either a cut and finish and/or dressing hair with an editorial feel.

Paula Ruffo, Wella Professionals' Portfolio Education Manager, is responsible for leading the brand’s competitions including Sebastian’s What’s Next Awards and all the rounds of Trend Vision (from regional to national to international). WATCH THE VIDEOS at the bottom of this post in which Ruffo takes MODERN behind-the-scenes during this exciting day of creativity and challenge. 

Quotes from the Wella Professionals Artistic Teams who presented at the Trend Reveal:

Anna Holaday (US Wella Design Team) & Peg Cribari (US  Wella Top Artist) Color Vision Category/ AW17 PastForward  Trend. “ We were inspired by the color pallet of the AW trend, pulling from the 70’s version of these color palettes but we wanted to create something modern, refined and soft. We worked with shades of light violet, avocado green and soft peach. Our style vibe is 70’s boho chic with a rebel yell twist ”

Dean Roybal ( US Wella Top Artist) & Rodrigo Araneda (Canadian Wella Design Team) Creative Vision Category / SS17 Optical Illusion trend. "We were inspired by the color palette’s shades that are found in nature. We then created a color formula that was inspired by our model’s skin tone and eye color, we wanted our style to be very artistic and over the top”  

Aleksandar Blagojevic (US Wella Top Artist) & Christian Kim (US Wella Top Artist) Creative Vision catagory / SS17 Optical Illusion trend. “We were inspired by the darker colors in the palette and for our style we wanted to create the illusion contouring by utilizing texture created with a mini crimping iron”

Dana Lyseng (Canadian Wella Top Artist) & Lisa Smith (Canada Wela Design Team) Color Vision Category / AW17 PastForward trend. “We went with colors you would find in the forest. Deep woody colors like beautiful browns and stormy colors - violets and blues. We gave our model a beautiful disconnected haircut and since the PastForward trend really has a vintage feel, we’ll be putting in some really cool finger waves with a modern beautiful texture and adding hair pieces for a cool disconnecting affect”

Liz Wright (US Wella Design Team) & Pablo Alvarado (US Wella Design Team) Creative Vision Category / AW17 PastForward trend. “The texture we created was inspired by burlap material, we wanted to create a look that has an organic feel at the bottom of the layers – truly taking from the design element of this trend. We intentionally skipped section so that it has an imperfect feel, unrefined, still retains the classic feel of the shape”

Whitney Parr (US Wella Design Team) & Franco Cannatella (US Wella Design Team) Color Vision Category / SS17 Optical Illusion trend. “Our look really focuses on contouring to bring out the best features. Styling is very feminine soft and bring out her inner beauty. We really loved her eyes, I think that’s the first this we noticed about her. More so than taking inspiration from anything else we took our inspiration from her how our model likes to wear her hair, what color really spoke to her, really playing off that  - all her loves and bringing them together and what would make her best features standout”

Michael Haase (US Wella Top Artist) & Mark DeBolt (US Wella Top Artist) Color Vision category / SS17 Optical Illusion trend. “What’s really cool about the trend is that what you think you see isn’t really there, plus the intermixing of color and layering of different colors. The architectural shapes of the cut and the finished design really work as one to really give the illusion of something of that you don’t really know how it was created. Optical Illusion is really about celebrating one’s individuality. It’s about looking at my client’s bone structure her skin tone her eye color and creating a hair color that celebrates her natural beauty. It’s about creating the look that highlights the peaks and the valley of her bone structure or maybe makes her eye color sing. The color pallet includes smoky peat tones, smoky browns, sandy beige colors, set against beautiful accent colors like sienna - those colors come together in a very playful unexpected way, creating a look that is special hand-crafted”

Paul Nasrallah (Canadian Wella Top Artist) & Brigitte Castonguay (Canadian Wella Design Team) Creative Vision Category/ SS17 Optical Illusion trend. “We used warm and cool tones to complement her facial features. The final style will be very editorial, with a natural edge. Beautiful with airy, breezy texture, a controlled yet liberated shape, a true optical illusion utilizing color placement to give the appearance of motion in the hair”

Sonya Dove (US Wella Top Artist) & Stevie Smith (US Wella Design Team) Color Vision Category / AW17 PastForward trend. “We were inspired by the simplicity and beauty of the models natural hair, it was so long and so healthy with everyone changing up their hair so often, having a blank canvas of beautiful shiny hair was inspiring with in itself. We wanted to enhance her natural tones with woody browns- leathery, soft warm brunettes, soft heather evergreens – truly showcasing the natural elements of her hair in a playful way. For the style we incorporated  1940’s inspired accents, kind of a 1940’s hair roll but with a modern twist”

Alexandra Matiz (US Wella Top Artist) & Jamie Pierce (US Wella Design team) Color Vision Category / SS17 Optical Illusion trend. “We were inspired by tulip fields and linear lines found in architecture. We created peek-a- boo color panels with vertical color placement that accents her diamond shape face. For the style we wanted to keep it very soft and playful” 

Aubrey Loots (US Wella Top Artist) & Mirella Rota (Canadian Wella Top Artist) Color Vision Category / AW17 PastForward trend. “We created our look with a 70’s inspired color palette and a style that pushes into the future with modern textures and shapes”

Nicole Obert ( US Wella Top Artist) & Nick  Pascetta (Canadian Wella Design Team) Category Color Vision / AW17  PastForward trend. “We were inspired by the contradiction of natural tones in an unnatural form. We continued with this idea in our style, with an inside out French braid that starts back to front”

Igor Vasiljuk (US Wella Design Team) & Jeff Martin (US Wella Top Artist) Color Vision Category / SS17 Optical Illusion trend. “We were inspired by the tulip gardens in Holland, we wanted our color placement and style reflect the tulip shape”

Phillip Ferreira (Wella Canada Top Artist) & Vicki Busque (Wella Canada Design Team) Creative Vision Category AW17 PastForward trend. “We created different textures in the hair to complement our color placement, creating dimension in the hair with light and shadow”

Shirley Gordon (US Wella Top Artist & Kathryn LaRusso (US Wella Design Team) Creative Vision Category / AW17 PastForward trend. “The color was inspired by the soft earthy tones found in the trend’s color palette. Our style has lots of texture but in a controlled shape”

Antonio Quintieri (Canadian Wella Top Artist) & Enrique Lamboy (US Wella Design Team) Creative Vision / AW17 PastForward trend. “Our haircut inspiration was created to have a more worn in wiggy feel to it. Something that has an undone feel. For the color we wanted to use almost nude and cool tones but also introducing some warmth that almost had a cool hue to it”

Brenton Lee (US Wella Top Artist) & Van Kavgadoulis (Canadian Wella Design Team) Creative Vision Category / SS17 Optical Illusion trend “Our look is all about contouring and sculpting with various textures”

Douglas David (US Wella Top Artist) & Nicole Revish (US Wella Design Team) Creative Vision category / SS Optical Illusion trend. “We created a beautiful color melt with a deep copper that melts into blonde. We wanted our style to have a whimsical  feel”

Eric Lindsey (US Wella Top Artist) & Eryn Wall (Canadian Wella Design Team) Creative Vision category /AW17 PastForward “Our inspiration for the color was thinking of faded and muted colors found in nature, to show the authenticity of the trend. We wanted to be expressive with muted moss tone at the root fading into soft wheat beige, with accents of minky rose to offset the interest in the cut. We kept the shape in the back classic inverted bob, but added interest with a short fringe,  disconnection and asymmetry all the while really focusing on the foundation of our precision cutting. The overall look was über authentic with elements from the past but put together with products and techniques from the present”