The Wella ProfessionalsInternational Trend Vision Awards (ITVA) has been going strong for 16 years, but the leadership decided it was time to tweak the event and the competition itself. This new ITVA2018 just wrapped up in Lisbon, Portugal, and it was a resounding success. The three day event is reimagined and now called a “Creative Retreat Experience.” It was, by far, a truly special event.

“It was time for a change," says Sylvie Moreau, President of Coty Professional Beauty. It was time to celebrate our craft, elevate the professional beauty talents in the industry.” Moreau adds that the way this event was designed allowed participants to elevate their skill set “through mentoring, training and challenges - and to focus on taking salon professional creativity and social media skills to the next level.”

The 76 contestants from 43 countries, all winners of the “gold” in their own countries, were divided in to eight teams. Each team was mentored by two global creative artists and one “gifted” mentor, all with the goal to win any of the five awards offered: Social Media Award, #SpeakEIMI, GHD Queen Maker, Couture Color and Couture Collection. Each team had the opportunity to demonstrate skills in color, cut and style on the five models – three women and two men – assigned to the team. The Creative Retreat Experience took the best of all the reality talent competitions with a special nod to “The Voice” where mentorship and guidance is key. The weekend was filled with training, coaching, networking, inspirational presentations, challenges and a photo shoot. Each team was tasked with creating a concept, pulling together a mood board and then bringing that vision to life. Judging (by the mentors and key educators within the Wella Professionals world) took place throughout the weekend. Although it was a competition, the camaraderie and networking benefited all, and the artists in attendance confirmed they had the best of all worlds.

The two individual acknowledgments, an homage to the past ITVA set up, were announced early in the evening:

-The International TrendVision Award Creative Retreat 2018 Social Media Award, was handed out to Anastasia Petrova from Belarus who had the most views, likes and engagement from her posting throughout the weekend.

 -The International TrendVision Award 2018 Color Vision Award: Tanya Grant from Joey Scandizzo Salon,  Australia

-The International TrendVision Creative Vision Award: Sergei Chernyshev from Pavel Okhapkin studio salon, Russia

The team awards caused the most excitement when the winners were announced:

GHD QUEEN MAKER: Team 1

#SPEAKEIMI: Team 4

COUTURE COLOR: Team 8

COUTURE COLLECTION: Team 8

Patrick Cameron, Wella Professionals ambassador and emcee for the awards evening, noted that what made these finishes particularly inspiring is that "They are both consumer friendly and still inspiring. These looks can be used immediately in the salon on just about any guest, but each has a professional touch."

 THE TEAMS:

TEAM 1: Mentors Abby Smith and Dmitry Vinakurov along with gifted mentor Nico Diaz

Mario Carvalho, winner of Color Vision, Brazil

Christian Vazquez Lopez, winner of Color Vision, Mexico

Sanya Kerànen, winner of Color Vision, Norway

Roxana Elena Rotaru, winner of Creative Vision, Romania

Luciean Llie, winner of Color Vision, Romania

Mustafa Sav, winner of Creative Vision, Turkey

Isset Tabak, winner of Color Vision, Turkey

Krista Ward, winner of Color Vision, UK

Nikki Clifford, winner of Creative Vision, UK 

TEAM 2: Mentors Sonya Dove and Akin Konizi along with gifted mentor Marta DelaPena

Christine Alves, winner of Color Vision, France

Maribette Braga, winner of Creative Vision, Philippines

Jeffrey Gabo, winner of Color Vision, Philippines

Anita Ferraria, winner of Creative Vision, Portugal

João Dias, winner of Color Vision, Portugal

Juliano Tenaglia, winner of Creative Vision, Spain

Borja Palomino, winner of Color Vision, Spain

Martin Johansson, winner of Creative Vision, Sweden

Linda Schuster, winner of Color Vision, Sweden

TEAM 3: Mentors, Markus Herrmann and Christophe-Nicholas Biot with gifted mentor Christie Hoogesteger

Elizabeth Shedwick, winner Creative Vision, Australia

Tanya Grant, winner of Color Vision, Australia

Mattia Cappellato, winner of Creative Vision, Italy

Andrea Gennaro, winner Color Vision, Italy

Anastasia Petrova, winner Creative Vision, Belarus

Alexandra Shilamina, winner Color Vision, Belarus

Lida Schwartz, winner Color Vision, Finland

Laura Aaltonen, winner Creative Vision, Finland

Hulyong Xu, winner Color Vision, China

Songsong Wang, winner Creative Vision, China

TEAM 4: Mentors: Cyrill  Brun and Matthias Herzberg with gifted mentor Claire Doyle

Viktoria Arapina, winner Color Vision, Estonia

Evelina Varatinkske, winner Creative Vision, Lithuania

Damian Witkowski, winner Creative Vision, Poland

Anna Fabianczyk, winner Color Vision, Poland

Sergei Chernyshev, winner Creative Vision, Russia

Olga Geevskaya, winner Color Vision, Russia

Tristan Hawkins, winner Color Vision, South Africa

Guy Kleinhaus, winner Creative Vision, Sweden

Jessica Déléze Venetz, winner Creative Vision, Switzerland

Marius Bettenmann, winner Color Vision, Switzerland

TEAM 5: Zoe Irwin and Miguel Estelrich wth gifted mentor Cath McGuinness

Jolien Smet, winner Creative Vision, Belgium

Nathalie Wilmer, winner Color Vision, Belgium

Olga Dimitrasco, winner Color Vision Czech Republic

Lukas Macala, winner Creative Vision, Czech Republic

Ditte Dahm Jensen, winner Color Vision, Denmark

Nathalia Larsen, winner Creative Vision, Denmark

Annika Thull, winner Color Vision, Germany

Manuel Naso, winner Creative Vision, Germany

Emma Hancock, winner Color Vision, USA

Edison Lu, winner Creative Vision, USA

TEAM 6: Alexis and Bruce Masefield with gifted mentor Katie Howarth

Nikola Vuković, winner Color Vision, Austria

Danny Van Tuijl, winner Creative Vision, Austria

Polya Petkova, winner Creative Vision, Bulgaria

Daniela Stoyanova, winner Color Vision, Bulgaria

Leandro Santana Santos, winner Color Vision, Ireland

Kerry Moody, winner Creative Vision Ireland

Yuka Ohira, winner Color Vision, Japan

Ryo Kishikawa, winner Creative Vision, Japan

In Hyung Jo, winner Creative Vision, South Korea

Jin Ho Oh, winner Color Vision, South Korea

TEAM 7: Renya Xydis and Andreas Kurkovitz with gifted mentor Victoria Thurmann-Hall

Daniel Grieco, winner Color Vision, Canada

Roberto Rella, winner Creative Vision, Canada

Yen Chek Chan, winner Color Vision, Malaysia

Renat Zakirov, winner Creative Vision, Moldova

Diana Tserush, winner Color Vision, Moldova

Jackson Rodeka, winner Creative Vision, New Zealand

Anna Bell, winner Color Vision, New Zealand

Wei Foo Peter Lee, winner Color Vision, Singapore

Pradabdow Sukprasert, winner Color Vision, Thailand

TEAM 8: Darren Ambrose and Jayson Gray with gifted mentor  Manjushree Soni

Eden Hsu, winner Creative Vision, Taiwan

Andy Huang, winner Color Vision, Taiwan

Jaileen Velez, winner Creative Vision, Puerto Rico

Rafael Ortiz, winner Color Vision, Puerto Rico

Taisilia Romanenko, winner  Color Vision, Ukraine

Iryna Radko, winner Creative Vision, Ukraine

Yuliya Almetova, winner Creative Vision, Netherlands

Amber Saft, winner Color Vision, Netherlands

Nikos Kouros, winner Creative Vision, Greece 

The artists had a chance to work with any of the new products introduced recently by the brand including Wella Professionals new Koleston Perfect with ME +,  the newghd platinum + styler or finished with nails adorned with one of the 12 special shades from OPI’s new Tokyo Collection.

The ITVA Creative Retreat Experience offered inspiration to all of the attendees, including the more than 100 members of the international press and key influencers. Eugene Souleiman, Wella Professionals Global Creative Director Care & Styling and ghd fashion week ambassador, provided an overview of fashion week looks using references from Thom Browne, Maison Margiela and Olivier Theyskens. Coty Professional Beauty Global Ambassador Rossano Ferretti inspired the audience with his incredible success story as a celebrity stylist and owner of 23 luxury hair spas worldwide. Sarah Potempa, celebrity hairstylist, demonstrated the power of social media sharing her tips and experience while Andreas Kurkowitz, Wella Professionals Global Color Ambassador, introduced the seasonal Color Palette from INSTA-VINTAGE MOVEMENT, a new and exciting evolution in expressing individual uniqueness by applying modern colors with a vintage feel.

It was a special weekend for those in attendance.  

“Every year sees the bar set to a higher level than the last and this year again I was blown away," says Coty Professional Beauty Chief Marketing Officer Laura Simpson. The work that goes into creating the looks, the craftsmanship and the vision are incredible. We have so many young talented artists in Lisbon with us. It was truly challenging to select the final winners across both, the individual and the team awards.”

Adds Moreau: “It was incredibly inspiring to watch the teams and their mentors during these three days, pushing their boundaries and working outside of their comfort zone. The quality of the work that we witnessed here was simply outstanding."

According to Kiyah Wright, the celebrity stylist who was in attendance, it's important to attend as many hair events as possible, not just for the experience and inspiration, but to meet the key movers and shakers in the industry. Here she chats with MODERN SALON MEDIA Beauty and Fashion Director Maggie Mulhern just moments before the ITVA2018 Creative Retreat Experience kicks off:

To learn more, go to www.WellaUSA.com or check out the following hashtags to see some of the images from the event: #AskforWella; #ITVA2018  or #TrendVision2018