How do we take the trends from the runway and translate them into a palette of color to inspire a digital generation of consumers? Wella Professionals’ Ultra Contouring and Color Blast show the way!
The tide is turning. Much as hair professionals and their clients still love to browse through beautiful look books and fashion magazines, their first port of call is, inevitably, their smartphone. Social media platforms such as Instagram provide a huge source of instantly available, constantly updated looks and styles for them to ponder over. Furthermore, since the truly discerning consumer is becoming more and more savvy about what’s hot and what’s not –particularly in relation to color– scrolling through endless hair images in search of a shade that’s right for them just doesn’t cut it anymore; they want structure to their search and the reassurance that what they’re looking at is really on-trend. Wella Professionals has linked up its major color trend technique of Contouring –or using hair color to bring out the client’s unique character– and Color Blast –a real-time monitor on what’s trending on runways and red carpets to keep their color palettes on spot.
COLOR BLAST SS17
The accessibility and speed that trends are conveyed to the consumer through social media platforms has given them a real hunger for what’s breaking through on the global fashion runways. So for the first time this season, Wella Professionals’ Fashion Week conversation extended beyond its sponsored runway shows in a digital celebration of catwalk color. Wella Professionals collaborated with Carlin Creative Trend Bureau and analysed every single catwalk show, every day of Fashion Week, to identify themost important colors coming from each city and craft the palette of the 12 fashion shades that define the SS17 season: “Color is a way to express feelings, moods and attitudes, and it was thrilling to combine our color sensibility and expertise with Wella Professionals,” explains Carlin Creative. “For SS17 we saw that, more than ever, designers want to go further in their creativity, and color is a part of that. In all four cities, the Fashion Weeks were like a big party where color was everywhere, and people were less afraid to play with it.”
That inspiration color palette was shared on social media through Color Blast, Wella Professional’s color broadcast in real time, direct from the international catwalks of New York, London, Milan and Paris. Wella Professionals’ Global Creative Artists and color experts are in situ to pick the season’s key colors and convey them directly to the consumer in an instant. With so many salon clients totally fashion-focused, Wella Professionals’ expertise and passion for trend-led color and innovation enables Color Blast to create a real-time digital showcase of the key shades of the season, and how to translate catwalk color into looks that are relevant for women in the street.
By using the hashtag #wellacolorblast the new season’s key colors from every show, in every fashion city are shared; meanwhile Wella color experts are able to recommend the Wella formulas and techniques to suit the new season collections.
THE HEART OF COLOR
Since early 2017, Wella Professionals’ Hair Color Contouring has really got the the hair industry talking about face shape and how the versatility of color and placement can really exemplify and enhance the features. The secret to success when it comes to Hair Color Contouring is to take into account every detail: from the tonal values of the hair, eyes and skin, through to bone structure, life stage and –of course– the cut, style and texture of the hair itself, now brought together into one beautiful collection.
CONTOURING COLLECTION SS17 BY COUTURE COLOR
The six beautiful images in the Ultra Contouring Collection for Spring/Summer 2017 by Couture Color, really bring to life how applying the principals of color choice in choosing the most expressive shades and color placement can combine with a professional cut to create an optical illusion of perfection, whatever the client’s preferred look:
ULTRA DEPTH: A cool dissonance of youthful and a daringly shaggy style. A freehand cut with very long and textured layers combined with a see-through soft fringe just touching the eyebrows, contours the face to bring her enticing “premium innocence” alive. A cool panel of petrol colours over a slimming volcanic black are placed throughout the top of her head to create the illusion of soft movement and structure.
ULTRA SLEEK: It’s contouring-luxe in long straight hair. Working on an overall lightened base featuring darker beige panels placed in creative patterns on the bias around the hat line. This will enhance the sleek movement, narrowing down the shape throughout the mid-length, giving the length diversity and enhancing the alternating layers of the cut. Straight styling adds to the premiumness.
ULTRA GRUNGE: Eastern European cool is brought out with an intentionally imperfect look. The undercut in a deep pewter colour creates the optical effect of depth and narrows down the lower part of the head while adding texture and dimension to the cut. The contrasting platinum color from the midshaft to the tips puts emphasis on the choppy, disconnected top while bringing out the dimension of raw yet malleable styling.
ULTRA EDGE: The color placement of the satin corn color on a very dark peat base, creates the optical illusion of a deep side parting, no matter
how the unruly brushed texture is styled. The tapered hair cut throughout the sides and the nape area gives the entire look a graphic feel which is contrasted by the set free texture of the top and supports elongating the face to an oval shape in correlation with the actual color placement.
ULTRA BOWL: The delicate, translucent skin of this Scandinavian beauty is paired with a golden bob of pure sunshine. A dark shadowed line is contouring the very modernised rounded shape of the page boy bob. Beyond bringing out her pale blue eyes and narrowing her intriging oval face-shape, focus is on the disconnected, rounded fringe versus the square edge of a below chin length cut. This helps to create the optical illusion of a pushed out shape to express her inner “Scandi-power”.
ULTRA CRUSH: The darkest red forms a circular band following the hairline illuminating her pale complexion. Strategic patterns of lighter Siena red hues create a circular, reflective shine line where the head bevels. This corresponds nicely with the elongated shape of the cut, softens her square facial features and creates an optical oval and intensifies the shaggy texture and the squashed curls of the style.
