Luigi martini leads creative team for sens.us inspiration days

Italian hair colour brand Sens.Us took its annual inspiration day to Valencia this year. The event not only involved an awe-inspiring showcase of looks and workshops about colouring and styling. Creative director Luigi Martini demonstrated his Ultra collection on stage, which was inspired by the Pantone colour of the year as well as a host of nostalgic creative influences. He described the collection as “young, fun and with a modern touch,” and harks back to the heyday of the electronic dance music scene and Miami festivals. The looks in Ultra were edgy and displayed the versatility of shorter styles, with the longest female hair lengths sitting just on the clavicle bone. The fun element was a big part of the performance aspect of the show as the creative team were dressed in red jumpsuits and mischievous masks to cut, shape and style the models’ diverse looks. Luigi took 5 minutes with us to talk us through what went into planning and creating the collection. L: Our Autumn/Winter collection was created with inspiration from catwalk design, video, hair. It creates a different mood. We like to push in one way very strongly. We like to change, each time different. The Spring/Summer collection [compared to this collection] was white, very soft and light and open. HJ: Very clean and commercial. L: Yes. This new one, you can feel the attitude from the album art of the Depeche Mode album, Ultra, or the Ultra Music Festival in Miami. We wanted something like that with hair. HJ: So you are very influenced by music culture? L: Normally we create something that grows with the music. Each time it’s different, either rock or electronic or something funky. This time, we wanted to make something that wins an award. We tackle the show with that different energy. HJ: How many shows have you done for Sens.us? L: Seven. The first one was Wonderland four years ago, now we are at Ultra. The last one was the white collection, starting with the red and copper. This collection we mixed the pastel tones with crazy colours, some neon. We decided for the first time to make the look-book for the customer. Inside is the story that describes the collection and we speak about the professional style with the makeup, the colour. This time we researched a lot on tone and the different shades. We were one of the first teams/things to push with the yellow two years ago. You need to feel the difference to push something that could be new. Not to follow the others. We want to be unique, we try to be different Every time we put some key words inside the book because, when we create a collection, we bring all the key words from the weeks. Through these key words, we build technique. HJ: What was the first seed that Ultra came from? L: The concepts normally start with me. I have an inspiration from one collection in one way but you need to create a new thing. I’ll feel something in the air, I’ll feel something in the radio or the music, the passion, and I say ‘that way is a good way to create something’. Something could be electronic, or from the 1990s or 2000s. We play a lot with the light for the editorial part or technical part. When we want to see the colour, we have a different light. When we want to make an editorial picture, we change everything. We push a lot of the light to make something feel electric. We play a lot with the style that comes from the 1990s. Sens.us are a company that produce colour. When we need something new, we have a laboratory. It’s all in-house. If I want a new shade, one week, we have a new shade. When we would like something new, we can sell it to the market. It’s very easy to create with Sens.us. Qualitative research, done very easy and quickly. We work with the volume and the textures. Positioning the colour on the right, we are contouring the hair. Every time that we push something new, it may not be commercial, but it will be very interesting to see. HJ: It’s also very workable, though. What’s your favourite length to work with? L: I’m the son of a barber, so naturally I like short hair. HJ: You’ve spoken about tone and how ultraviolet inspired this collection, but what do you see being the colours in your palette next season? L: Light blue. Pastel. Spring/Summer 19 will be all about pastel. We have the charts of the fabrics now. On Monday/Tuesday we will shoot the new stuff. So, everything is ready.