Sassoon reinvent their references with salon live show

As the Sassoon brand approaches its 60th anniversary, the international creative team wowed the crowds at their Salon Live shows with creations that took influences from their roots in the 60s and every decade until the present day. In tribute to their founder, Vidal Sassoon, hairstyles were inspired by the iconic five point cut and Peggy Moffitt’s signature fringe; but there was also an interesting twist with more long hairstyles than audiences at Sassoon shows have come to expect. But expecting the unexpected was exactly the tone of this show-piece; from the initial presentation to the over-sized monochrome balloons that were paraded on the stage in the final model presentation. The intro itself was quite a spectacle with a performance from a contemporary dancer dressed in blue. When projected onto the screens, her clothing was transformed into imagery that told the story of the ways that hair, fashion and movement have worked together over the last 60 years. The rest of the show launched Sassoon’s Nu Pop presentation, which was described as a sojourn through the 60s and featured three different elements: Nu Op, Nu Scene and Nu Psych and was inspired by the concept of an imaginary meeting between Peggy Moffitt and Kurt Cobain. [hji-gallery-legacy] As such there were strong structured fringes, playful bob shapes with slight asymmetry through the internal structure and disjointed lengths including shapes that were graduated at the back with long dramatic lengths at the front; and tightly undercut hair. But there was also a grungy undertone to the collection. In particular, the Nu Psych hairstyles featured a grunge undone feeling described as the ‘new bohemian’. These were coloured in combinations of grey and violet or navy and brown that were blended together with darker colours through the ends and lighter colours at the top. Red was a key colour of the Nu Scene hairstyles that had taken their inspiration from cartoons and pop art and saw shades from copper, through mahogany and raspberry gold blend together seamlessly. As well as the Academy Collection that the team created live on stage, the looks can also be diluted into the more wearable Salon Collection and International Creative Director Mark Hayes stressed the importance of being able to use the shapes and ideas to create salon-friendly hairstyles: “Vidal Sassoon said that without technique one cannot achieve mastery of form, but it is also about design and suitability,” says Mark.