It was certainly a night of fashion and hair e/motion at London's Victoria & Albert Museum last week – what I can only describe as a visual fusion par excellence. The latest designers to feature
in the V&A Fashion in Motion showcase were British couturiers Ralph
& Russo, famed for their luxurious, fairy-tale aesthetics and painstakingly
detailed craftsmanship. As you hopefully all know, Ralph & Russo is the
ONLY British brand to show at Paris Haute Couture Week which is the highest
accolade in fashion's hierarchy of excellence... the 'dog's Tuxedo' of bespoke!
Amber le Bon and the 3,900 hour wedding dress embroidery…
From all my time spent with them backstage and at their showrooms in Paris and London, I can vouch that their collections use the finest
fabrics and techniques with the garments embellished by a team of skilled
embroiders trained at the Parisian house of Lesage. I was privy again to see this in
Paris during the Haute Couture Week – including a spectacular wedding dress that took a cumulative 3,900 hours of work on embroidery alone chosen again as a finale for
the V&A show in London.
It was a heart-stopping moment for me to witness our friend and Neville client, Amber Le Bon wearing this dress at the show that reflected the best of the British fashion, skill and beauty in our home-city at the historic, true-blue venue.
Team Neville in the spotlight
This was the first Ralph & Russo
appearance at the V&A, although my team has already experienced these famed rooms,
wings and corridors both behind the scenes and under the spotlight at the Jenny
Packham show last year. Once again our hair team was headed by Stephen Low, with make up in the trusted hands of MAC artist Debby and nails by Lisa Smith using CND. My Neville team was stronger and better for one more addition and
that is our trusted friend and colleague from New York, Joseph Di Maggion, who
already 'fought with us' in the 'backstage trenches' of NY and Seoul Fashion
Weeks!
To watch Stephen and Joseph work together is to
experience styling greatness. Their dedication and intensity about the craft
sometimes leaves me speechless (and you know how rarely that happens!) It goes
even further… just listening to them converse makes my mind spark with ideas
on all one singular theme – hair.
Emotion and proportion in perfect harmony
The show at the V&A was truly sensational. I've heard once the great Donald Potard, who created the Jean Paul Gaultier house, introducing this iconic designer to couture, say that fashion is all about 'emotion and proportion'. This time the emotion was transported into a fairy-tale with a dream like creations not just 'moving' but 'gliding' on the catwalk. The 'emotion' of the collection transported me to the Grace Kelly era where suddenly my reality felt like a strip of super-refined beaded silk. The girls, the dresses, the hair, the make-up and the nails were all surreal.
The show at the V&A was truly sensational. I've heard once the great Donald Potard, who created the Jean Paul Gaultier house, introducing this iconic designer to couture, say that fashion is all about 'emotion and proportion'. This time the emotion was transported into a fairy-tale with a dream like creations not just 'moving' but 'gliding' on the catwalk. The 'emotion' of the collection transported me to the Grace Kelly era where suddenly my reality felt like a strip of super-refined beaded silk. The girls, the dresses, the hair, the make-up and the nails were all surreal.
Stephen Low was once again the perfect fit for this hair-motional vision as
the hair looked like it had a very delicate,almost metallic reflection but with
a modern fluidity on a super-chic look. The show at the V&A felt like a live broadcast of the modern fashion fairy tale, and transported us all to a heavenly state of the mind where usually only dreams exist.
Love, Elena
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