Our Fashion Family: Neville Hair & Beauty at the Palmer Harding LFW AW15 Show!

'Its almost become that we don't even have to say anything. We can just come up with the boards and send it to them and they will say – this is what we have for you. It somehow has a family feel to it'. 

This is what Matthew Harding, one half of the designer-duo Palmer Harding, said about our latest collaboration with them at London Fashion Week A/W 2015 in February. And all of this still resonates with me, together with the truly original hair-look that my Neville team created for this show.

This Palmer Harding show took place at one of my favourite spaces in London, the ICA. It  also marks our fifth collaboration with Palmer Harding whose talent and craft resonates deeply in all of us lucky enough to witness it. What I like the most is that the woman that Palmer Harding has in mind when creating their clothes is always very feminine but with a secret, 'what lies beneath?' quality which is her strength and her underpinning. 

That also translates into the hair styling that Carmen Borgonovo, the Palmer Harding mentor and stylist, described as 'the crown of thorns that looks both romantic and strong at the same time'.

As braids have been done so much in the past few fashion seasons, my Neville team and I wanted to go with something a little bit different and give it more of a raw feel. So we used knots instead, which gave the hair a more un-done look – even though it required a huge amount of skill and much step-by-step work to pull together. In order to achieve this unique look, we also used L'Oreal beach-wave spray to give a rougher feel to hair, a slightly dewy look and as natural a feel as possible. My team has always used the L'Oreal Professional products in the most original way possible and this Palmer Harding show was no exception.

With 22 models and in this most iconic LOndon venue, this  London Fashion Week show attracted some of the most stylish members of the press (Caroline Issa of Tank magazine) and fashion celebrities (Yasmin and Amber le Bon) who once again enjoyed the best in fashion and the hair-styling that London has to offer. I hope you liked it too...

Until next time,

Elena

All Images by Maxime Lenik 

Neville at Ralph & Russo SS15 Paris Haute Couture show…

Our styling at The Ralph & Russo SS15 Paris Haute Couture show has already gained so much incredible press – and the media, this time, hasn't forgotten to acknowledge the 'bohemian, loosely scooped bun' that was created by Stephen Low and my team from Neville Hair & Beauty for our fellow London-based couture house. It's been exactly a year since we first collaborated with Ralph & Russo at Paris Haute Couture shows and I am beyond ecstatic that Neville Hair & Beauty continues to be their preferred choice when it comes to immaculate hair.

Our show at the magnificent Grand Palais was a perfect ending to Haute Couture Week in Paris with the front row that instantly made headlines around the globe.

One of the special guests was Cheryl Cole who famously wore a Ralph & Russo SS14 gown at her wedding, emulating the entire catwalk look, from toe to hair. I've been wondering whether she knew that the hair style that she re-created for her big day was the vision of my top stylist, Stephen Low.

And that we would gladly do it for her for any other special occasion.

For the next summer season Ralph & Russo played with all things floral taking references from Boticell's Primavera and Pussin's Realm of Flora artwork. It was a midsummer dream, fairy-tale look for the awakening , playful young woman. And if the shape of the collection was recognisably prim and structured, the hair was exuberant in its loosely scooped bun gently hand-touched together. It was the hair-effect that brought real emotion to the entire catwalk look and one of the real gems of Stephen Low's vision. It was the touch of his sensitivity as an artist that was truly visible in that youthful and light fairy-bun, something that's very much evolving into his signature style. And he is such a role-model to the rest of my team who follow his lead and gentle manner which I find very touching to observe.

  

 Stephen Low backstage

It's also very hard for me not feel buoyant after all the amazing shows and editorials we've worked on since the beginning of the year. I am really content with the fact that my team has truly matured and that they work together so well, whether they are hair-stylists, make-up or manicure professionals brought together by my ELSL Management agency. We've also managed to prove a few people wrong and produce stellar work once again for all our clients which has always been the result of our combined team effort with our vision of pure excellence in mind.

Cristian Pignatta backstage

Until next time,

Elena

All Images by Maxime Lenik.

Neville at the Julien Fournie SS15 Paris Haute Couture show

As this show was scheduled just a few days after Neville's stint at Paris Menswear collections, part of my team, lead once again by my top man, Stephen Low, stayed on in the City of Lights, working and preparing for yet another Haute Couture hair-style challenge.

I've actually chosen the word 'challenge' very carefully here as working on the couture shows at world's most prestigious fashion event takes another set of skills and completely different mindset. When you are working for a couturier who is designing a 'one-off' creation, the hair-style and its execution is also a bespoke exercise. It requires a great belief on the part of a designer when it comes to choosing the right stylist and also the hair-team capable of following his vision.

It was also the greatest compliment for my team when we became an irreplaceable and very much integral part of the show’s creative process, in addition to working on some stunning, top-fashion editorial. For Julien Fournier's SS15 Haute Couture collection this is exactly what happened as my team was also part of the Madame Figaro feature as well as the 'behind-the-scenes' film a few weeks before the collection was finally unveiled in Paris.

The work with this fiercely talented French couturier also marks our third collaboration that famously started in Singapore in 2013 and continues to grow in every fashion-way-possible . Stay tuned for more updates on the subject as we've dreamt up a few delightful surprises that, in my opinion, take our partnership to another level.

As for the Paris show Stephen Low came up with the hair-style that was very much a couture creation for the couture show. Every single piece of hair was sourced, styled and fitted on 20+ models individually and for most of the models it happened when the call time was originally scheduled and that means four hours before the show. Still, there were a few who were double-booked with Stephane Rolland's team and came to be fitted with our crew less than an hour before the catwalk. These are the moments when you need to have a mature and truly capable team of hair-stylists who not only manage to perform the entire process ten times quicker but also succeed in calming down any potential model-designer-loyalty drama before it even starts.

The hair-look was half wild /half-structured and in-tune with Fournie's Egyptian references but with a modern twist. There was an inherent history but all the girls looked entirely modern and fresh which seems to be a prerequisite with haute couture collections these days. And that also applies to hair, which my team for this show has accomplished with a seamless perfection.

Until next time,

Elena

Neville Hair & Beauty team at SONGZIO AW '15 – our report from Paris Menswear…

Elena Lavagni on the Neville experience at SONGZIO…


SONGZIO AW15 Paris Menswear – and yet another call from the South Korean capital for a collaboration with my Neville team, caming so soon after our stint at the London Collections:Men. It was time again to get on to the international fashion week circuit and prove that my team was the right choice for the most renowned global designers, even when they come as far as the Far East.

The international work, whether it's editorials such as recent Vogue India, Harpers Bazaar Japan and Vogue China, plus all the global fashion weeks, including another sole Neville salon lead at Vietnam Fashion Week (Dec 2014) has strengthened not only my

team of stylists but also the Neville reputation as the right choice for international fashion shows. I'm proud to say that some international designers now work exclusively with my team and one them is the top Korean menswear designer, SONGZIO.

  

Ever since that 'perfect parting' Stephen Low and my stellar Neville team have done for SONGZIO at Singapore Fashion Week in 2013, this iconic designer (who we've also collaborated with in Vietnam recently) trusts our vision and styling prowess completely. As always with Mr Song, the look started with a number of sketches and this time the hair was a slight departure from his signature sleek and structured style. At the hair and make-up test, held at designer's beautiful apartment in Paris, we jointly came up with the description of 'romantic poet turned dashing Hollywood star' and Stephen Low even found a picture of Robert Redford in 'The Way We Were' (1975) to help to 'seal' the look visually for the designer.

Once again the casting for Songzio's show in Paris was superb. The models, all 16 of them, that we knew by name and birth-date by the time they'd lined up at Espace Pierre Cardin, were a total delight to work with. 

It's needless to say that when I saw the first model who opened the show I gasped...He looked exactly like Songzio's original drawing! 

Style wise it was that gentle hand-sweep that 'messed-up' the immaculately blow-dried hair. Very boyish and deeply romantic and on-par with Songzio's AW15 vision. The make-up was the mastery of Debbie Finnegan (above) and her super-efficient team that have been part of my ELSL stylist agency, specialising in hair and make-up professionals and their engagements, since its inception.  
http://www.elslmanagement.com/

Until next time,

Love,

Elena

THIS IS LOVE… Neville with Todd Lynn at LC:M

It's pure and simple, as the title claims. This also happens to be a PJ Harvey song, with the very potent video where she wears that sexy, white body-hugging suit designed by Todd Lynn that I just cannot get out of my head. PJ Harvey was also part of the rock-studded audience (which also included Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran) at the designer's London Collections: Men come-back and his RTW '15 presentation where my Neville team, headed by Stephen Low, created and executed the hair. Or shall I quote Style.Com and call it 'big, bobbed brunette identi-wigs'…

I think that this description of the hair-look was more complicated than its execution even though you have to bear in mind that when my team works backstage at any fashion show, they make the whole process appear so nice and easy, that you never feel they are undertaking a laborious task or adventure. 

My team all take their cue from Stephen Low, who is calmness and focus personified – and I never tire of watching him in action. In fact, every single wig was shaped, blow-dried and cropped (either on a doll or on a 'live' model) by the master himself – and all in less than two hours. Those unisex wigs had to unify the boy-girl-boy-girl model line up in a collection that was pure rock-n-roll in its essence. Think Patty Smith or the Ramones, think long sexy silhouettes and music that cries for more, more, more…

It's not a surprise that Todd Lynn has been called 'Rock and Roll's best-kept secret'. He has created stage looks for U2, the Rolling Stones, Marilyn Manson, Courtney Love and Beyoncé. At this London Collections: Men showcase, he was supported by Slaves, who blasted up the place and put the smile on my face with their 'I love you more when you're angry with me because you are so boring when you are nice' lyrics. Fashion shows are all about having the right ingredients and all I can say is that this Todd Lynn comeback went off with a very big bang. For those in the audience who later not only claimed that they've 'gone deaf' but also wrote about that for high-profiled fashion titles, I suggest that next time they research the designer whose show they are attending and also perhaps, if they happen to mention the hair, also credit the team who did it. Because a fashion show is not only about the clothes – it's about the whole 'look' – and that starts from the hair down…

Until next time,

Elena