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

Neville's Vogue Night Out at Hotel Cafe Royal…

 …was truly a night to remember!

My team and I love our home city and never tire of celebrating the fact that we are 'a London salon' especially at international fashion events. We even coined a phrase that 'you go to Paris for fashion, Milan for accessories, New York for business and London for – the best hair-salons in the world'.

Vogue US went even one step further and placed Neville's nail services on their prestigious Sunday Spill list last year. Vogue L'Uomo followed us backstage at Singapore Fashion Week and published our musings in my two favourite languages…

So we were more than BritishVogue-ready for the night out in our favourite city. And we couldn't wish

for the more landmark venue than Hotel Cafe Royal that is situated on the corner of Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus. In fact this place is a 'a London legend reborn' as it originated from Cafe Royal the most famous restaurant/bar in the history of our city for more than a century. 

This place has seen it all and almost everybody, from Oscar Wilde to Winston Churchill, Virginia Woolf and Mick Jagger, writers, celebrities and Royalty of it's time that can make any entrepreneur like myself envious about the client list. I only hope that one day when we summarise Neville salon's history we can tell an equally impressing story and I promise you we do have quite a few to share.

Hotel Cafe Royal is the second member of The Set, a luxury hotel group with a difference which in so many ways matches Neville salon brand ethos. Our placement at their world famous Akasha Holistic Wellbeing Spa (with a dream-like swimming pool and some heavenly basement premises) for the Vogue Night Out meant that my team was able to accommodate the clients and be part of this global fashion event in a style that was a true unison of outstanding professionals and lifestyle brands. Everything from the setting to the hospitality helped by the Hotel Cafe Royal dream PR team was simply a perfection. 

Most importantly, these events and the combination of all our skills in connection with fashion are meant to spread the message and make us all feel good which is also the essence of this blog and my message to you.

Until next time,

Elena

Neville at V&A's Fashion in Motion – with Ralph & Russo

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. 

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