Joico’s new guest artistic director Vivienne Mackinder is responsible for the 1920s style bouncy bobs and glossy finger waves that accompanied Malan Breton’s Fall 2017 collection. Mackinder shares styling tips and talks about how history and fashion inspire her as a hairdresser.
Tell me about the looks you’re doing for Malan Breton’s show, and how do they reflect his new collection?
Malan’s vision is 1920s, a nod to the black and white silver screen of the 20s, those beautiful heroines and their heroes, so the men’s hair is very polished and groomed with a wave. There will be six women that will have long hair with a lazy wave, and the rest of the girls are having little tiny faux bobs, the 1920s bobs, so in the whole thing, there a romance there, a sort of relaxation. The clothes are so spectacular, and the way that Malan has designed and painted the fabric is just extraordinary, so the totality of the look is his idea. For the hair, he sent me great references, so it’s my job to interpret his vision, but he was the visionary for this, not me. I just curl the hair.
What tips do you have for styling these looks?
The trick is the braiding, and it’s all about a great set too. None of these sets would work if we didn’t have the right product, so I always say do a product test to see how the hair is responding because the hair needs memory and it needs strong hold. I just use the power spray to do that, to give you the hold and give you the texture. And then, I use different pinning techniques. I use a sewing technique because when you’ve got a big sheet of hair, you’ve got to sew it into the braid, so that pinning technique is important. It’s not bobby pins, it’s those Japanese pins, which are really serrated and they’re fantastic. That’s the key to it, and constantly looking in the mirror to make sure the shape is balanced.
How did you first get into hair styling, and what do you like most about it?
I originally went to a college called the London College of Fashion, and my original plan was to go into hair for film because I was always interested in the history of hair. And then, I left there and went to Vidal Sassoon’s and I learned how to cut hair, and I became an artistic director for Vidal Sassoon, so the whole film thing started to fade away. Then, I started to do fashion shows in London and got to see the creativity of how you can transform somebody with just a hairstyle, and then I got hooked.
Besides history, what inspires you when you’re working with hair?
Well, fashion definitely does because it’s the totality of a look, and it’s like that in all things. Shoes are not the outfit, but when the shoes are wrong, it makes the outfit wrong, and the same thing with hair. Hair’s an accessory to fashion, and when hair is right it’s part of the look; when it’s wrong, it’s awful. So I have a mantra: a look should complete, it shouldn’t compete. That means the relationship is harmonious, unless you’re deliberately juxtapositioning black-white, hard-soft, but in that extreme, there is like a yin and a yang, which is different. So that is always my thing, looking and asking, “Does it work for the total look?” People don’t walk around as heads, where it’s only one-seventh of a look. The rest of the body’s going to play out. I think if you only look at hair, it’s limiting. You’ve got to look at the bigger picture.
Photos by Reyna Wang
