Ammon Carver

On June 8, Carlton Jones debuted his Resort 2017 collection at New York fashion week. Jones teamed up with Ammon Carver, the global creative director of L’ANZA Healing Haircare, who created the look for the show. Below, we have an exclusive backstage interview with Carver. He shares with us his inspiration behind this look and how you can recreate it at home!

The Knockturnal: Can you tell me about the hair look you created for today?

Ammon Carver: Yeah, sure. For me, whenever creating a hair look for a fashion show, it’s always important to talk to the designer first so we try to understand who the woman is that he’s trying to dress. What does she do, what does she look like, what is her vibe. Since we’re here for resort week and Carlton Jones is trying to design a line of resort style clothing, I wanted to blend two trends that are indicative of that kind of woman, who’s at a resort and easy going. And those two trends are a top knot and also a braid that’s cool right now. Summer braids are very, very cool, and I wanted to incorporate the two of them together in a way that still felt very resort-like. So you’ll see most of the girls will have their hair piled up in a tall pony, half up or all the way up, but then their clasp in the back is created with a braid detail. So from the front, most of them just look like a casual girl wearing their hair in a top knot, doesn’t steal their attention away from the clothing, but the moment they turn around there’s an element of detail in the back with the braid, so we can hit them with both.

TK: Cool, it’s a party in the back. How would you recommend people recreating this look at home?

AC: It’s super easy. All you need to do is create a high ponytail, then take a small piece of the ponytail and put it into a braid. Then tease and create a full top knot shape that you would, and then instead of wrapping the hair like you might with a bobby pin or hair pin, just first take the brain from underneath and wrap it around the base of the knot so it kind of peeks out a little bit and twist.

TK: Did you use any special products for this?

AC: The hero for this look is really just making sure that you have a good hairspray that’s going to be long lasting and also resistant against humidity. The one that I prefer to use for this particular look is called lustrous finishing spray by L’Anza, and why I like it is because it gives me a workable hold. And it never sacrifices the shine so you can layer it on as you need to before you go outside and your hair isn’t going to get dull or matte, as sometimes hairsprays with alcohol in them can make hair look flat.

If you thought top knots were simple think again! #nyfw #resort2017 #carltonjones pic.twitter.com/V3gyYFVdie

— The Knockturnal (@_TheKnockturnal) June 8, 2016