It’s countdown time! As of today, there are only eight days left until the first ever textured hair as fashion runway show in New York City. Hosted by TextureMedia, the parent company of NaturallyCurly.com. The event was inspired by the fact that we hardly saw any texture on the runway last fall, and it left us wondering where the heck it was!
So we decided that if designers weren’t going to put textured hair on their models, then we would! Fast forward to present day and we are here in Austin, TX in a flurry of a hectic mess making sure that this fashion show goes off without a hitch so that it can truly change the conversation about textured hair.
This is the Texture Revolution, and if you thought that the movement wasn’t moving fast enough, girl, take a look around. CurlyNikki is heading off as an invitee to Grammy after-parties (yea, we’ll be bringing y’all that content, too – don’t worry!”>, we’re hosting a hair fashion show in the middle of New York City’s spring fashion week and we have an immense amount of surprises, updates and all around joy to spread with everyone in the coming months! We may not be burning our bras to prove a point, and thank heavens we aren’t burning our hair anymore, but we are getting noticed – and it’s about time!
In the meantime, we caught up with some of our favorite stylists to get their take on the event, the conversation and what is going on in the fashion world, and how we are about to change it!
Academy Director of Training & Development for Deva, Shari Harbinger, weighs in on what we should expect to see on the runway this year.
What natural hair texture trends have you seen on the runways, heck, if any?
Well, I call them “manufactured curl.” The look is anything but straight, but it seems artificially forced, such as braided hair that has been released and then teased, or teased tresses after a curling iron has made its mark. Trends are exactly what they say, they are only here for a short time until the next one comes along. Therefore, I haven’t seen any natural hair textures hit the runway authentically, just trend.
OK, so for us not so up to speed on the runway stuff, what exactly is considered a “runway” style, and how does texture play into that?
My personal mantra is that a runway style is a moment of fantasy, which inspires for a moment to capture a current feeling and lifestyle. Forced texture plays into this fantasy because the notion that natural texture can exist has not yet been fully realized.
So what do you think about Jourdan Dunn’s tweet this past fall during Paris’ Fashion Week about how stylists backstage don’t know how to deal with natural hair?
I LOVE JOURDAN DUNN! She is right! I am thrilled that someone is FINALLY speaking up! Now it is up to our industry to stop pretending that natural texture does not exist.
As far as runway hair, are these looks really something that women at home can pull off?
Runway, in my opinion, was never intended to translate to reality. It is fantasy and inspiration – art in motion. It can certainly have a positive and inspirational effect on how we present ourselves, but at the end of the day, a curly girl needs a start-to-finish realistic approach to caring for her curls. At Devachan salon, curly hair is not a trend – it is a lifestyle!
So live it up curlies! We may be bringing waves, curls and kinks to the runway, but it is YOU who rocks them everyday. Change the tide and let’s us inspire the runway!
