Fashion Forecast for Hair 2013

Tis the season! And the time of year I enjoy more than any other.  All that know me personally, this will not come at any surprise that I am a Christmas fanatic. Even my agent Doni at Judy Casey in NYC call’s me, “MR. Claus” this time of year. But on top of making my gingerbread houses. And going, Griswold (National Lampoons, Christmas Vacation) on the lights and decoration for the house and my all around Christmas cheer this time of year.  It is also the time to forecast what’s in store for hair in Fashion for 2013.

                   As of now, I have been shooting and creating the hair for campaigns for designers of clothes, shoes and hand bags, for the pages of Vogue, Cosmopolitan and advertising that can be seen in stores such as Target as well as billboards in Times Square through September 2013.  Also I have been shooting and creating the hair for editorial fashion and beauty stories for British Marie Claire, American Cosmopolitan and Teen Vogue. Even though these jobs have completely different demographics both globally and culturally, I have noticed some very distinct consistencies that keep resurfacing for the hair for 2013.

                  Whether it is sleek or playful looks the parts are clean and defined, not soft or crooked. The overall feeling for down or up styles have a clean and sleek look to them, not messy or disheveled.

Even if the image of the brand or idea for the story is raw and street, the hair is graphic and clean, not broken down and lived in. And even with a more avant-garde base line to a fashion story or an avant-garde flair to a brand, the textures in the hair are diffused and whimsical. Over all even if your going tight to the head with the hair for a sleek silhouette or massive silhouette shape with a more graphic Tim Burton kind of feel these words below, are what I see and have been using to create and describe the hair for 2013.

  

CLEAN, SLEEK, GRAPHIC, WHIMSICAL, DIFFUSED, Happy Holiday’s and happy hair styling into the new year!

New Season

New Season

            As this hot sticky summer comes to a close and we find ourselves coming into a new fall, which with it brings cool breeze. I find another part of my career ending and a new season starting.

            I have had the pleasure of co-working with the people at Kramer & Kramer agency in New York for the last twelve years of my career. I have learned such valuable and resourceful skills essential for the growth of my work through the experiences I have had with them. I have been blessed to travel the world and grow my understanding of the internal politics and players of the freelance world of fashion which I didn’t know before. And along the way have been fortunate enough to create unforgettable relationships around the world. After twelve years of the same surrounding ‘s and friendships emotions do come up when parting ways. Just like the human emotions when moving to a new town or starting a new job arises. Yet once those emotions pass and the leaves change, new colors, new weather and complete new surroundings comes in to play.

             The excitement of the new season surpasses the old anticipation of it’s coming. That is were I find myself with this new journey in my career.  I am so excited to start this new adventure with a Doni and Judy at Judy Casey Agency NYC and creating new relationships, forging new levels in my work with them.

Check out Judy Casey and my hair just click the link www.judycasey.com

El Otro Lado

There once was a time, not to long ago when in many industry’s including my own we got to travel to far off places that other wise we would of never known existed.

Depending on what you do for a living this usually stopped around the time on the years 2008 – 2009. It has been about 6 to 7 years for me that I have been to a foreign place that really blew me away. Well this month of July 2012 God blessed me using UK Traveller Conde Nast as a vessel.

I techniqually had literally set one foot in this country of Panama many years ago I thought, while working in Costa Rica. Let me explain. Many moon cycles ago I did a job in a town at the very south tip Pacific Ocean side of Costa Rica called Pavones. As for the avid surfers out there of course you know this black sand, one of the longest left breaks in the world. For the ones that don’t it borders Panama by meters and is a collage of rainforest terrain mixed with black sand beaches and every insect, wild life you can probably think of in Central America. On that trip I actually put my right leg on the side of Panama, or at least that is what the local told me. In reality it would of taken a quick bus ride to do so. That is the closest I had ever come to Panama until this July. Pavones Costa Rica is one of the only spots in all the contents I had been to that the local misquote loved my blood besides Zanzibar, Africa. The bites lasted almost a month and still itched once back home in NYC for the full 30 days.

We arrived in Panama City airport, drove from the Pacific Ocean side to the Caribbean side.

And took a boat to the most wonderful place called El Otro Lado. A place that a woman from Madrid bought and kept its beauty, history and encourages its life. Definitely one of a kind.  On top of having the honor to see their heritage and culture at night after shooting all day, I must say besides the misquotes attacking me all the time it was really a life memory.

I guess what I am trying to make a point of no matter how many bites you get, and how long they stay a special place God created on this earth will never go away.

I would like to thank, Noe Dewitt, Finoa Lintott, Craig Honeycutt, Kevin Keith and our awesome model Guisela Rhein. Thank you for the gorgeous pictures and the life long memory. 

The Art Of Listening

            I have been blessed with my work to be able to travel to many countries and experience and see the different cultures of so many people.

            I am also blessed to be able to live in the USA and in New York City with such diverse cultures and languages. But it took me tell Saint Martin an island in the northeast Caribbean, (approximately 190 miles east of Puerto Rico). To discover how the tone and fluctuation of one’s voice can explain, show and build a story without really understanding their language.

            The north side of the island of Saint Marteen is Dutch and the south side of the island of Saint Martin is French. I recently did a shoot in the French area of Saint Martin. I took three years of French in school and since the age of 19 have been to many French speaking countries including many years of working in France, so I do understand,”le petite “.  I find it funny that of all the places I have been, it was that in the south side of this island of Saint Martin is where I realized how ones voice can express so much with fluctuation.

            It hit me one night what I had realized a week after my trip…  I was Smoking a cigarette on my stairs in NYC.  My ears caught a attention of young man speaking,”French” he was on his cell phone as he wobbled across the path way in front of me, I assumed he was tipsy. The tone of his voice was longer and his pauses in between for a French man were even shorter than usual.

            As hairdressers we are used to talking with are hands and fingers and we can communicate so much by doing so. Not just behind the chair but as for me a lot of time it is with using my hands to communicate with the art director or model on set that are from a different country and don’t speak English very well or sometimes at all. Trying to communicate without using language as we all know is not always easy. But as it is with many cultures I am finding it is about the art of listening. Listening to someone’s tone and how their voice fluctuates not reacting to the up’s and down’s but really listening to what they are presenting is what I hope to hone in on.  I believe that listening is an art and it takes practice, just like doing great hair only comes with practice and then more practice. I hope to practice and hone in on the art of listening as much as I do with my hair.