Fringe theatre: L'Oréal Colour Trophy Awards

Published on Monday 15 June 2009 08:57

If fashion has couture, where the only limits are the imagination, what happens when hair takes it right to the cutting edge of the catwalk?

OUTRAGEOUS fringing, dreads like cotton-wool balls, violet tresses – none of this was designed with you in mind. In fact, when hairdressers Jason and India Miller were asked to put on a show at the L'Oral Colour Trophy Awards, there was only one

prerequisite: make it out of this world.

Nowin its 54th year, the event is one of the most prestigious in the industry, using set designers from the Brit Awards and Louis Vuitton, and choreographers from the MTV awards. Six months in the making, and inspired by everyone from Grace Jones to the Festival Fringe show Fuerzabruta, the Millers' team of eight stylists came up with five vignettes that featured a 70m catwalk, giant lampshades, doll-like make-up, travelators and wind machines.

And, of course, the hair – in ethereal pastel shades, with weaving, quills and enormous hairpieces, demonstrating just what modern hairdressing is capable of. "We were trying to still keep it looking fashionable but pushing it as far as it can go," says Jason Miller.

"It's like the couture shows in fashion, where they make things so bonkers you think, 'Who's going to wear that?' But it looks amazing."