Ion Studio in Manhattan's SoHo district is minimalist and unassuming in its design—you'd never guess that it's the home base for several of the fashion industry's biggest tress masters. "We have 60 years of experience between the three of us!" laughs Pasquale Ferrante, who owns the hair salon with fellow stylists Leonardo Manetti and Marco Santini. Ferrante is the lead for Coventry's Fashion Week debut next week and has invited us to sit in as he unveils his coif creation to designer Matthew Terry.
While Terry busily knits a bustier for his fall 2009 collection, Ferrante whips us up quite possibly the best cup of coffee ever. As he pours, he chats about the style he'll be creating today. "There are a lot of high necks and collar details in the collection, so I wanted to keep the hair up," says Ferrante. "I see her as a Scottish warrior—the hair is tough and textured yet soft and loose around the edges of the face."
Ferrante then gets to work, applying Davines Defining Creative Molding Mousse on the model's damp roots. Next, he sprays Davines Dede Replenishing Leave-In Conditioner at the ends and rough-dries hair to achieve a tousled, seemingly unwashed finish.
As Ferrante twists intricate fishtail braids on each side of the model's head, Terry sets down his knitting needles and becomes animated in sharing the inspiration for his collection. "I downloaded the video `Here Comes the Rain Again' by Annie Lennox and Eurythmics—it has a very dark mood, and it feels modern yet also kind of historicized," says Terry. Similar to the video, Terry says the Scottish wools and weather-faded colors lend an authenticity to a line that's punctuated by modern technical fabrics and seamless WholeGarment knits.
After Ferrante finishes the first braid, he begins stretching and tugging it width-wise to add extra texture. Terry notes that the braided hair is meant to mimic the knitted cabling that's apparent throughout the collection. "I didn't want to necessarily do something literally—something that felt really knitted on the head. I still wanted it to feel like hair and to be organic and soft," says Terry. "Pasquale and I decided that the hair should feel as though the girl had done it herself a couple days ago and it had been slept on after going riding. We didn't want it to feel too pristine and too perfect."
"This will be my first time seeing the final hairstyle, but Pasquale and I already had a couple meetings—I'd sent some inspiration terms over and Pasquale did a hair test the other day by himself," says Terry. "In the beginning, we were just looking at some quick digital photos, but today we're confirming the overall mood."
Upon completing each braid and roughing them up accordingly, Ferrante crisscrossed the twists, studiously analyzing as he pinned them to the head. "It's messy, but it's still controlled," he says of the style.
In keeping with Terry and Ferrante's vision of having organic and imperfect hair, the final braided do was spontaneous and undone.
The finished hairstyle was also purposely asymmetrical—while one braid swept up the right side of the head, the other went straight across in a perpendicular direction.
After pulling out a few choice strands to frame the face, Terry and Ferrante watch as the model makes her way down the salon's makeshift runway. "When she walks, she has hair that moves around the face, which makes everything just a little more sweet," says Ferrante about the textured and braided look.
A few more photos of the hairstyle are snapped and the run-through is over. Terry will then e-mail the images to the lead makeup artist so that he or she can take inspiration from the plaited tresses. Of course, though the hair and makeup play major roles in Coventry's show, they're simply two pieces of a jumbo puzzle: Says Terry, "I'm off to look at shoes now."
Check back next week for Coventry's fall 2009 looks!
