This Model Just Got an Extreme Pixie Haircut for the Prada Runway
SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 4:17 PM
by LAUREN VALENTI
At the beginning of her career, American actress
Jean Seberg was faced with a radical decision: To chop or not to chop off her hair for a breakout role in 1957’s
Saint Joan. It’s no secret—she went with the former and the rest is history. Ahead of today’s
Prada show inside the Fondazione Prada, six rising models were faced with a similar prospect: Part with a few or more precious inches in favor of an edgy, androgynous cut at the hands of editorial whiz Guido Palau.
“This kind of cut creates a new character,” he explained backstage, tousling the newly shorn strands of Netherlands-bred newcomer Nikki Tissen, whose chop, complete with micro bangs, proved particularly transformative. “A tough girl that’s kind of punk, but also a bit soft.”
“I’ve had very long hair for the past 10 years, so [this cut] was really shocking at first,” said 18-year-old Tissen, who 24 hours prior had a mane of chest-grazing dark blonde hair. “But now, I think it looks really nice. I’ll probably keep it like this for a while and see if it looks good as it grows out.” And the up-and-coming-runway star, who is exclusive to Prada this season, is a novice to a blunt, jagged fringe. too.“I had bangs when I was 12, but not like this,” she said, laughing. “They went all the way down to my eyebrows back then.”
To give the extreme cut a stylized edge in the spirit of the gamine icon, Palau slicked hair back using
Redken’s Satinwear 04 Blow Dry Lotion before fastening on one of the collection’s oversize headbands (variations for the rest of the cast ranged from gold-studded leather to dizzying print fabrics).
And if that weren’t reminiscent enough of a Seberg riff, Pat McGrath gave Tissen a crash course in retro-chic makeup to suit her new look with intentionally clumpy, supersize lashes, adding a graphic backdrop of muted gray eye pencil along the brow bone. “Lashes can be so powerful and really change the face when you exaggerate them,” she said, while coating on layers (and layers!) of mascara.
If the lashes veered ’60s It girl, the rest of the makeup was intentionally subversive. Tissen’s brows were bleached, her mouth was pale, her skin was matte and powdered. In perfect harmony with the collection’s fully festooned hair statements, flouncy baby doll dresses, and kitschy knee-high tights, it was a fresh new look that held the promise of a career-making season. What else to expect from a model touched by Miuccia Prada’s vision?
Link to article on Vogue
