Salon Showcase

What a night! The salon showcase night is always a fun one to see. This season at Edmonton Fashion Week, I saw a love story, a freak show circus, defeated villains, an ariel ballet dancer, and Quanteisha. Bounce Showdown winner Quanteisha actually opened the show and did a wonderful job. Then, to my surprise, two clothing collections were shown. First, Fame 2010 was introduced. This collection featured snow pants and jackets obviously aimed at the snowboarder-type audience. The collection was dominated by solid coloured garments, graphic tees, and male models - which is always a nice change for us fashion-hungry females.

Immediately after a gentleman named Blouty (pronounced Bloo-TAY) showed his collection. He was given this opportunity through iHuman. This is an organization that works with high-risk youth and gets them involved in the arts and assists them with daily life skills development. The collection shown had a very urban hip-hop type theme. Denim, neon and metallic fabrics were among the most memorable pieces, along with some graphic tees and barely-there skirts. The entire collection flowed together and was extremely well presented on the runway. I'd like to point out that this is yet another way that Edmonton Fashion Week supports local talent regardless of what background that talent comes from.

Eveline Charles Academy was first of four salons to strut their hairstyling skills for the audience. They entitled their show 'Love Gone Wrong'. I got the full storyline from one of the models after the show; the story starts with the first set of models who walked to light lovey-dovey music, and were meant to portray the happiness that comes with love and perfection. The most common style in this set was the heavy bangs and an abundance of bobs. The last two models in this first set were then about to leave the runway together (arm-in-arm) when the music quickly changes and the 'best friend' of the female model walks out and separates them because the male model was actually her boyfriend (As I'm writing this I realize how much this sounds like either a soap opera or a high school catfight). Anyways, at this point the music changes, the haircuts become harsher, the eye make-up gets heavier, and the hopeless romantic turns into a superbitch. This set of models walked with more attitude and the hair was styled to match. The final set of models represented the situation where the bad boyfriend tries to get back with the ex-girlfriend who caught him cheating. The entire showcase flowed amazingly, and the hair looked awesome. There was a lot of dark hair colours, a lot of bangs, and a lot of volume - perfectly suited for the Fall/Winter season.

Marvel College then presented their styles and, similar to Eveline Charles, the models had edgy punk styling, but the cuts were a lot softer. There was tons of asymmetrical styles, frizzy curls and crimps, and a few splashes of colour. I also noticed quite a bit of braids and twists in this showcase.

Next - and my personal favourite of the night - was Salon Montage. Their show was presented as a circus show in four different acts. The first act was a ring master and his jungle cats. The girls who represented the wild animals in fact had wild hair with a lot of frizz and brushed out curls. Act 2 started off with a man shaking his booty up and down the runway and had the entire crowd buzzing with laughter and cat calls. The girls who walked the runway in this act were like Barbie doll clowns or marionettes. Tons of volume and curls again in this show and a particular style that used fuzzy pom pom balls that are often used in craft projects pinned on one side of the models head. Her hair was swept all to one side, and was a big beautiful mess of brushed out curls. I am legitimately going to try this look on myself in the very near future. Act 3 used a lot of the same styles but the girls portrayed acrobats and did a little dancer number with hula-hoops before the start of the final act. The final act was like a masquerade ball or burlesque dancers with once again the frizzed-out curls loosely pinned for some effortlessly chic updo’s. I absolutely loved the way this show was put together, and would see it again in a heartbeat.

Blue Gemini then began their presentation and followed suit with a showing of a lot of curls, braids, faux hawks. Two models were partially styled on the stage while the other models put on the show. It was great to see how the styles were put together and experimented with.

Ricci Hair Co. was last to present and was by far the most avant-garde showcase of the night. Their collection of styles was called Villains. To me the intentionally expressionless models, who had their entire faces and necks painted black, looked like sad defeated villains, especially with the slow music and pace of the models. The hair mixed huge volume with sleek elements and avoided symmetry like it was the plague. Another guest sitting near me during the show mentioned that this showcase was by far his favourite of the night.

The night ended with an arial ballet routine performed by Meghan Watson of Firefly Theatre which thoroughly impressed whatever audience that remained.
Tomorrow's show should be just as exciting with the Fantasy Hair and Make-up competitions and a perfect extension of today's showcases. I look forward to it!