ITVA 2018 – My Creative Retreat – The International Language of Hair

After sixteen years of competition this year Wella brought a new format to the 16th annual International Trend Vision Awards held in Lisbon, Portugal.  In an effort to bring together stylists from all countries and to create a fuller experience Wella organized something completely new this year. This time there was no customers, just media, influencers and the participants and models.

In our briefing we were explained what was new this year.   “We want to celebrate more than just the individual by creating a team concept involving 76 participants, 43 countries and 16 mentors with multiple challenges.  This year they will come away with so much more!”

The venue was a stunning historic building Pateo de Galle with a centre solarium courtyard scattered with bean bag chairs and cube seating for an informal atmosphere.  In the competition area each team was set up in the coves under the massive arched ceilings of the building. The excitement and the hustle backstage was electric!

Stylists competed in an experience with multiple challenges throughout 2 1/2 days.  The challenge was to create a collection that included cut, color and styling by storyboarding a concept then executing the looks.  These looks were then photographed and judged as a team effort.

The teams consisted of ten stylists with five models per group.  Each team had to create two looks on their models. One look being very simple then progressing into a street style fashion.  The models were casted from Lisbon and given to the teams on the first day. They did not see the models until the ITVA.

The concept of the looks was about diversity and individualism of the three females and two males included in each model group.  The looks were very commercial and wearable which is quite refreshing after years of extreme hair looks. Wardrobe styling was provided and dibs on the clothing selection went to the teams as they were ready with their models first.

One of the biggest hurdles was the language barriers from the various countries within their teams.  But the language of hair and fashion is strong- with the help of interpreters they managed to communicate their ideas to come up with their final looks.  Visual storyboards aided in effectively expressing their ideas to each other.

Our very own Canadian ITVA winner Daniel Greco gave us some insight from his perspective.

Top Wella educators supported them throughout the two days.  They were also coached through the entire process by the “Gifted Mentors” who were some of the top talents in the Wella family like Sonya Dove, Steven Moody, Eugene Souleiman and Rossano Ferretti.  This was a fantastic opportunity for them to collaborate with artists they may not have a chance to work with in their career. The mentors and educators coached and inspired their teams by giving their best advice throughout the entire process.

We got a chance to interview mentors Sonya Dove and Antony Millard to hear what was happening behind the scenes:

The dinner and party was an elaborate set up of long picnic tables where the teams sat together.  We took in the atmosphere of the beautiful, historic building surrounded in floating balloons and pink lights.  The energy was full of fun and excitement as they announced the awards.

The award categories were:  Color Vision, Creative Vision, GHD Queen Maker, Speak EIMI (editorial look) and the Social Media Award for the best posts, stories and reach.  Finally they announced the overall winners for Couture Color and Couture Collection Creative Vision.

The winners are:

Color Vision:  Tanya Grant from Australia

Creative Vision:  Sergei Chernyshev from Russia

Social Media: Anastasia Petrova

GHD Queen Maker:  Team 1: Dmitry & Abby

Speak EIMI:  Team 4: Cyrill & Matthias

Couture Color:  Team 8: Jayson & Darren

Couture Collection:  Team 8: Jayson & Darren

We had a chance to sit down with Sylvie Moreau, President and Laura Simpson CMO to talk about the subjects of diversity and the future of the beauty industry.

“As a company at Coty we want to celebrate and liberate the diversity of beauty which is perfect for us at Wella Professional and all of our brands because that’s always been at the heart of what we do.” says Laura Simpson.

Sylvie Moreau tells us “Change is really exciting.  Rather than being afraid of the change we need to embrace it fully.  Everything which the new world demands on one hand is challenging because it’s change, but on the other hand I love it because whatever consumers want in any category is the backbone of the professional industry in general.  They want personalisation, they want human connections but in a digital way. It’s still human connection that they want and it’s all about the boom of the service experience.”