The Real Reason Behind Balmain’s Big Hair Swap
The largely unknown Balmain Hair Couture line reportedly has big plans to expand
When two of the most famous supermodels of the moment traded hair colour for the Balmain autumn/winter 2016 show, it became one of the biggest talking points of Paris Fashion Week and, according to The Business of Fashion, the hair swap was part of a broader strategy to grow the beauty side of the brand.
More specifically, the creators behind Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid‘s transformations, Balmain Hair, used the beauty stunt as an opportunity to gain publicity for the line.
Balmain Hair is a separate but closely related company to the French fashion house and currently sells products online and in selected stores and salons. The hair line, however, actually has a deep-rooted fashion history, beginning as a wig company when they were all the rage in the 1970s.
Their aim was to use the recent Balmain show to tap into the millennial customers – Jenner and Hadid’s social media following for example – who may want to invest in this extreme and immediate idea of hair change.
“We already see it in our business today,” Steward Guliker, Balmain Hair’s CEO told The Business of Fashion. “Changing your lips from purple to red, that’s nice and you can get a reaction. But changing your hair – it’s a shock effect. That’s what people like to do and be noticed.”
Balmain Hair is available at Pastels Salon and Marquee salons in Dubai, and at Net-A-Porter.
Via Harper’s Bazaar UK