Runway Report: In Excess

From piled-on vintage jewelry to stacked bobby pins, when it comes to dressing hair, the more the merrier. —KARIE L. FROST

If you ask Redken Global Creative Director Guido about embellishing hair, he’ll be the first to tell you he isn’t shy about the practice. “I’m a big fan of hair accessories—they can be vintage and don’t need to be expensive,” he says of the glut of jewels he’s pinned into the Alexander McQueen hairstyles. “There’s sometimes no rhyme or reason to the look,” he continues. “It’s just about your own interpretation. With this look, the clunkier it is, the better it is, and the more you worry about it, the more wrong it looks.” Guido takes a similar approach at Dolce & Gabbana, where encrusted black bows and trinkets galore top each model’s head in a haphazard fashion, lending an air of derring-do to these modern-day princesses. Even if the accessorizing is kept to one item—say, a floppy bow (Moschino) or a strip of velvet (Haider Ackermann)—it’s done in such a way as to bowl over anyone who appreciates the art of dressing hair.

With the holiday season here, now is the time to cash in on the trend. Naturally, not all clients will load their locks with bits and bobs—practicality often trumps whimsicality. For more reality-based takes on the trend, look to the catwalks of Sonia Rykiel and Peter Pilotto; though hair is highlighted with a few brooches (at Rykiel) or a necklace (at Pilotto), even scaled-down means going big on the baubles. The takeaway: Whether it’s more or less, this season you have an all-accessories pass to hair adornments!