Retro, vibrant and unforgivably sexy. The Loverboy collection from Matt Stark, British salon owner and Fellowship for British Hairdressing member, projects the soft-and-loose look of the ’90s against a bold, fiery canvas to create a virtual diary of today’s cool young man in action. “I wanted each image to look like it could be a poster on a teenager’s bedroom wall,” says Stark, whose influences come from pop culture. “I wanted every image to have a romanticism yet be innocently presented.”
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For inspiration, Stark operates like any gifted visual artist: He collects pictures, files them and then “mood boards” everything. “They’re generally not even hair-related—I’m just obsessed with strong imagery,” he explains. Once inspired, the stylist lets his instincts take over. For Loverboy, the effect of hair movement was the result of “just playing around,” he says. “After the shoot we played them back and loved them. To show moving hair is very cool and set the mood even further.”
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The mood, Stark explains, was important. “I spent months creating the mood and then I selected the models and hair to follow,” he says. “I became obsessed with having a red background but it had to be ‘cherry Coke’ red—very specific. Then the romance came from there. I always like my images to look like they could be an album cover.”
