red-hair-600Red Hair

Recently I have noticed the growing popularity of red hair in the tresses of it-models and on the pages of fashionable magazines. At Li Edelkoort’s bi-annual Trend Union lecture, the powers that be proclaimed that it is indeed an official fashion trend.


According to Li, the color of red hair is a symbol of where we come from and what we have been built on. The red of bricks, the red of barns, the red of vegetables aged in the sun, the red of desert rocks, the red of shelter, food, warmth and life. It is a new color that we are talking about, based on something old rather than something ne


We have become a society that wants to be everything for everyone. We want to be fast, global and posses the ability to manufacture everything society desires. Until quite recently we excelled at this, we have been the red of fast cars and sexy smile


Now (Li suggests), we must stop trying to do everything for everybody and instead focus our goals so that we may become experts at doing a few things instead of being mediocre at doing many. In a sense, we are reverting back to our natural tones and remember the things we were good at to begin with.

2 Comments

  1. NFK:

    I recently finished a narrative project with a red-haired heroine. At first I imagined a non-redhead to play the role, but in the casting process I discovered an amazing person who was not only perfect for the part, but who actually helped define the part with her performance. So she not only excelled at what I was seeing in my imagination, but she advanced the role to something that I hadn’t been able to see until that point. She has red hair. And thru the creation and production process I’ve come to love her hair as a signature of this character, and of its richness and complexity as a color and on-screen element. So, visually, yes. But I also started to recognize it as something that kept our character grounded and real, that gave her that same feeling you quote in your post– that of shelter, warmth, and life. Conceptually, it felt very new and unorthodox, but very welcome. Depending on styling, too, the red would shift to feel stronger and more structured, or loose and nostalgic, or, let be, to feel welcoming and human somehow. Vis-a-vis our narrative, it was perfect for our heroine.

    So I agree with Li Edelkoort on this, although I had no idea these stray thoughts surrounding my project were in line with trends and motivations. “What we have built on…” I love it.

  2. Diana:

    Here is the article I was talking about!
    Original spread: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=7310179&id=817925384&ref=mf

    Online article (knock yourself out with the translation.): http://diariodonordeste.globo.com/materia.asp?codigo=646526

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