The World Fashion winners of the third TRENDblast Awards were announced amid elation, tears of joy and champagne corks popping. In spring Intercoiffure Mondial had called on its hairdressers worldwide to represent their country with a creative interpretation of one of the four TRENDblast looks. These stylists each created a 60-second fashion video and a photo shoot on one of our trends.
These categories were: Rock-mantic, EcoLife, Metallic Silver and Androgyne.
On Sunday 12 September 2021 all 12 finalists attended the live-streamed Intercoiffure Mondial TRENDblast event to hear the decision from an international jury of creative experts from around the world. The 2021 TRENDblast Award recipients were announced by Ara Koivula, Artistic Director for ICD Finland and Nordic Region:
Kati Suokas from Finland won the Rock-mantic category, Lucian Bratu from Romania won the Ecolife category, Elen Traysman from Israel won the Metallic Silver category and Sergii Gubanov from Ukraine the Androgyne category.
Fresh from this success, the winners shared the story they wanted their fashion creations to tell and discussed how important this competition has been for them.
Kati Suokas
“I can still hardly believe it, but I’m so happy that the jury liked my vision of Rock-mantic! I have followed the TRENDblast competition every year, and this time I finally plucked up the courage to take part. I thought it would be difficult to make videos, but now I’ve done it I feel I’ve made it to the next level. I’d like to thank Mikko Karekivi, an experienced photographer, for his brilliant work on the video and photos, and for his commitment to the project.
I drew inspiration from Madonna, the queen of pop.
To me, she’s the most rock-mantic person ever. My idea was to film at night to the backdrop of her song ‘Like a Prayer’ in the mediaeval Finnish castle Hämeenlinna. My look updates Madonna’s 1980s style with today’s fashion.
The hair is super-soft with curls, and grey in colour with shades of brown interspersed with pink. The back is longer than the sides, and the fringe is feathered.
One thing’s for sure: I can hardly wait to take part in next year’s TRENDblast.”
Lucian Bratu
“The real challenge was the 60-second video – I had to be really creative to condense my work into just one minute. I went for EcoLife because I think it’s more than just a trend – it’s an attitude to living. My look is a bob with lots of texture and gentle waves. The iridescent colours were inspired by oil spills, on land and water. Although these reflections look lovely, the spills themselves are dangerous. Even finding out I was a finalist in the TRENDblast competition was an important and happy moment for me.
Winning was just the icing on the cake. Receiving the award gave me a sense of fulfilment. We all need some affirmation of our work from time to time, and it’s fantastic for me to receive mine from Intercoiffure Mondial! I love being a hairdresser. To me, it’s a type of art. What more could you want than to see happy customers and see the positive influence you can have on their appearance and their mental wellbeing?”
Elen Traysman – Metallic Silver
“To me, TRENDblast was a really great experience. I thought very carefully about the script when I was making the video. I was aiming to create the 60-second message all in the same breath: the fashion, hair and music. There are two subjects in the video: the hairdresser and the heroine. There is a creator and someone who is being created. It’s art. It was important to me not just to shoot a video, but also to put my heart and soul into it. My look is for someone living in a modern metropolis. We’re living in the age of skyscrapers.
I drew inspiration from these, and the legendary designer Paco Rabanne. I was thinking of an architecture with height and straight lines, which I teamed with a chain mail shirt. Intercoiffure Israel is a very young region within Intercoiffure Mondial – perhaps my win will give some of our other members a boost and they will proudly push forward to make hair fashion history for Israel within the prestigious organisation that is Intercoiffure Mondial.”
Sergii Gubanov
“My win was a really pleasant surprise and I’m so glad the jury valued my work so highly, as I wasn’t the only finalist from Ukraine. My film interpreted Androgyne and shows a man with masculine and feminine qualities, styled in a sort of street teen fashion. Simply taking part in the competition like this is always a step forward. I love my job: I can be creative, communicate with my favourite customers and give them a little bit of happiness…”
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