Hair as a material on this blog has never gotten a good reaction…."Ewww…that creeps me out!!!!!!" is the usual one and rightly so as it’s the provenance of the hair that gets to people….where does it come from and what the bloody hell is it doing on a garment? I’m 100% sure now there is no grave digging involved and in the same way that real hair wigs exist, human hair in clothing is totally legit and seeing as I’m intrigued by it as a material I’ll continue to cut the hair some slack.
Slack being the operative word here as the pieces below and the jacket that Roisin Murphy was wearing at the Luella show in September (I totally forgot to mention that I’d like to dive into Ms. Murphy’s ‘borrowed/stage’ wardrobe in my FAQ…) are by LCF-grad Gemma Slack, from her debut S/S 09 collection. It’s no surprise that Gemma did a two year stint with Gareth Pugh, the other hair-user, but there’s a feminine sensibility to Slack’s pieces that make the hair almost undetectable. Rather than shouting out "Hey its human hair over here!", it is used rather stealthly…in some of the lookbook pictures, I can’t even tell where real hair ends and hair on garment starts. There’s also the tailoring that adds an air of refinement to pieces that are underlying with something darker. I’m looking forward to seeing what other kinds of hair-raising techniques Slack uses for next season (sorry…couldn’t resist it…)
I’m afraid that hair still does rather creep me out, though Im being a bit hypocritical as I love feathers. In fact, I just did a post on feathers:
http://notsowildstylechild.blogspot.com/2008/11/gobble-gobble.html
P.S. After looking at these pics a second time, I actually am warming up to the braided-sleeve jacket.
I like the big-hairy-shoulder look best.
The second outfit is hot!
i don’t know
i’m still kinda creeped by the explosion of hair on garments as of late
but i guess it’s growing on me (haha!)
it may take sometime to get used to though
Honestly I got all ticklish! Hairy madness!
Hmm, this is a bit of an ethical dilemma too – to me at least. People here are currently running a big campaign; urging you to donate your (human) hair to make wigs for cancer patients. Here the hair is put into couture.
But apart from that, I don’t dislike the look of it. Fur is hair too. Are they using all colours too? Ginger would be interesting 🙂
totally reminds me of Chris March’s final collection for Project Runway a few years back, he made a few pieces using black hair extensions, and made a very cool skirt using hair and safety pins, the judges totally ripped into him saying how bad and creepy the idea was, ahh well how times have changed lol
Just in case you wanted to see what his hair inspired creations looked like
http://nymag.com/fashion/fashionshows/2008/fall/main/newyork/womenrunway/chrismarch/slideshow.html?11
this does freak me out,but thinking about it i don’t really know why it should. it’s not like fur, where the animals are forced in to it; presumably you can’t force someone to cut their hair, and even so you don’t need to kill them to do it! i think i just don’t like how it looks, particularly those braided shoulder-thingys. it’s definitely interesting though!
Although the pieces above are gorgeous, I’m not sure I’d buy/wear them, incredibly interesting though!
i kinda like the braided one….but then the question comes to mind….how will you wash such a garment…shampoo?
I’ll second Jacky…Chris March!!
Love your blog!! cool jacket 😉
na. hair should remain on one’s head. not for me…interesting concept tho.
I think it’s fab…I might even go to ‘PAK cosmetics’ tomorrow, pick up some hair & have a bash at making something with myself 😉
Oops…not with myself…that should be just myself…D’oh!
This is looking less weird to me since I have been studying victorian hair jewelry. Not that i woud have any in my own wardrobe….but hey, it’s no different to the stuff that was glued on my head after the hairdresser hacked off all my own.
I will take this opportunity to say that your blog is addictive. Not just because of the labels you showcase, but your personal style is inspiring and so fresh.
anyway, maybe you like these necklaces, i have seen them on Bjork but I don’t know the designer:
oops: http://pictures.bjorkish.net/2005/candid/bjorkish_0523marquee_03.jpg
It’s honestly very creepy for me… ><
It must be some sort of biological programming… hair is just icky when it’s not on a head! It’s not logical, just a gut reaction. But interesting, none-the-less.
creepy stuff! reminds me of a show from bbc 3 (clip below)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=P67UVbKEIuc
I can’t help but feel I have an errant hair stuck in my throat, it all started with the Maison Martin Margiela Spring 09 show! This reminds me of a Jerry Seinfeld bit where he points out the oddity of admiring someone’s shiny, long hair and going so far as to stroke it, but then when it ‘makes the leap off the head’ onto us, we squirm and writhe in disgust!
i still don’t like it
its good for fashion shows but not day to day
or any day really
#
x
I’m not creeped out by hair at all and don’t really understand why people are so squicked out by it. Human hair has been used for body adornment by many non-Western cultures for ages.
I actually made a choker/collar out of silver and human hair as part of a body of work for my Bachelor of Fine Art final exhibition.
http://pics.livejournal.com/merytaten/pic/0002ah0s/g90
Strangly I thought I would hate this being quite a conservative lass but I actually love the collection from the photos you have displayed. A thumbs up from me!
oh yes! i’ve been coveting a long black monkey or goat hair jacket for some time now- but the prices are frightening, even on ebay!
Considering the number of people who have real human hair woven to their heads, there shouldn’t be anything strange about wearing hair.
What is the proper hair care?And am I doing this right?
I have a shoulder-length black hair. It is semi-wavy but not too coarse nor too dry. I do have a normal hair.
There’s also the tailoring that adds an air of refinement to pieces that are underlying with something darker.