Aveda Bares Exclusive Hair Color Collection With Award-winning X-presion Team
Aveda has announced its first ever guest artist collaboration with world renowned artists and IHA’s International Artistic Team of the year, X-presion.
Formed by three young entrepreneurs from Madrid, Marco Antonio Restrepo, Jorge Cáncer and Jose Luis Almendral, X-presion is known for developing cutting edge techniques through a mix of different artistic disciplines, material, and concepts. Their first collection for Aveda, Graphic Organic, celebrates their signature graphic style while incorporating shapes and patterns from nature.
Graphic Organic delivers an Aveda-exclusive technique designed to inspire and educate and ultimately translate to a unique color look that anyone can wear. With a mutual appreciation of artistry and shared ideals, the partnership between Aveda and X-presion formed naturally:
“Our like-minded values with Aveda around balance, wellness and artistry made it an obvious match. We were excited to work on this project and now to share it with the world,” said the X-presion team.
The trio views hair like a canvas, and with Aveda’s vegan, customizable hair color they were able to highlight the line’s unlimited tonal customization using their own vision.
“As creative thinkers, nonconformist and even rebels in hairdressing, to work with Aveda Full Spectrum to achieve a palette of so many colors and infinite customization was incredible,” said X-presion.
The collection is inspired by naturally occurring fractals, where geometry and precision meet naturally occurring chaos and scale.
"We've always been fascinated by the visual side of math, in this case when organically appearing geometric patterns and fractals meet the eye and repeat and overlap to generate endless possibilities, scale and incredible colors. We brought this idea to our approach,” said X-presion.
To create the looks, Aveda and X-presion worked in partnership to bring color patterns to the model’s hair using an overlapping method to accomplish the effect. The team formed a large palette of custom formulas using Aveda’s high-performing vegan Full Spectrum color products which resulted in a range of shades for truly unique and versatile looks.
Framing all the color around the face, the hair is separated into panels for bleaching. Aveda’s Botanical Repair was applied to the whole head to build bonds and maintain healthy looking, strong hair before being separated out into panels and lightened.
To design the graphic portion using the Trompe-l’oeil technique, X-presion used three tools: A specially designed comb created for precise and equal sections; a silicone spatula for sharper lines; and transparent foils for color layering.
Once complete, the top portion is sectioned out, twisted, and braided with a piece of hemp before being colored to form an imperfect yet complimentary color effect overlaying the more defined coloring.
“The final result shows how the organic and the more graphic color blend together, fusing so you cannot see where one starts and the other ends,” said X-presion.
The technique and layered approach creates two versatile looks for each model. When styled differently, the effect of the color changes and transforms.
“The magic is that you can completely transform the look by moving the hair in a different direction,” said X-presion. The campaign was shot on three different models and captures two distinct looks for each.
Aveda’s newest Full Spectrum Colors are now available in Aveda partner salons such as: Basement Rockwell and Basement Eastwood, HairMNL Studio, Kazie Salon, Color Bar and Culture Salon.
Credits
Creative Direction + Hair Cut/Style: X-presion
Hair Color: X-presion
Models: Andrea Gutiérrez Arcas , Muriel Seiquer Pérez, Arashi Méndez Bella
Fashion Stylist: Andrea Sanchez
Makeup: David Lopez
Photographer: Javier Marquez
Fashion Film: Gus&Lo
Aveda Technical Educator: Natalia Prager
Color Director, Aveda Lifestyle Salon Madrid: Adoracion Ruiz
