Limitless at LCT23
L’Oréal Colour Trophy Grand Final 2023 was brilliant and our creative director Luke Pluckrose’s “Limitless’ show was an amplified take on the possibilities for hairdressers and for hair.
Luke and Saks Artists Clare Murphy and Sarah Clarke-Lees chat on the show concept and the looks we created with brilliant collaborators – Giuseppe Stelitano, Andrea Dorata and Frazer Wallace. And two *mad for backstage* Saks stylists – Alice Haley and Shelbi Halewood – tell us about assisting at one of the UK’s biggest hair gigs of the year.
LIMITLESS
Luke says: “For the concept, two things kept going round in my head. Nowadays for hairdressers your career can offer up limitless choices if you’re wanting to take a creative route. And there are no boundaries with what you can do to create show-stopping hair.
“So we worked with four avenues for mood boards – Cutting & Colour, Film & TV, Wigs and Fashion. And then we expressed the looks in different genres – unforgettable looks of the 60s, 70s and 90s to today’s snatched ponies and futuristic sci-fi.”
Sarah Clarke-Lees: “The brief was collaborative – working with, and learning from people who are the best. Hairdressers, stylists, makeup artists, wigmakers, photographers – all coming together to create something special.”
Clare Murphy: “After 13 years working with Luke, I’ll never fail to be excited by what he thinks of next. He always says he just wants to ‘do good hair‘ and a big part of this is bringing people in and getting creative. His standards are very high and I learn every time.”
Luke: “Ah, cheers mate!”
CUTTING
Luke: “Exploring the start of modern hairdressing with two takes on the bob. One being a modern Mary Quant and the other going avant-garde, creating a really exaggerated, texturised shape.”
COLOUR
Luke: “Layering colour placement on snatched ponies in red to dark hues by adding hair in layers and blending it together. It’s easy to get hold of materials to explore creative colour – have a go!”
Sarah: “Creating ‘houndstooth hair’ by blurring repeated geometric shapes into each other with dark brown, caramel and blonde tones – natural colours placed in sharp pattern.”
Luke: “Having worked together for years I’m always happy to give Sarah the brief and trust her to do her stuff and get creative. Here it was literally to showcase blending and colour placement. As always she just ran with it and rocked it.”
TV & FILM
Luke “I was totally inspired by Clare for this – it’s unreal what she gets to create with her work on film and TV sets. Shows such as Bridgerton, House of Dragon and The Witcher. So it had to be all-out futuristic and sci-fi, recreating Avatar and Mars Attacks!”
WIGS
Sarah: ” The models went out in bald caps whilst on the showreel Luke was talking about how you can change a look and silhouette with wigs to take you to a time or a place in a split second of seeing a classic shape.
“All change and back out in 1.15 seconds! Bald caps to big blowout styles, flared pants, hot pants. Dressed up, wigs on and back out, completely different and instantly recognisable.”
FASHION
Sarah: “Loved the 90s supers! Luke was in his element adding hair and height and width. Fans blowing volumised hair out ala Cindy for Versace. One model even channelled a Naomi for Westwood tumble and rocked it. Beats blaring. A real moment!”
LUKE: “Hyping up the hair with wigs and hair pieces – you can create anything you like. The whole show was about making things that you think aren’t doable.”
SAKS STYLISTS GO PRO
Alice of Saks Guisborough says: “I assisted Sarah with the the houndstooth pattern hair. Incredible watching Sarah bring a fabric pattern to life on someone’s head! The intricate detail and meticulousness was unbelievable. The whole day was mind blowing. I couldn’t sleep – adrenaline was pumping!”
Shelbi of Saks Poulton:”Assisting was priceless and I even got a model or two of my own to prep ready for wigs. After hours cutting up hair with Alice and sticking it on the head it looked unreal. Hard work pays off! I hope to assist the Saks Artists again. And join the Saks A-Team creative training sessions. And enter the L’Oréal Colour Trophy next year. Bring it all on!”
LIMITLESS TEAM
Luke Pluckrose – Saks
with
Andrea Dorata – Dorata Hairdressing
Clare Murphy – Saks
Frazer Wallace – The Haus Studio
Giuseppe Stelitano – Trevor Sorbie
Sarah Clarke-Lees – Saks
Assisted by:
Alice Haley – Saks Guisborough
Ethann Grigg – Trevor Sorbie
Esti Carton – Trevor Sorbie
Shelbi Halewood – Saks Poulton
Sylvie Brooks – Dorata Hair
Tara Ives – Dorata Hair
Makeup: Lan Grealis
Avatar prosthetics: Bianca Judd and Monster FX
SAKS PRO PROPOSITION
When stylists join us the Saks Prop proposition is real. You’ll get out-of-this-world training, work with amazing co-workers in salon and for those wanting to head out to the bright lights we’re proud of the creative and session stylings opps that we can provide.
Alice and Shelbi are thriving on their Saks Pro journeys. Fancy it? Get onboard and get creative. Check our salon vacancies here.