STRAIGHT TIME : The Headline News From Italy Is of Sleek, Chic Hair Styles That : Cut Through the Fuss of Mousse-Hardened Spikes and Curls
Some of the world’s most fashionable women--the Italians--are going straight. Shiny, well-tended, classic haircuts--devoid of spikes, layers, fringes or curls--are appearing on trendy Via della Spiga. Near Milan’s central plaza, female shoppers crowding the famed Galleria sport hair slicked back off the face, sometimes anchored with vibrant headbands. And at Emporio Armani, where jet-set yuppies pay homage (and lira) to designer Giorgio Armani, sleek saleswomen accent their smooth hair styles with a wave at the temple or perhaps a curtain of brow-hiding bangs.
The Italian look has no hard edges and is always minus mousse and other dulling fixatives.
These decidedly blunt, glossy styles make the most of the hair’s natural texture,
stylists say. And, hair-care experts add, a clever cut can make fine hair look thicker
and tame the most unruly manes.
For the first time in years, women on the streets of Milan are mimicking runway models by wearing their hair in styles that are almost unnoticeable. Smooth, tidy hair is a response to trends in clothes, says Antonio Barracini, who styles hair on Monte Napoleone, one of Milan’s most fashionable streets. The long skirts and broad shoulders of seasons past provided a foundation for dramatic, moussed and sprayed hairdos, but the new abbreviated hemlines and narrow shoulders require streamlined hair styles.
If the trend sounds like a rehash of the early ‘60s, when Vidal Sassoon introduced geometric cuts that complemented Mary Quant’s mod miniskirts, it isn’t. The past rarely repeats itself in hair fashions. “We are not attempting to re-create another time,” Barracini says. “Clothes by Gianni Versace and Gianfranco Ferre have a very straight, rectangular look--different from the ‘60s triangles. This year’s hair is straight, without definite angles or artificial fullness.”
“Even when trends go back to a particular style, it’s never really the same. It has a new feeling,” says hairdresser Yosh of Yosh for Hair in San Francisco, where the Italian look is much in demand. “We’re cutting the hair one length with a bit of layering at the ends for fullness, and we’re using waving irons--not curling irons--to add smooth curves.”
Such simple lines work for women of all ages, says Cristophe, a Beverly Hills hairdresser who is adapting the Italian look for Californians. Cristophe says the style looks best with either very short or very long hair.
Yosh describes one of his most popular cuts as “lip length”--a hair style that stops at the nape, just brushes the earlobes and points to lips. At the other extreme, Cristophe says, is smooth, glossy, swinging hair worn longer than shoulder length.
Straight styles have created a need for accessories that hold wisps in place or provide the option of sweeping the bangs off the forehead. Tortoise-shell bands, which were big in the ‘60s, are all over Milan, but the city’s brightest are wide, thickly padded fabric-covered bands in vivid colors.
Eyebrow-length bangs are also making a comeback. “No more wispy bangs that just graze the forehead,” says Cristophe. “Bangs are either so full that they sit right on the top of sunglasses, or there are none at all.”
“A year ago we were showing uneven, soft bangs,” Yosh says. “Now they’re longer, thicker and definitely more sophisticated.”
Italian women add variety to their straight styles with chignons and hair extensions. The double ponytail, popular with teens and shop girls at Italy’s ubiquitous Benetton stores, adapts easily to blunt cuts. One tail is worn high on the head; the second is caught low at the nape and is supplemented with a long, braided hairpiece that sometimes trails to the waist. Some sophisticates slick their hair with high-sheen gels and wear a tight chignon at the nape. Or, if their hair is long enough, they sweep it up and secure the chignon at the crown. Some Italian women pull their hair into a classic French twist and add a plump chignon “doughnut” at the top of the twist.
“A new look has arrived,” Cristophe says. “And we can expect it to stay.” But, he adds, he doesn’t expect California women who are used to wild, flowing locks to immediately pull the plug on their curling irons and hot rollers. “Hair fashion changes in steps. It takes two or three seasons to get to a new look. But the straight look is in,” he says. “Anything messy is completely finished.”
Photographed by Veronica Sim; hair by John Keoni / Cloutier; makeup by Gary Berkowitz / Cloutier; styling by Raymond Lee / Cloutier; model: Jennifer Laser / Wilhelmina West Models; fashions from Gallay, West Hollywood.
