Saturday 24th March saw the return of La Visage, the Industry’s exclusive hair & makeup event supporting The Katie Piper Foundation (KPF). The event was attended and judged by celebrities such as former Miss India, Deana Uppal, Actress Rebecca Grant. Also industry specialists such as Toni & GuyIlford salon director and London Fashion Week (LFW) stylist Keera K Sira, Inglot managing makeup artist Aman Dhiraj, Forbes Judge and mentor Sukhi Wahiwala and Inspirational Speakers Mani Kohli and Tulsi Vagjiani.
La Visage, now in their second year held the event in a run-down warehouse in Tottenham which saw over 150 guests attend in the transformed space. With recognition from the industry to support young and new creatives, the event had fifty sponsors come on board. The initiative behind La Visage is to provide artists with an opportunity to be part of a community, connect, grow, work alongside specialists as well as getting industry insight and creating a campaign of images for their portfolios.
The day welcomed twelve talented contestants where they were assigned models working on looks from mood boards, which were created and submitted to the team prior to the competition. It was definitely the MasterChef of hair and make-up. The contestants were given a nerve-racking 90 minutes to create their makeup looks and then 90 minutes for hair styling.
Makeup and hair products for the competition were sponsored by Industry brands Inglot UK, Arbonne by Freya Mehta and LabelM, sponsors of LFW. High-end fashion couture pieces from Gursharon Bird Designs, Inspiration Couture, Mahira and Randeva Couture were matched with the looks created. The looks were completed with Jewellery and accessory pieces from designers such as Deevara Jewels, Myra Collections, Nims Boutique and Roots Jewellery and exciting hair pieces from Lisa Jayne Millinery and Head Garden. Once the contestants had completed their looks, Anisha Vasani, creative director with over ten years experience in the industry led the creative photoshoot where the high-quality images will be provided to the contestants to add to their portfolios.
During the Creative photoshoot Am Golhar, a businesswoman and feminist who started her career in the creative industry led an hour session with four inspirational guest speakers; entrepreneur Freya Mehta, singer and actress Grace Rhodes, Bollywood star Seema Bhudia and burn survivor Tulsi Vagjiani who shared their journeys and challenges in the industry providing the contestants with good insight into succeeding and growing as young entrepreneurs.
Tulsi Vagjiani who was supported by the KPF said; “I feel this event allowed each artist to fully engage with their creative side and challenged their skills which they normally wouldn’t use… Beauty is such a huge arena and it’s not one size fits all. It’s a personal journey. I enjoy applying makeup to highlight my features as opposed to covering my blemishes or flaws. It is a fun art material and it can create such amazing things.”
The evening was completed by an interactive Fashion Show and Awards event, co-hosted by Anisha Vasani and Am Golhar alongside five judges, Aman Dhiraj, Deana Uppal, Keera Sira, Rebecca Grant and Sukhi Wahiwala. The judges scored the contestants against strict criteria on the looks created, how it matched alongside their mood boards and concluding with a short interview.
After a nerve-racking 20 minutes of deliberation, the judges returned with two runners-up, Neha Shingadia in 3 rd place, Geminee Patel in 2nd Place and the first place winner Susan Mohmand who stole the show with her stunning look entitled “Dark Unicorn”.
The lucky winner Susan Mohmand said; “It was an opportunity of a lifetime, I enjoyed every second of it and still can’t believe I created the winning look of La Visage 2018 “The Dark Unicorn”. I will cherish this forever and it will open so many doors for my career from here onwards.”