The global family of TONI&GUY came together this weekend for its inaugural global digital event, CONNECTED, a celebration of inspiration, education and hair with over 5,500 attendees both tuning in live and registering to watch following the event.
The one-hour spectacle took us on a journey around the world, as teams from Australia, Japan, Italy, Spain, China and the UK presented the TONI&GUY 2021 campaigns Utilitarian, Keep it Real and Reverie all under one brand education umbrella called CONNECTED. Not stopping there, London Fashion Week presentations were given from all the major capital cities around the world: London, Milan and Beijing, with the event concluding on the brand’s amazing Avant-Garde creations.
Global Creative Director, Sacha Mascolo-Tarbuck welcomed everyone: “It’s been a challenging time over the past nine months but what a journey we have had. We have made improvements to all our 170 UK salons; 1700 stylists have learnt and implemented our gold standard hygiene client promise to keep all of our salons safe and we’ve had 8,000 downloads of our education streaming platform: TONI&GUY Digital Academy. We had record numbers of clients coming to our salons on reopening from the first lockdown, and from the second lockdown we launched the global Digital Academy to connect our brand and continue the TONI&GUY legacy.”
CEO Nigel Darwin added: “As an industry we have faced challenges we never expected, but what strikes me is how, as a global family, we have seized this opportunity. We may not be meeting face to face, but every hairdresser round the world can join together, that is the strongest foundation we could have wished for!”
The creative sessions started with International Artistic Director Cos Sakkas and Eamon Boreham introducing the three campaigns for 2021, in which, for the first time connect under one TONI&GUY brand umbrella:
- Utilitarian: The TONI&GUY campaign was described as embodying health, beauty and knowledge, through the philosophy of wellness and embracing self-expression, diversity and wellbeing through beautiful hair. “We’re seeing clients looking for a massive change – they want to express their individualism”, Cos explained. “Clients are looking for organic, natural finishes through styling and colour,” continued International Technical Director, Siobhan Golden.
- Keep It Real: label.m continues its ‘Keep it Real’ campaign which is about selfexpression; vital to our freedom and diversity and continues to celebrate our people behind the brand – our staff, our models and our clients. International Artistic Director, Daniele de Angelis summarised the collection by explaining that Keep it Real is ‘your hair ID’.
- Reverie: a brand new, hairdresser focused and exciting industry exclusive campaign for 2021 – Sakkas described it as “immersing yourself in a day dream of creativity”. International Artistic Director, Indira Schauwecker and Francesco Fontana continued that message by later adding Reverie was “all about imagination and pushing the art of creative cut and colour with editorial finishes and no rules or limits.”
Connected celebrated not only the hair heroes from around the world, but all TONI&GUY champions including education and business partners, across the brand who have made TONI&GUY what it is today, each sharing their own secrets of success on what it takes be successful – from New Zealand to the UK via India, China, Pakistan, Russia, Spain, Cyprus, Sweden and Italy. International teams from Tokyo, Sydney and Milan, each presented their own unique techniques that will be exciting clients for months to come, keeping TONI&GUY at the forefront of the fashion industry.
Efi Davies brought us presentations from the past 15 years of collaborating with London Fashion Week, where the team work on some 80 shows every season. To mark its 15-year anniversary and seven-year partnership as the Official Haircare Product of LFW, Efi took us through the collaboration between label.m and four cutting-edge designers: IA London, DB Berdan, A-Jane and Simon Mo to create a limited-edition range of the brand’s four best sellers: Shine Mist, Volume Mousse, Texturising Volume Spray and Brunette Dry Shampoo.
No TONI&GUY show would be complete without an Avant-Garde spectacular finale. Working with fashion designer, Cimone, the section was opened with a show stopping outfit that quoted ‘God Be Merciful to Me’ symbolising that no pandemic will stop TONI&GUY creating and sharing education. Bright, bold and beautiful textures and shapes finished off an hour where imagination and education collided to inspire hairdressers around the world.