Planet Hair at New York Fashion Week!

3.30.17

Three stylists from Planet Hair recently returned from a trip that fulfilled one of their lifelong dreams –  working behind the scenes at New York Fashion Week!  Hair stylists Jesse McMillin and Mel Thorton, along with makeup artist Emma Terry, represented Wichita’s Planet Hair salon at the Fall 2017 New York Fashion Week., working with the Aveda Fashion Week team to create the hair and makeup looks that walked down the runway!

Recognizing that working on hair and makeup for these shows is a momentous career achievement for stylists, Planet Hair seized the opportunity to send three people to work with the Aveda team. New York Fashion Week is one of the biggest, most exciting events in the fashion industry. During the week of February 9, around 232,000 people attended more than 500 fashion shows during the New York Fashion Week Fall 2017 and over 2 million watched the shows online to see the trends the international designers have prepared for fall.

“I’ve always wanted to be a part of Fashion Week, since I watched runway shows as a little kid, but I never thought I’d have the opportunity to take part in it,” Terry said. “This was a dream come true!”

To qualify to participate in Fashion Week, Planet Hair asked their stylists to write an essay, telling the salon owners why they wanted to attend Fashion Week. The winning stylists attended training in New York in January, sponsored by Planet Hair. McMillian and Thorton studied with John Raymond, the lead stylist of the Aveda Fashion Week team and Terry worked with Janell Geason, lead makeup artist, to practice the season’s runway trends and techniques.

“I am very happy for the experience, even though it was terrifying and pushed me out of my comfort zone,” remarked Thorton. “I’m grateful to the owners of Planet Hair for making this possible.”

Joining 75 other international Aveda artists, Planet Hair’s artists worked in small teams during Fashion Week, getting models ready for the shows. McMillin and Thorton worked with upcoming designers LeAnne Marshall and Marcel Osterag. McMillin also did hair for a collective show of three designers in the Latinista Show. Terry created makeup looks for the Francesca Liberatore, Calvin Luo and Louis Verdad shows.

“Fashion Week was an incredible experience,” said McMillin. “It was fun being able to do edgier styles than we usually do in the salon, and creating styles I’ve never done before. I’m ready to go back and do it again!”