Behind the Scenes with Brooks & Brooks

It’s Show Time!

“It had to be as visual as if they were sitting in the front row” The Brooks & Brooks artistic team presented the opening show at the 2021 L’Oréal Colour Trophy. Artistic director, Marlon Hawkins, gives Concept Hair a peek into the creation of their hypnotic show, Borderless.

Once our appearance at the 65th L’Oréal Colour Trophy was confirmed, the first thing we did was to start to build a concept and find a way to take the audience on an immersive experience. We have been playing with some ideas for a while and decided to break down the show into five sections, representing five girls with different feelings and experiences. We worked with a clothes designer called Syban on designing bespoke pieces for the show, from paper sketches to reality. It’s always great to see ideas come to life from paper to presentation.

This digital art instillation at the Borderless Lab Museum in Tokyo was a huge influence on our show.

Image credit: Asian Art Museum, San Francisdco

As the concept developed, we started working on hair with a ‘looktwice’ feel. Whatever the camera angle, there was something different to see every time. For the first time, the L’Oréal Colour Trophy was virtual, so for us video, as well as a live catwalk element, played a big part in this show. We wanted to take the audience on a journey of swirling visuals and hypnotic audio so that those watching on screens could really enjoy the whole visual experience. We were highly influenced by digital art exhibitions including those at the Borderless Lab, Tokyo and The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

Show day came round so quickly and after 18 months, it was amazing to be back doing what we love and feeling the buzz of being backstage. There were four of us working on the show – myself, Grace Dalgleish, Sally Brooks and Jamie Brooks.

@marlonjhawkins