Wigs can have a functional purpose as they may help conceiling baldness and preserving youthfulness, or they may help us recovering our identities during or after an illness. Besides, they can have an instrumental role in courts, during specific religious ceremonies or rituals; they may be employed for acting or as a fun diversive at a fancy dress party or they can more simply help us quickly and radically changing our looks for one day.
Favoured by many different ancient civilizations including the Egyptians, the Greeks, Romans, Assyrians, and the Phoenicians, throughout history wigs have denoted rank, social class and status. Let's think for example about the extravagant wigs from the 18th century, that quite often transformed into elaborately intricate powdered and bejeweled architectural constructions.
Made with human hair or natural fibers (the Egyptians also employed palm leaf fibers and wool to make wigs...) or, more recently, with synthetic materials, wigs remain an important element in the history of fashion and accessories in particular, with quite a few modern celebrities known for their extravagant styles relaunching them.
Very original hairpieces often appear on the runways, completing a look and at times becoming even more desirable than the actual clothes donned by the models. This is definitely the case with Tomihiro Kono's hairpieces.
The New York-based Japanese hair artist has been focusing on the last 20 years on hair styling (he has collaborated with fashion designer Junya Watanabe in his Paris shows for quite a few seasons), head prop design and wig making.
Tomihiro Kono (河野富広) will be launching a sort of pop up exhibition this Friday at The Community, in Paris.
Located on Rue du Château d'Eau, the mecca of hair salons and beauty shops in Paris, this former barber shop has now turned into a multidisciplinary art space run by an artist collective.
Coinciding with menswear fashion week, "Wigs (Perruques)" promises to be a journey through Kono's most visionary pieces.
Kono started focusing on wig making 2 years ago and has produced since then a lot of fantastical and whimsical pieces, often inspired by history and historical figures à la Marie Antoinette.
"I would say I'm more inspired by history itself rather than a single Antoinette style," he states. "Right because we can't see examples of Victorian wigs in museums, I find it is fascinating for me to recreate them imagining how they had been made in the old days."
A selection of Kono's wigs will be on display in the gallery hanging from the ceiling, as if they were floating in the air: visitors will be invited to look at the designs as works of art and not as hairpieces that may be used for fashion runways or photographic shoots.
There is another aspect of Kono's wigs that the exhibition hopes to highlight – the craftsmanship behind each piece.
Kono's wigs are labour-intensive artworks as the hairpieces are all handmade by the artist and designer following his passion for mathematical precision.
Rather than using a sewing machine Kono drapes lace on a head block and then individually hand-stitches the hair strand by strand onto to the lace foundation following the direction of the natural hair growth.
"Making wigs from scratch is a time-consuming work but I feel like I am making my own art piece. It can be a meditating experience for me," he explains.
Good things do not last long and the exhibition at The Community will only be on for two days, but it will offer a final treat to visitors and fans: people will indeed be able to try some of the wigs, the process will be documented and will be included in a future volume by Tomihiro Kono.
The artist will also be working on new wigs in the gallery space and be available to sign copies of Head Prop: Studies 2013-2016 (Konomad Editions).
One final thing is worth remembering: while visitors may not be able to walk away with the wigs, they will still be able to buy limited editions of five different prints from the book.
Last but not least, Tomihiro Kono will appear again on Irenebrination later on this week to tell us how the exhibition went, so stay tuned to discover more about his work and his wondrous punk, historical, crazy and geometrical hairpieces.
Tomihiro Kono, "Wigs (Perruques)", The Community, 65 Rue du Château d'Eau, 75010 Paris, 23-24 June 2018. Opening times: Saturday: Midday to 8.00 pm; Sunday: Midday to 7.00pm.
Image credits for this post
1 - 3. Wigs by and ©️ Tomihiro Kono
4 - 9. Photos by and ©️ Albert Watson
10 - 14. Posters ©️ Konomad Editions
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