The ambition behind the design was to enhance an ordinary
visit to the hairdressers with an illusionary feeling of glamour, inviting
individual vanity and encouraging socializing. Within the space of the hair
salon, theatricality was a means to transform the quotidian into the
spectacular. The owner’s demand for visual control as well as the necessity for
clientele privacy instigated the idea of optical filtering devices suspended
within a fluid space. Experimenting with the [cut-stretch] algorithm in paper
and acrylic, I observed that sequences of slots in alternating rows resulted in
an elastic condition of the surface that allowed three-dimensional curvature. I
decided to develop this prototype into a series of porous screens responding to
the problem of optical filtering in the hair salon. Linear incisions
transformed into curvilinear openings affected by the weight of the surface
itself when hanging. The first samples were done in canvas and then synthetic
leather, a material resilient to tearing as well as sprayed hair products. The
client’s appeal for retro glamour coupled with an ironic resemblance of
synthetic leather samples to hair dyes, leading to a colour palette of gold,
silver, bronze, pink, white, and black vinyl.
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