Colette Malouf knows chic hair. The Soho-based accessory designer is a master of creating great pieces and hairstyles. I visited Colette at her trunk show at Bendel’s a few weeks ago. She shared stories of travels, her inspirations, and how Christian Lacroix influenced a nickname.
What has been the influence for you to do jewelry and hair accessories?
Well, I started when I was 24 and I started on the wave of a trend. That was quite a long time ago, it was when Karl Lagerfeld was designing for Chanel. He did his first collection and showed bows on the runway. I never liked bows, it was too sweet. But a year later, I came up with an idea but I didn’t market it because I was still in school. So, I came up with another idea, that was inspired by a Juliette sleeve and I called it a pouf, while Mr. Lacroix was doing pouf skirts. It rhymed with my name and then I acquired the name ‘Malouf Pouf.’ I sold 100,000 units in my first twelve months. So, I went from my bedroom to my long awaited loft in Soho and I’ve been there ever since.
What would you like women to feel when they’re wearing your accessories and their dripped in your jewelry?
I want them to stand out. If I step on the street right now, I’m in turquoise and green and I have this feather in my hair while everyone is black.
There’s a lot of prints and unique colors that you’ve used, what is thought process behind your range?
This collection is inspired by a trip to Kenya last year. I went to Nairobi on safari and saw warriors wearing all this cobalt and red, inspired by their jewelry. Then, I went to the south coast to the hippest little Boho town. It’s an Islamic mixed with African village mixed with Europeans. It’s small, eclectic, unpretentious. Incredibly gorgeous, you had these beautiful sailboats with canvas sails. On New Year’s day, they had a race. They’d collect money from all the tourists in this one tourist community in one hotel on the beach. Then the winner gets all of the money and the winning boat gets sunk. It was the most bright, colorful, cheerful New York’s day I’ve ever had in my life. So this collection is inspired by that whole trip. All the colors and the prints and the all the Kenyan women wearing mixed prints. It was such an enriching experience, so I wanted to express it in a collection.
You can definitely see the influence playing a strong part in your collection. How do you feel women can incorporate your pieces into their everyday wears?
I like to say that I do accessories for hair not hair accessories because I make statement pieces, I make investment pieces. I love the concept of the accent statement accessory. So I love a big necklace on a simple dress. I love accessories that alter your look. My accessories do that, I have a lot of shapeable, bendable pieces. I have this big wire mesh flower that you can just plant in your hair. And you can do any shape and you just put it around your face, or use the feathers and just shape your hair. Its call attention to say I’m a girl. But it’s artistic, so I’m not the traditional line of accessories. It’s a little theatrical and that’s fun.
Colette has a strong imagination for the possibilities and versatility of hair. Colette was sweet enough to send me the wire mesh flower headband that she showed me at her Bendel trunk show, just in time for summer. Explore more about Colette Malouf and her fantastic pieces at www.colettemalouf.com.