It Was a Black Creative Family Reunion at Echelon Noir’s Black Hair Reimagined Hair Show
Hair shows have a rich legacy of art and experimentation in the Black community. For 75 years, the innovative fantasy world of hair has been exulted at the Bronner Bros. International Beauty Show, where hairstylists come together to champion the diversity and creativity of Black hair, making their models transform through their sculptural and daring works. Last year, Bronner Bros.—the oldest Black-owned beauty brand in the U.S., decided to pause.
Echelon Noir Productions is continuing that legacy of craft and creativity in New York City with their very first hair show: Black Hair Reimagined: The New Era of Beauty. The brainchild of beauty experts (and best friends), hairstylist Jawara Wauchope and creative director and stylist Jarrod Lacks, it all came to life in the Financial District with a series of hair presentations from five hair originators, their equally ingenious stylist counterparts, and other beauty industry groundbreakers: including makeup directors Sir John and Sheika Daley, nail design director Dawn Sterling, casting director Liz Goldson, and creative movement director Stephen Galloway. Beauty and fashion icon Tracee Ellis Ross hosted the evening in Balmain, an all-black look bedecked in gold accessories and finished off with blood-red, slouchy boots. Solange Knowles, Luar’s Raul Lopez, Wayman and Micah, Rajni Jacques, and many others sat front row to take in all imaginative, colorful, gravity-defying looks on the catwalk—Anok Yai was just one in a parade of sculptural-haired models.
“I’m excited to be here because these are all my people,” Ellis Ross tells Vogue before the show got underway. “Even the stylists they’re working with are people that I know and adore. To kick off this weekend and all the work they’re going to be doing, this is a moment for their work to shine as an expression of them, not a collaboration of all the other pieces.”
As a brand founder herself with natural beauty and hair care brand PATTERN—and the daughter of a generation-defining superstar whose hair is a celebrity all on its own—Ellis Ross comes from a rich legacy of beauty as art and expression. “Hair will always mean the same thing for me—it’s a form of self-acceptance and a very intimate relationship that I feel honored to be able to have,” she says. “I love that my hair can do anything, if I treat it right, hydrate it, and love it. I love that in 2025, we’re at a place, where whether it’s the Crown Act or just what we get to see on the pages of magazines and on screen—it all feels like freedom and liberation.”
Carol’s Daughter founder and hair care pioneer Lisa Price was excited to see the presentations ahead of the show. “This is us: this is our kind of celebration,” she says. Her now 18-year-old daughter, she says, can experience a hair versatility that wasn’t possible for Price herself growing up. “She wanted her hair to be like mommy’s, but she didn’t have curly hair, so I put micro locs in her hair so she could do the ponytails and other styles,” she says, thinking back. “As she got older, she wanted more freedom and expressions, so now my daughter wears braids, wigs, and weaves, she colors it, and cuts it all off sometimes. And there’s no stress: just style and how she feels. When I grew up, it wasn’t like that. You stuck to what everybody else was doing because it was risky. Now, it’s all good.”
The runway show was set in front of a gleaming mirror that cleverly bounced the audience’s reflections back to them by set designer Fai Khadra—remember what Price said: ‘this is us’—the runway show was equal parts camp, true hair artistry, and stylistic performance, with an energetic, emotional soundtrack created in collaboration with musical director Tamika Haywood.
First up on the bill was Yusef Williams, with his ‘Nostalgic Heat’ presentation with icon status stylist Patti Wilson. “I was inspired by my mother and every bad bitch I know from the South to the East Coast,” Williams, a favorite of Rihanna and Tyla, said of his presentation’s muses. “I’m a boy born and raised in Miami, so my culture is heavily Southern, Caribbean, and Latine. There are also the drug dealer girlfriends and that sense of danger. All of my girls had to be strong, powerful, and ready for whatever. That’s just who I am as a stylist.” That energy was undeniable: his hair sculptures felt like they could graze the ceiling, and there was lots of skin and glittering gold, with Palmer-esque, LBD-clad dancers keeping spirits high.
Next was Vernon François—who has created resplendent braids, twists, and curly masterpieces for Lupita Nyong’o and Solange—with his ethereal “Freedom Is Priceless” display, styled by Jan Michael Quammie. Alton Mason emerged in an expertly-colored gray wig that made him larger than life in sky-high platform boots, while Sabina Karlsson’s gorgeous red curls were coiffed into a sky-high textured afro, dressed in a fringed gown.
