Creating the Tribal Styling for my Editorial Look

I began the styling by sewing long hair wefts together at the roots. I did this with brown hair weft and blonde hair weft. I tied coloured wool to the roots of the hair to add another dimension, so that the styling had more of a natural feel, than one flat colour.

I then placed the blonde and brown hair wefts on top of eachother and plaited the hair and the wool together, as seen below.

I positioned the plaited hair on top of the rough black template. This was actually a fabric place mat that I cut into shape, so it could sit around the neck and shoulders. I deliberated over the idea of shoulder pads but decided against them as I felt they unecessarily complicated the design.

I sealed the edges and neckline of the mat/template with scraps of material I had collected, so it would not frey or loose its shape. I then attached thick ribbon to the shoulders of the garment using a sewing machine. With the idea being that the piece is tied at the back of the neck, and can be adjuested to the size of the model.

I then used my glue gun to stick the plaits to the base, creating coloured stripes with the plaits.

I then added some strings of crepe hair, still ravelled, they look like plaits too. Then I covered up the untidy stictching with ribbon and bent the ends of the plaits round to seal the edges off around the neckline.

Below, is the styling being modelled to show how it will sit on the body. Although I like what I have created I feel the middle section of ribbon needs some added decoration, maybe someing making it a bit more 'Tribal'.

So, I added and painted some Pistachio Nut shells, for an earthy feel, around the shoulders and down the centre of the piece. I felt like using natural materials, such as the nuts, was a good way to go.

I then added beads in with the nut shells.

I decided against these beads, but I liked the colours, so I painted the nuts again, and tried out a few different colours.

Finally, I decided on the natural colour, and added smaller beads to make the piece look more luxurious.

This is a close up of my styling, these are the natural colours I wanted for my Editorial Look, with the idea that if I needed more colour on the face and body, I could add it and it would not clash with the styling at all. E.g. the coloured neck and shoulders.