If you’re anything like me, you’ve fallen in love with The Hunger Games. Anyone who has read the books knows that there are some amazing hairstyles worn by some of the Capitol characters, and I was recently lucky enough to get to ask some Cherry Petenbrink, the colorist responsible for helping to create the looks in the movies, a few questions:
Reading The Hunger Games, one of the most exciting parts was hearing about the crazy costumes and hairstyles worn by some of the characters – how did you capture the vibrancy of the colours and excitement of these styles?
Reading the books it became apparent this would be a very fun project to be a part of. As a Joico Intl. Colorist I have created similar looks for stage (Beauty trade shows) so I knew I could count on Joico color Intensity to produce the amazing shade so well described in the books. This semi permanent color consist of 6 shades that can be intermixed to create unlimited possibilities. Lead hair designer Linda Flowers had seen my work and knew she could count on me to create a wide variety of shades and tones for Effie’s wigs, the Capitol City residents and the Capitol stylists. A team of 35 stylists recreated the finished looks of the Capitol Residence.
How can you see the colours used in some of these translating into trends that can be worn outside of the “Hunger Games” world?
I really feel that it is already happening. The runway’s for the spring fashion shows were full of pastels and vibrant unnatural shades of hair. Accent fringes and clip in bold panels of color will become very mainstream, influenced by the Capitol looks. Suzanne Collins was a true visionary when she wrote these books, she was spot on with the trends.
Which character was your favourite to work on?
I loved that Linda gave me some creative freedom with some of the stylists color choices. Some of stylists hair color was very descriptive in the book but many were quite vague. Octavia was one that didn’t have a clear description, so it was fun to get to kind of pick a color palette (magenta and purple) present it and see it come to life.
The books contained great descriptions of the characters’ looks – did you draw inspiration for their styles from other sources as well?
There were several storyboards that had been put together. There were collages of images from Runway, hair competitions and couture magazines. I had a very clear message they didn’t want Mardi Gras, Halloween costumes or cheap. The palette used in wardrobe also had some influence in the hair color choices. Having to come up with unique colors, instead of all traditional shades we needed rustic, industrial and metal while staying very high fashion.
Are you looking forward to checking out the looks in The Hunger Games (out March 23rd)?
