Featured Collection: Cirque - Travis Bandiera - Bangstyle

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Travis Bandiera of Royals Hair debuts his latest collection, Cirque. All about unconventional beauty, this collection is inspired by the circus, where Travis used to spend a great deal of time with his mum as a kid. Alternative shapes, cohesively creative colors and hair that flies high! Check out his latest collection and hear about the inspirations behind the images.

CIRQUE is loosely based on the ringleaders and performers I used to see in circus as a child. I was an avid ‘carnie kid’ and would regularly attend circuses with my mum. I wanted to create my own circus, with all the characters in the collection playing a specific role and having a specific personality. When discussing this collection,I knew I specifically wanted the lighting, makeup and styling to have an abstract interpretation of what my circus performers and ringleaders would look like standing underneath the bright lights of the circus tent. The images are to be original, unique and unconventionally beautiful.

PHOTOGRAPHY There is a strong emphasis on hair in the photographs, with the background appearing as white as possible. No texture throughout the background and clean and white lighting highlights the styling and makeup. The lighting should be like a light shining on the ‘performer’. I wanted the images to have a dramatic feel, so using a sharp and hard finish on the photo creating no distractions so the viewer will centralise and focus on the hair. STYLING I wanted the styling to be very new age, incorporating ‘hero’ pieces that stand out but complement the hair. It was imperative that most of the pieces have a strong structure to bounce off the hard lines as seen in some hairstyles and also subtly complement the circus theme. It was also important to incorporate textures through the clothing, such as leather, velour and latex as they stand out and create a bold and futuristic statement, off-setting the desaturation from the makeup and photography. Overall the styling needed to have a hint of ‘theatre’ to them with abstract features and oversized proportions.

MAKEUP I was drawn to the makeup having a futuristic and abstract feel. The models had to have minimal to no colour throughout their skin tones, with the faces being airbrushed and covered with white powder, essentially taking all natural pigmentations and colouring out of the skin. I wanted to increase the contouring on the models’ faces to strengthen the angles and high cheek bones in the chosen models’ features. This would add to my hairstyles I have chosen as they all have strong shapes and angles throughout them. I wanted to bring colour back into each model by having a bold and strong lip colour, some to contradict and some to complement the colour of the hair. The eyebrows and lining of the eyes were to be whitened out as it creates a gothic and new age feel of how you would traditionally see stage makeup for performers.