Leading British hair stylist
Angelo Seminara uses his skills to design hair pieces for exhibitions
Angelo Seminara is one of the world’s leading hair stylists. He’s created catwalk looks for leading fashion houses like Chanel, Hermès, Stella McCartney, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. But he also brings his own special brand of imagination and glamour to the attractions industry, making wigs for a variety of museum and exhibition projects.
Four-time winner of the BHA British Hairdresser of the Year Award, Seminara has worked with fashion curator Judith Clark since 2010 to create “hair installations” for exhibitions, including Chloé. Attitudes at the Palais de Tokyo, the Diana Vreeland retrospective at the Museo Fortuny in Venice and Appearances Can Be Deceiving: The Dresses of Frida Kahlo, at the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico. He’s also worked on permanent attractions, like the Simone Handbag Museum in Seoul, South Korea, and Louis Vuitton’s La Galerie in Asnières, France.
Most recently, Seminara worked with Clark on The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined. The exhibition examines questions of taste and vulgarity in fashion and culture. It ran at London’s Barbican from October 2016 to February 2017 and the Winterpalais in Vienna from March through June. It’s expected to travel to Belgium next.
“I work very closely with the curators,” Seminara tells Attractions Management. “They explain exactly what they want to achieve, then we have meetings to come up with ideas. I always try to add in something that’s new, cool and fresh.”
For The Vulgar, Seminara and his team of assistants made around 30 different wigs over a course of just a few weeks – and they’re not just made from hair.
“For each design, we created distinctive and individual looks; not necessarily created with hair only, but incorporating different materials too,” he says. “I work with an armoury of materials, including real and artificial hair, mouldable mesh, foam, fabrics, textiles – quite a mix of materials.”
“The process sees me designing all the looks in my private studio, working together with my assistants and the curator on a daily basis. It can be very frustrating sometimes, especially as we’re working on mannequins and things don’t always work the way you want. It means you have to keep trying and trying, persevere until you get the desired result.”
Seminara highlights the Frida Kahlo and Diana Vreeland shows as being some of the most challenging and creatively rewarding he has worked on. And it’s an aspect of his career that he values greatly, saying there’s always “something cooking on the back burner” – though he won’t reveal any more details.
With such stunning creations working so well to complement these exhibitions, does Seminara think museums could make more effort to use specially commissioned artisan skills like these?
“Creating bespoke pieces makes the exhibits look better,” he says. “They help make exhibitions more accurate, feel more authentic. They bring things alive for visitors and help them visualise the subject.”
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2017 issue 3
Interview: Wolfgang Kiessling
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Leading British hair stylist
Angelo Seminara uses his skills to design hair pieces for exhibitions
Angelo Seminara is one of the world’s leading hair stylists. He’s created catwalk looks for leading fashion houses like Chanel, Hermès, Stella McCartney, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. But he also brings his own special brand of imagination and glamour to the attractions industry, making wigs for a variety of museum and exhibition projects.
Four-time winner of the BHA British Hairdresser of the Year Award, Seminara has worked with fashion curator Judith Clark since 2010 to create “hair installations” for exhibitions, including Chloé. Attitudes at the Palais de Tokyo, the Diana Vreeland retrospective at the Museo Fortuny in Venice and Appearances Can Be Deceiving: The Dresses of Frida Kahlo, at the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico. He’s also worked on permanent attractions, like the Simone Handbag Museum in Seoul, South Korea, and Louis Vuitton’s La Galerie in Asnières, France.
Most recently, Seminara worked with Clark on The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined. The exhibition examines questions of taste and vulgarity in fashion and culture. It ran at London’s Barbican from October 2016 to February 2017 and the Winterpalais in Vienna from March through June. It’s expected to travel to Belgium next.
“I work very closely with the curators,” Seminara tells Attractions Management. “They explain exactly what they want to achieve, then we have meetings to come up with ideas. I always try to add in something that’s new, cool and fresh.”
For The Vulgar, Seminara and his team of assistants made around 30 different wigs over a course of just a few weeks – and they’re not just made from hair.
“For each design, we created distinctive and individual looks; not necessarily created with hair only, but incorporating different materials too,” he says. “I work with an armoury of materials, including real and artificial hair, mouldable mesh, foam, fabrics, textiles – quite a mix of materials.”
“The process sees me designing all the looks in my private studio, working together with my assistants and the curator on a daily basis. It can be very frustrating sometimes, especially as we’re working on mannequins and things don’t always work the way you want. It means you have to keep trying and trying, persevere until you get the desired result.”
Seminara highlights the Frida Kahlo and Diana Vreeland shows as being some of the most challenging and creatively rewarding he has worked on. And it’s an aspect of his career that he values greatly, saying there’s always “something cooking on the back burner” – though he won’t reveal any more details.
With such stunning creations working so well to complement these exhibitions, does Seminara think museums could make more effort to use specially commissioned artisan skills like these?
“Creating bespoke pieces makes the exhibits look better,” he says. “They help make exhibitions more accurate, feel more authentic. They bring things alive for visitors and help them visualise the subject.”
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2017 issue 3
Interview: Wolfgang Kiessling
We talked to Wolfgang Kiessling, who set
up a small parrot park on Tenerife in the
1970s. Today, Loro Parque and Siam Park
are some of Europe’s top attractions
Promotional feature: Sysco Productions
Sysco Productions is a world-class experience delivery
company, working for global clients in the museum and
heritage, exhibition, and sports and leisure industries
Experience design company, BRC Imagination Arts, has completed a transition that sees founder
Bob Rogers pass ownership of the business to four long-serving senior executives, while
remaining actively involved with the company.
Movie Park Germany has opened a new Paramount Pictures-themed attraction as part of its 30th
anniversary celebrations, using immersive storytelling and adaptive reuse to reinforce the park’s
longstanding “Hollywood in Germany” positioning.
Therme Manchester’s 28-acre development, which will include interconnected glass pavilions
that measure 65,000sq m, will be the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once
complete, according to prof David Russell, CEO of Therme UK.
Efteling has opened Hooghmoed, a new family drop tower designed to broaden the appeal of its
recently launched Sirene Island themed area and introduce younger visitors to thrill attractions.
A proposed Puy du Fou development near Bicester and Universal Destinations and Experiences’
planned resort in Bedford are emerging as part of a wider transformation of the Oxford–
Cambridge Growth Corridor into a major centre for UK leisure and tourism inv
Shedd Aquarium has opened the Immersion Theater developed in partnership with SimEx-
Iwerks, as part of a wider strategy to enhance the guest experience and create additional
revenue opportunities.
The UK government has announced a temporary reduction in VAT on visitor attractions and
children’s meals as part of a summer cost-of-living support package designed to stimulate the
visitor economy and encourage family days out.
As designer Yinka Ilori prepares for his first solo gallery show in London, he speaks exclusively
to CLADmag about his mission to spread joy, the power of play, and his bold approach to using
colour (including the colours you won’t see in his work).
The government of Thailand is exploring plans for a THB300bn (£6.3bn, US$8.3bn)
entertainment complex in the country’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), with officials
proposing a large-scale theme park and sports destination as part of a broader tourism and
economic development strategy.
Royal Caribbean has revealed its Hero of the Seas cruise ship, home to the most pools at sea
(nine), and a record-breaking 28 dining venues, as well as attractions including a waterpark
with two new family raft slides.
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