Hair Expo Gen Next Show | Zucci Presents "Now I AM"
On June 12th 2016 Zucci presented a show at the Australian Hair Expo Gen Next event, an event happens once a year and is the biggest hair industry event in Australia. Creative Director Shakira Petrucci along with Hair Director Bianca Galati built the show from the ground up.
The forum was Hair Expo 2016, Australia’s largest hairdressing event. The stage was set, the models were ready, the lights were down and it was time for Zucci’s Show ‘Now I AM’ to take the stage.
Creative Director Shakira Petrucci has been involved with hair events across the globe but said that this event felt different.
“To present on stage in front of 1500 hairdressing industry peers, friends and family, at home here in Melbourne was a real honor.”
Initially the concept for ‘Now I AM’ was quite raw, Shakira sought inspiration from the film Mad Max Fury Road and specifically the fierceness and strength of the character Furosa played by Charlize Theron, being drawn to her power and the strong warrior aesthetic of her character, which became the main inspiration for the show.
“It takes a village to create a show and this one was no exception, one of the main challenges was to keep the concept pure and unified. Shakira said.
It was decided that all the outfits for the models would be custom made by Connie Diamantopoulos who was discovered on Instagram. The team were instantly drawn to the warrior element of her designers, intricately placed pieces of strong material that are draped across the contour of a woman’s body, mimicking the illusion of modern day armour.
The head pieces that adorned the heads of each model were intricately made out of safety pins, taking over 2 months to construct and over 6000 pins were used. Shakira said that she wanted to create something that looked both fierce but also intricate and beautiful.
“We wanted the head pieces to look fierce, strong, and beautiful all at the same time, a crown for a the modern day woman.”
The runway show was complimented by visuals, music and choreography, being sure to ignite all the senses. Shakira and her team enlisted the help Natasha Ferre from 3 Slides Media to create a captivating visual story that complimented the hair and clothing.
“We chose to use visuals and videos of natural disasters to add to the strength of the story, a motif representing the breakdown and rebirth of the world and the rise of a new generation of woman.”
The music was key and the song that we chose was a reworked version of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” a rendition by Lord. We enlisted the sound mixing expertise of Eden Swan to enhance this song and create the drama that was needed for the show. Pulling everything together at the end relied on having the models on stage have presents and strength. Emma Fleming choreographed the show to ensure that the models where displaying their entire looks as well as taking the audience on a journey.
The woman are survivors of natural disasters that Mother Nature has sent to eliminate earth of those who do not treat her with respect. The 6 woman have survived to lead humanity into the next chapter. To overcome ecological demise and moral ambiguity to guide this new world to prosper. What does that world hold? What is the next step? How will these woman succeed? Individually they are strong but together they are unstoppable!
“It was quite an organic process, there were some speed humps along the way but everything came together so well. The team all worked in harmony and had so much fun along the way.”Bianca said.
Show day came and everything was on track. The day started with a dress rehearsal. Seeing the show come to life with the visuals and the music hit home that this was really happening for the whole team. The energy was electric in the prep room. The team was ready!
Each look was managed by a group of hairdressers and overseen by Bianca to ensure that everything was coming together in time and as planned.
At 7.30pm the models where ready the energy shifted to excitement and a little nervousness, the champagne was popped. A celebration was beginning as the show was aboutto happen and everyone in the room knew that it was going to be amazing! 
At 9.26pm Zucci presented Now I AM to 1500 people. Five months of work for five minutes of success!
The audience went wild and the team walked on stage together. It was a dream come true.
Team Credits:
Creative Director: Shakira Petrucci
Hair Director: Bianca Galati
Hair Team:
Zucci Ivanhoe – Temana, Amy, Paige
Zucci South Melbourne – Zak
Zucci St James – Charles, Sarah, Tyler, Katryna
Zucci David Jones – Felecia
Makeup Team:
Lead: Ana Makridis 
Nicole Giardossi
Maddison
Analyce
Costume Design and Construction – Connie Diamantopoulos
Visual Design – Natasha Ferre from 3 Slides Media 
Choreography – Emma Fleming
Sound Production – Eden Swan
Social
Instagram: @zuccihairdressing // Facebook: Zucci Hairdressing Australia