“First of all, the idea was to show that Karl Lagerfeld worked hard for himself.”

Sébastien Quinet, Head Hairdresser Becoming Carl looks back on his experience of the series of events. This child of hairdressers has always been interested in the artistic side of hairdressing, having worked with hair as raw material as part of her art studies. A way to understand that his future will be far from the classic salon he knew in his childhood. After joining the French hairdressing team, he will become the champion of France, Europe and even the world. But her journey will also take her behind the scenes of fashion shows as well as musicals (King of the sun, Mozart, Rock opera…) before discovering filming, where he was able to work on series such as Totem, Marie Antoinette, New look and so on Becoming Carl. Meeting.

Madame Figaro. – What kind of creative freedom do you have in a historical series, especially with characters that really left their mark?
Sebastian Quine – We are of course very inspired by the archives, but we are not working on a documentary. So we worked with the different teams in the series – costumes, make-up… to do different tests and see what worked best with the actors in mind. Back Becoming CarlI was seduced by the world of the 70s and the technical challenge of the hairstyles of that era.

The series allows us to share Carl’s daily life before he became the one stuck in the collective imagination in a white ponytail. How did you approach this character?
The idea was, first of all, to show that Karl had been looking for him a lot. There were periods when she gained a lot of weight, others when she let her hair grow out and then cut it back. Until she really decided to wear them long and adopt this ponytail. At the end, we start to see white hair in Daniel Bruhl’s wig. The line ends with a Chanel recruitment offer, but it’s upon entering the house on rue Cambon that she starts dusting her hair with dry shampoo to pull it together. The latter is as essential as the gradually appearing accessories. And which will become the highlighted details of the look that we kept from him until the end: the dark glasses, the fan…

And what about the character of Jacques de Bascher?
True, evolution is more subdued than Carl, who was looking for him. Back then, men were more likely to maintain the look they adopted in their 20s for the rest of their lives. So for Jacques, the evolution comes down to the details: a moustache, slightly longer hair…

It’s a series that mostly highlights men, isn’t it?
Yes, but we have strong female characters like Anna Piaggi (an Italian fashion journalist) and Paloma Picasso, played by Jeanne Damas. And with her it was a true playground between her banana or double banana buns. At the time, Paloma was styled by Alexandre de Paris. By the way, the latter gave me a medal after the competition. So it’s a great honor for me to reinterpret his work.

He designed a carpet for Pablo Picasso’s daughter’s wedding. It’s very simple, but it really had nothing to do with the wedding hairstyles of the time. it was a very fashionable choice. I took this braid and adapted it to Jeanne Damas’ face. I wanted the memory of Alexandre de Paris to shine.

I wonder what the filmmakers of the 2000s will think in 2050.

Sébastien Quinet, the main hairdresser of the series “Carlanal”.

In the series we also see Yves Saint Laurent, as well as Thierry Mugler, Sonia Riquelme, Claude Montana, Jean Paul Gaultier… They all had strong hairstyles that marked their style. Have we lost this spirit today?
In the 60s, 70s, and even the 80s, everyone went to the barber shop. It was intense hair time. Fashion people went to the big names of the time, Alexandre de Paris, but also Carita. They were trying to find a style, and the hairstyle was an integral part of it. True, today we are a little more boring. There are more different styles and less emphasis, like in the era of Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent. I wonder what the filmmakers of the 2000s will think in 2050.