Superfans of Lisa Rinna may have spotted The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills breakout star around Paris this week — though her signature honey blonde spiky bob was noticeably absent. Instead, Rinna attended the Haute Couture shows wearing a rotation of wigs, ranging from an inky black bowl-cut worn with a blue Balenciaga sports jacket for Demna’s final couture collection for the brand, to a towering, lilac-colored beehive for the Viktor & Rolf show.
Both looks were created by Johan Hellstrom, hairstylist to the stars and owner of Swedish haircare brand Björn Axén. Each wig, according to Hellstrom’s Instagram Stories, was painstakingly applied to Rinna’s head with extreme precision by two people. If you weren’t familiar with Rinna’s vast following (3.7 million on Instagram alone) and reality TV notoriety, you might think she was going undercover — keen to be disguised. In reality, her wigs are a way of capturing as many eyes as possible.
Already, the internet has started to poke fun at Rinna’s looks (“It’s giving Bob from Beetlejuice,” wrote one TikTok user under a video of the star on the front row, posted by French celebrity title Gala). But if fashion is about creative expression and individuality, particularly in the context of couture — which represents the highest level of customization and artistry — should more people be completing their outfits this way?
Over the years, A-lister sightings at couture week have included Doja Cat painted red and embellished with 30,000 Swarovski crystals, and Kylie Jenner sporting a faux, lifesize lion’s head on her shoulder. On Monday, Cardi B brought a live crow with her to the Schiaparelli show. But despite these dramatic displays of surrealist fashion, something much more simple — a wacky or vibrantly colored wig — is surprisingly rare. So much so that Rinna’s are often headline-grabbing. Her past looks have featured a bowl cut reminiscent of the ‘80s, which she sported at Paris Fashion Week in 2023, a Marilyn Monroe-style blonde blowout, and a firetruck red pixie cut. “I’ve had such a ball doing that kind of stuff,” she told Bravo of her eccentric hairstyles in 2023.
Fashion designers are equally familiar with the power of a synthetic wig. For Jeremy Scott’s New York Fashion Week show in 2018, models including Gigi Hadid and Stella Maxwell wore choppy blunt bobs in rose pink, baby blue and fluorescent yellow. At Anna Sui’s show a year later, Bella Hadid strutted down the runway in a spiky fuchsia mullet, while Kaia Gerber had a bruised blueish one to match. More recently, Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garçons flipped the material capabilities of wigs with solid plastic ‘dos that sat on the head like a helmet. At the JW Anderson show in 2024, tightly curled mops in stone grey completed the narrative of the nosy neighbour of a bygone era.
Wigs have a long history dating back to ancient civilizations. Both men and women in ancient Egypt wore wigs, often made of human hair or plant fibers, as they served as symbols of status and subsequently protected those with shaved heads from the sun. For centuries, they’ve also been present in African and Black communities, where they have been worn for various complex reasons ranging from cultural expression and hair protection to navigating Eurocentric beauty standards.
However, at fashion week, the use of wigs appears to be entirely decorative and avant-garde, the way a party wig exists in the same camp as a set of press-on nails or a quirky bag. It’s a finishing touch, an accessory that adds to the character embodiment.
Of course, it doesn’t make sense for all attendees. The editors, buyers and stylists attending fashion weeks tend to have a stacked agenda, with plenty of work to do. Their attire, then, must serve the purpose of comfort and professionalism. But for the exceptional few, such as Rinna, their goal is to be photographed — and for those photographs to be as widely circulated as possible. With the most outlandish looks receiving attention in the digital age, it may be why some attendees opt for the most eye-catching, sometimes head-scratching styles. And how better to stand out than with a statement-making wig? Even those with little interest in fashion will know through the medium of fancy dress parties that fake hair is the crowning feature on any committed costume.
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