TRUSTING YOUR CRAFT

Rino Riccio, Head of Education at Manifesto London, sat down with Modern Barber to tell us about the changes he’s experienced over the last year and finding new inspiration in unexpected places

“PREVIOUSLY, I DON'T THINK I MANAGED MY CRAFT ENOUGH. I'M STILL LEARNING NEW THINGS, SO THE FUTURE LOOKS SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT NOW”

After my last collection called Raw, I took a step back to take time to consider what’s happening in my life.

Before, I was obsessed with what I needed to be doing to keep up in the industry but now I’m more confident in myself and the direction I’m going. I can understand where I want to go, where the industry is going and how it is changing. Previously, I don’t think I managed my craft enough. I’m still learning new things, so the future looks slightly different now.

I do a collection every year and I found that I was becoming very addicted to competition, where winning awards and being nominated felt like proof that I was doing something right. I wanted to be nominated everywhere and although my previous collection had a lot of recognition, now I’m no longer shooting to win a competition or receive accolades, I’m doing it for myself. I know a few people in the industry who have decided not to enter awards anymore because they don’t think they’ll win, but I’ve realised that first and foremost I have to be proud of myself and my work. Tom Connell, Davines Hair Art Director, said to me “You need to keep doing this because if people like you keep applying, and showing something different, the industry is going to change.” So, my main goal now is winning an award that creates a change.

At the moment my inspiration comes from nature as well as reading about people’s experiences with mental health and combining these themes together. Over the last few years, I started to take care of myself and my own mental health more. It was like finding a new part of me that I’d never met before. Now it’s influencing my work and giving me the energy to push myself in a different way because I now share this experience with all these people as well.

At Manifesto, we are putting together a lifestyle collection where we’re not going to prepare too much for it. We’re going to have a few people in the shop, ask them what they’re looking for and then we’ll shoot something real, with no Photoshop. We believe when we’re cutting hair, we are not just making someone’s hair shorter we’re making them feel more confident – we’re giving people an identity. Everyone wants to do something cool, but maybe it doesn’t really represent the person in the chair. So, this shoot will be focused on paying attention to the client and what they want, but ultimately listening to each other more.”