A Modern Renaissance: Kevin Murphy & Eugene Souleiman Weave Dark Romance into Dilara Findikoglu’s AW25 Show
Paris, February 22, 2025 – In a first-time collaboration, KEVIN.MURPHY joins forces with legendary hairstylist Eugene Souleiman to bring an intoxicating new vision to Dilara Findikoglu’s AW25 show. At the crossroads of medieval romance and after-hours edge, the hair captured a haunting beauty, one that drifts between the softness of Renaissance iconography and the untamed energy of a modern club scene.
“In a nutshell, the look is based on Botticelli’s Venus interpretation, a very romantic vision,” explains Eugene. “But Dilara being Dilara, she’s not interested in romance in its purest form, she seeks a darker, more twisted iteration of beauty. We took something inherently soft and ethereal and threw it into the night, into the kind of world where a Renaissance muse loses herself on the dance floor at Berghain.”
This tension between purity and recklessness unfolded through intricate, center-parted styles woven with broken, basket-weave braids, delicate yet unruly, luminous yet raw. Soft tendrils framed the face, their graceful descent subtly disrupted by a bespoke styling cocktail crafted by Eugene and the KEVIN.MURPHY team.
“We wanted the hair to feel like it had lived, like it had absorbed the pulse of the night,” Eugene continues. “So we created a special KEVIN.MURPHY blend: MOTION.LOTION, a smoothing balm that gives a satin-like softness, combined with HAIR.RESORT SPRAY, a grittier, more textured styling spray. Opposites in function, but together, they created this perfect duality, polished but undone, refined but corrupted.”
Diluted with water and applied to the roots, this mix conjured a feeling of damp, sweat-kissed strands, reminiscent of a night spent moving, unburdened, under flashing lights. “It’s doing dirty but making it clean simultaneously,” Eugene muses. “Like Renaissance girls who’ve been out clubbing.”
As the styling cocktail air-dried, a final touch was added to the lengths, KEVIN.MURPHY’s BEDROOM.HAIR. “We hit the ends with a touch of texture, that chemically processed, slightly raw feeling to ensure the hair didn’t feel too polished. We wanted to break it up, destroy it just enough so that it felt sexy, lived-in, real.”
However, perhaps the most striking hair moment of the show was not on the models’ heads but worn on their bodies. A sculptural coat, crafted entirely of blonde hair, was treated with BEDROOM.HAIR to enhance its texture and structure, turning fabric into something almost sentient, something that moves and breathes with the wearer.
“This was one of my favorite shows to do, it felt raw, sensual, contemporary, completely in the now,” Eugene reflects. “And working with KEVIN.MURPHY was an absolute pleasure.”
This AW25 collaboration speaks to beauty’s ability to shift and transform, where something as timeless as Renaissance romance can find new life under neon lights, breathing, sweating, and moving with the night.
About KEVIN.MURPHY
Born from the same philosophy as skincare, KEVIN.MURPHY products feature high-performance, environmentally friendly formulas powered by science and use high-quality, naturally derived ingredients. KEVIN offers a fashion-focused range of professional haircare, styling, and hair color products inspired by the world of session styling. MURPHY is committed to sharing cutting-edge style via modern technology, straight from the runway to the salon floor. Using session secrets from around the world, the KEVIN.MURPHY product lines give stylists and consumers the tools they need to create full, modern transformations in the salon and at home.
About Eugene Souleiman
A true visionary in the world of hair, Eugene Souleiman is renowned for his boundary-pushing creativity and unparalleled technical skill. With a career spanning decades at the forefront of session styling, he has redefined the artistry of hair, shaping some of the most iconic runway looks for the world’s leading designers, including Dior, Maison Margiela, Yohji Yamamoto, Comme des Garçons, and Loewe. His fearless approach to hairstyling seamlessly fuses classical influences with a contemporary, avant-garde edge, where precision meets rawness, structure meets fluidity, and beauty is constantly reimagined.
Beyond the runway, Eugene’s work has graced the pages of the world’s most prestigious fashion publications, including Vogue, i-D, Dazed & Confused, LOVE Magazine, e AnOther Magazine. His collaborations with some of the most celebrated photographers and designers continue to push the boundaries of modern hair artistry, cementing his status as one of the most influential figures in the industry. With an unparalleled ability to translate creative visions into striking, transformative hairstyles, Eugene remains a driving force in shaping the future of moda and beauty.
