Watch this new short about the importance of hair

Hair, we all have a way of wearing ours and it’s as much as part of our identity as our clothes. At least that’s what rag & bone’s latest film project (aptly titled Hair) explores anyway. The latest demonstration of the brand’s ability to create content that defies campaign conventions, this unscripted short set in a classic Brooklyn barber shop is an off-beat insight into “a man’s particularness about his own hair,” which also happened to debut at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. 

Shot by David Lynch collaborator Fred Elmes, and starring The Big Lebowski’s John Turturro alongside Emmy award-winning actor Bobby Cannavale though, this festival feature is hardly surprising. Hollywood heavyweights, the pair bring their easy improvisation to bantering about everything from the era of the Afro comb, to theories about how hair played a role in human evolution – all dressed in the brand’s SS17 collection. “You know what they say about early men?” Cannavale says in the film – “they were hunched over and then their hair got so long and they kept constantly flipping it out of their face…they would flip their hair back and it pulled their bodies back onto their haunches.”

“Projects like these are about creating a paradigm shift in the way people view fashion,” says rag & bone CEO, founder and creative director, Marcus Wainwright. An extension of their desire to capture the authentic personalities of these actors and artists, Hair, for Wainwright, is a natural development of rag & bone as a multimedia fashion label. “Film and photography are ingrained in our brand DNA and we love exploring both mediums in different ways every season,” he continues, adding what a “real honour” it was to work with Tuturro and Cannavale on this particular season’s offering.

For Turturro too, who helped direct as well as acting in Hair, this was a chance to be “very collaborative and creative,” in his mission to “convey the spirit of (rag & bone) – which is fun, lively and urban, with a focus on quality and craftsmanship.” With that in mind, Turturro and Elmes “felt that this specific classic barber shop was the perfect location,” with the skill of a good cut and the ritual of putting on these markers of your personality mirroring each other. “I need my hair done a certain way so I can get into character,” Cannavale despairs at the beginning, getting to the heart of the short even after Turturro gently reminds him, “You’re not playing a character, you’re yourself.” “I’m still playing a version of myself!” Cannavale exclaims in protest, in a meta acknowledgment of the piece’s core message according to Turturro: “clothes and hair go together; they’re a part of your social identity,” whichever way you cut it. Even when you’re not consciously performing.

Watch the full film below.