The splashy dollar of the 80s led to a splashier sense of freedom which translated into a decade marked by excess: huge egos with shoulder pads to match, lavish parties, no saying ‘no’ to anything and, topping this ‘why not’ attitude off, big hair.
In Sydney Double Bay was Hairdresser Central and the two salons that were a hotbed for the next generation of star stylists were John Adams and Lloyd Lomas.
“Let’s just say university wasn’t calling out my name,” laughs Joh Bailey, “so, I got out the Sydney Morning Herald and looked for a job.”
Getting to ‘Y’ he spotted an ad, “Young person required for busy Double Bay salon”, not realising it was for one of Sydney’s most illustrious salons, John Adams. He got the job.
Sweeping the floors, fetching lunches and taking the towels to the laundry was heaven for Bailey such was the atmosphere. “It was very buzzy and social and John was into cutting and the whole craft.”
George Giavis owner of The Blonde Room also started with Adams, as did Julie Zavaglia owner of Glow.
“John was the patriarch,” says Giavis, “and his salon was the place to be seen.”
Zavaglia adds, “It was an incredible time. Everyday we had a celebrity in the salon. John was on the A-list himself and got invited to everything. For my first year he called me Maria and you know, I didn’t care, I was just so excited to be in that environment.”
After Adams, Bailey went to Lloyd Lomas. “Lloyd was the rock star god of hairdressing then,” says Bailey. “There was ramped up music and his Porsche.”
Bailey says he learnt a lot from Lomas. “Most importantly,” says Bailey, “he taught me that even if you spend two hours making someone’s hair look great, it had to look like it just happened that way.”
Eight months after he finished his apprenticeship, Bailey opened his first salon above the then Cherry Lane store in Double Bay. “I was just 22.” The salon took off from day one. The well-connected PR Amana Finley started making appointments and introduced Bailey to Karin Upton Baker, then beauty director at Vogue, the rest of the Voguettes followed as did a procession of Sydney’s top PR girls.
“I was dating model agent Stuart Cameron,” says Bailey, “and so Elle Macpherson would come in. I was the king of the dead straight blow dry and that’s all I did, one after the other, all day long.”
|
Lomas’s other significant protégés included Lachlan Astle, now based in Woollahra, Shane Paish who works the LA celebrity circuit and Renya Xydis, one of the most in-demand session stylists who splits her time doing hair at the Paris, Milan and London shows with Eugene Souleiman and directing hair at her own shows for New York and Australian fashion weeks.
“Lloyd really taught me how to do editorial,” says Xydis. “All those sexy looks with the blown out hair. When he couldn’t get out of the salon, he’d send me.” Xydis remembers doing one of her first covers for Bride to Be with Nicole Kidman. “She was 15 and I was 17”.
European chic was also prevalent in Double Bay with everyone awed by Giorgio Baroni’s slick black marble salon on the corner of Bay and Cross Street (although Baroni decamped one night, never to be heard of again). French import Thierry Fragniere, originally at John Adams, was known for his precise dress, slick bobs and even sharper tongue.
“He was very difficult,” recalls Giavis, who later joined Fragniere after Adams, “but he taught his staff; there were no drugs, no personal life chit chat”. (Down the track the promiscuous party times robbed the industry of much talent when the spectre of AIDS made its appearance.)
Continued on Page 2.
|