Posted on May 17th, 2012 in News with no comments
Fashion designer Henry Holland has been confirmed as the speaker at the next Coterie members’ evening.
Taking place on 16 July, Henry will be joined by House of Holland stylist Sam Ranger, who has previously styled for the likes of GQ, Black Magazine and Sunday Times Style.
Coterie committee member and the man behind the hair for the House of Holland catwalk shows – Henry’s long-time friend Adam Reed from the Percy & Reed salon – will interview the London designer.
Henry has built up quite the CV. A man after our own hearts, he graduated from the London College of Printing with a degree in journalism, before launching his Fashion Groupies slogan T-shirts with phrases such as ‘Get Your Freak On Giles Deacon’.
His label, House of Holland, held its first solo show in 2008 after showing for two years with Fashion East. Since then the brand has gone from strength to strength, representing the capital and designing with the London girl in mind.
At The Coterie, Henry will share his career highlights and delve into the creative process behind his label. From the first sketches through to that runway show, he’ll share every step, giving members an exclusive opportunity to find out just what goes into making a major fashion label work.
We can’t wait – see you there!
Posted on May 15th, 2012 in Coterie Meetings with no comments
How do you follow Guido? That was the question at the most recent members evening for The Coterie, but we did good. Step up headliner Sharmadean Reid!
The night opened with L’Oréal Professionnel’s marketing director Stephanie Reif, who talked about the creative collaborations behind the new capsule collection, London Addixion. Stephanie offered a unique insight into the process, from handing students at Central Saint Martins a blank canvas to design, through to choosing the winner, Isabel Eeles, to create the packaging. Not to mention getting Malcolm Edwards onboard to style the hair for the shoot.
The founder of WAH Nails and all-round cool girl, Sharmadean Reid, headed the bill, sharing the story of her career and the secrets of her success. And it’s all pretty simple: “If I want to do something, I just do it. And I don’t do anything that causes me stress – there are more important things going on.”
Sharmadean’s CV is pretty impressive. Starting out at Central Saint Martins (from the age of 12 she would “order the prospectus every year and read it like a bedtime story”), she’s assisted major stylist Nicola Formichetti and worked at Arena Homme Plus, where she’s now a contributing editor. Team that with working for Nike, founding WAH Nails and becoming a mum and you’ve got yourself a serious contender for superwoman.
WAH (its stands for We Ain’t Hoes) started as a fanzine and evolved into a nails brand after Sharmadean had “yet another bad mani”. From that bad manicure through to buying a salon, only three months had passed. Within six months, WAH Nails had a pop up store in Selfridges and next came Topshop. Oh, and Sharmadean has never used PR – just word of mouth.
Her latest venture has been the launch of the WAH Nails Book of Nails, offering everyone a peek of true nail art. And the future? “I’m going to write another book and I want to release a product line. And open my own fashion library.”
Everything she touches turns to gold. Sharmadean – we salute you!
Posted on April 27th, 2012 in Events with no comments
Last night was the night we’d all been waiting for. The session legend that is Guido Palau took to The Coterie stage and shared his wisdom and career experiences to a packed-out room, each one hanging on his every word.
The exclusive session was an additional event to our usual members’ evenings and offered the chance to hear from one of the most successful and well-respected hairdressers in the industry.
With the likes of Adam Reed, Lee Stafford, Leo Bancroft and Luke Hersheson in the audience, the room was chock-full of hairdressing stars. The fizz was flowing on arrival and the Rebecca Hossack Gallery made for a suitably cool space.
We took our seats in front of customised Redken Guido canvases to hear from the man himself. Taking us through his career, from growing up in Bournemouth and training at Sassoon where he was told he “wasn’t that good”, through to working alongside Lee McQueen and presenting his own take on A/W12 trends.
Guido has always given his work an edgy aesthetic, saying he “favours the anti-hero” and “likes glamour, but it just isn’t at the heart of what I do”.
And if that wasn’t enough, we also learnt how humble Guido is. “With every job I do, I work with a fear that someone will soon realise I’m not that good!”
From start to finish we were in awe of the man and his works and didn’t want the night to end. Heading home, we were left in a dreamy haze, asking, ‘did that really just happen?’
Thank you Mr Palau!
