• Did You See This?

    Celebrity Editorial Hair Stylist Ronnie Stam Visited Us & Shared Some Amazing New Styles & Techniques @ Elysium

    by  • December 8, 2010 • Did You See This?, Events, Hair Tips

    Bio for Ronnie Stam
    Ronnie Stam grew up in a creative atmosphere – being one of eight children in a small town outsideAmsterdam, Netherlands. The son of a hairdresser, as a child Ronnie spent a good deal of time in hisfather’s well respected hair salon.
    Early on, Ronnie was introduced to a fellow Dutchman – hair legend Christiaan. Christiaan took Ronnieunder his wing and soon became Ronnie’s mentor. Ronnie was fortunate to work with him, being hisfirst assistant in Tokyo, Paris, Milan and New York for more than 10 years.
    During this period, Ronnie and partners opened an Amsterdam salon that became very successful inthe Netherlands. Ronnie soon became in-demand and started splitting his time between the salon andParis, where he worked as a freelance hairdresser.
    While in Paris, he worked with top fashion photographers such as Arthur Elgort, Patrick Demarchelier,Gilles Bensimon, Oliviero Toscani, Paolo Roversi, Peter Arnell and Pamela Hanson. Ronnie then decidedto move to Paris. He lived in France for five years.
    From Paris, he moved to New York, and his success continued as he worked with countless top modelsand celebrities, including Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Helena Christensen,Paulina Porizkova, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Claudia Schiffer, Lauren Hutton, Elle Macpherson, TyraBanks, Steven Tyler, Carlos Santana, Rob Thomas, Matchbox Twenty, Duran Duran, Keith Richards, MickJagger, Joe Perry, Uma Thurman, Linda Evans and Lauren Bacall, to name a few.
    Ronnie’s work has graced top global fashion publications, TV commercials, advertising campaigns,calendars, music videos and many special projects. He has worked with notable film directors such asMichael Bay and David Fincher.
    Through the years, Ronnie formed a special friendship with Cindy Crawford, working with her on manyspecial projects including – MTV’s House of Style, book tours, exercise videos and calendars.
    One of the personal highlights in Ronnie’s career has been to work exclusively and tour with world-known rock bands The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith.
    Ronnie’s work has taken him around the world – North and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, andAustralia.
    He lives in NYC with his wife and daughter, Lola.
    Ronnie has continued success while demonstrating his passion – most recently by becoming aneducator for Oribe Hair Care. He is represented by the talent agency Kramer & Kramer.

    NEST Holiday Pop-Up Store Launch Event with Cynthia Rowley & Elysium Salon Friday, Dec 10 during the ‘King Street Shop Walk’

    by  • December 5, 2010 • Did You See This?, Events, Lifestyle, News, Products

    NEST TAKES MICROFINANCE TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL

    Nest empowers women.  Nest preserves artistic traditions.  Nest offers exclusive and handcrafted merchandise.

    Washington, D.C. – NEST is a nonprofit organization founded by Rebecca Kousky when she was just 24 years old.  Nest is a unique combination of interest-free microfinance loans, mentoring from established designers and a place to buy exclusively designed and handcrafted merchandise from many of the world’s most sought-after artists and designers, as well as crafts produced by women around the globe.  The Nest website is www.buildanest.com.

    With a master’s degree in social work, an artistic sensibility and an entrepreneurial spirit, Rebecca founded Nest to draw together artists from across the globe.  Using an innovative method developed by Rebecca, one she has dubbed “microbarter,” Nest provides women, or cooperatives of women, with loans that allow them to purchase the supplies, training, bazaar space or raw materials needed to make their crafts.  Women then repay their loans in beautiful merchandise, available on the Nest website, www.buildanest.com, and at selected retail outlets.

    In addition to crafts from all over the world, Nest partners with domestic designers, who offer exclusively made and handcrafted items, also available on the website, with the proceeds going to support additional female artists in the developing world.  These designers also mentor loan recipients, giving them valuable business, marketing and design advice.

    Nest encourages women to develop businesses using the creative skills they already possess, many passed down through the generations.  And, through mentoring by Nest’s established designers, its financial and business curriculum, its access to a western marketplace and its wrap-around services, Nest fully supports women as they move from poverty to self-sufficiency.  Nest instills pride of ownership, preserves ancient artistic traditions and successfully moves women from poverty to self-sufficiency.

    In 2007, Rebecca won the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition of the Skandalarias Center of Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.  She was named one of the St. Louis Business Journal’s ‘30 under 30’, which recognizes the achievements of young entrepreneurs and executives.  Nest was invited to be the featured charity at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and Rebecca was recognized as a ‘Young Person who Rocks’ by CNN, which included a televised feature.  In addition, Rebecca and Nest have been profiled in numerous publications, from magazines and newspapers, both regional and international, to local and national television and on many websites.  And Nest’s traditional crafts, in addition to being available on the website, are carried by major retailers, including Whole Foods.

    In three years of operation, Nest has assisted over 200 women in eight countries, including artists in India, Guatemala, Morocco, Tanzania and Turkey.  Every Nest designer and loan recipient is profiled on: www.buildanest.com.  Nest’s entire product line, including its own women’s t-shirts with the distinctive Nest logo, is sold to upscale boutiques in major cities, presented through trunk shows and trade shows, and is available via the Nest online marketplace.

    Nest has created a community of artists helping artists, and women helping women, the world over.VISIT WWW.BUILDANEST.COM

    15 minutes with Oribe by Elle Magazine. Hair stylist to the stars, including Lada Gaga, J. Lo and Scarlett Johansson, sits with ELLE to chat about his New York roots, celeb clientele and the products every woman needs to own now.

    by  • December 1, 2010 • Did You See This?, Hair Tips, Lifestyle, News

    You work with major celebrities, and you just created Cher’s hair look for her Vanity Fair cover. Do you ever get starstruck?

    “Last week, my heart was pounding like I had just started doing hair. I did the Vanity Fair with Cher a couple of months ago, and I worked with her this week in New York, doing David Letterman and all the morning shows. She’s something. She’s like this Old World celebrity who knows what she wants. I was just listening to her the whole time [miming big eyes and nodding]. Celebrity now is so easy to achieve, but celebrity that’s really done something and has managed to survive for so many years is something else.”

    You were a part of the rise of the supermodel, especially the Trinity: Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell. What are some of your favourite memories from that time?
    “The timing of it was great. I was working with amazing photographers, like Steven Meisel, and the wonderful makeup artist François Nars. We were a team. These little girls—Christy at 14, Naomi at 15. I worked with Linda on her first shoot for American Vogue. She came on a go-see with her book, and, you know, it can be quite horrible—they bring the models in like cattle. But the editor loved Linda’s gums! She has these beautiful gums, and those gums got her to the stage where she was trying the clothes on. She tried the clothes on, and then it was her knees, these perfect knees. All of a sudden, Linda took over the whole shoot. And that shoot made her a superstar.”

    Do you miss those days?
    “I do, yes. Those girls were amazing. Walking down the street with Linda Evangelista with her platinum hair, it was like oh my God, like walking down the street with Marilyn or something. At that time, celebrity was a different thing. Movie stars were much more private, and the models were the women that got all the publicity. They got so powerful that it was the demise of them, because people would go to the fashion shows just to see the models, as opposed to the clothes. Some of the designers didn’t care about that, Versace, for instance. He just said ‘Make them look incredible.’”

    Do you have a favourite of the Trinity?
    “My favourite…oh I love them all. Turlington and I have a wonderful relationship. She has one of those freaky faces that comes around once in a lifetime, the proportions are perfect, and she’s super smart, and so funny, just an amazing woman, I love her so much. And I love Naomi too—Naomi’s like a little panther. She’ll strike at any point but she’s really a good girl, with a good heart. And Linda and I always had a great relationship—it was interesting, a very love/hate thing. I didn’t like it when she coloured her hair red, so to torture her, I would carry her hair pieces in a McDonald’s bag! And I would pull them out at the shows and she would get furious [laughing]. She’s one of the most professional models ever, she challenges you when she works with you. It’s always fascinating working with her.”

    You’ve had your own salons in New York, and now you operate one in Miami. Why is it important to you to work on non-famous hair?
    “Doing session work and working on movie stars—you live in a fantasy world. I like to take what I give to the magazines and incorporate it into the real world. In a sense, I’m super commercial—I take the craziness and somehow make it work on the streets. It’s nice to be in touch with the real world, and that’s helped me tremendously in developing the product line. I know what women need and what hairdressers need.”

    How involved are you in the product line?
    “I’m a Virgo, so I’m crazy about the details—the way a product pours, the look of it, the feel. We started the product line when the economy was different—we were building the Rolls-Royce of products, so I wanted everything to be very luxurious. What we ended up with was quality. Quality always works, no matter what. Women will spend the money if they get the results.”

    Hair is such an emotional thing for many women—a good or bad hair day can define a mood, or a whole evening. What are your thoughts on the psychology of hair?
    “A hairdresser can ruin your summer [laughing]. A hairdresser is very important of anybody’s life—for men too—it’s one of those things that you should always have. Hair is one of the first things that you see in a person; it can enhance you or destroy you. When I cut hair, I like to concentrate. You end up being a psychiatrist too, but I concentrate on the cutting, and then during the styling, I relax a little more. But I take it very seriously.”
    Elle Article Here