ONE-ON-ONE by Shelley Moench-Kelly by Mike Nave What Becomes a Legend Most? Two legends create lightning in a bottle. Michael Gordon, founder of Bumble and bumble, pays homage to the master, Vidal Sassoon. FROM HUMBLE, DIFFICULT BEGINNINGS IN A brilliant hairdressers. So from that, we got to know London orphanage to soaring heights of success as each other, and I went on book tours for the book and hairdressing royalty and a Commander of the British then decided I’d do a film for him. Empire designation from Her Majesty the Queen, as well as most recently receiving the Hair Icon Award You started Bumble and bumble in the 1970s at America’s Beauty Show in Chicago last March, when pop culture, music, politics and more were Vidal Sassoon continues to create, innovate and changing drastically from one minute to the next. inspire with no stopping in sight. He apprenticed How do you think that influence affected how you do with Adolph Cohen and later studied under, among business and how you approached this film? others, the flamboyantly dashing Raymond “Teasie Well, I think the world’s always changing. The benefit Weasie” Bessone. He was contemporaries with Har- when you’re younger is that you don’t realize how old Leighton, Leslie Green and Gerard London. hard it is so you just go ahead and do it anyway. My In the 1950s and 1960s in his Bond Street, London logic with Bumble was that I thought I could do a salon, he shot to the stratosphere of fame with his product business and nobody talked me out of it! edgy, geometric styles, including his revolutionary And it worked. At the time it didn’t intimidate me five-point asymmetrical cut. In the 1970s, he debuted too much. And so the point of the film is that Vidal to huge success in the United States with salons on and I feel that it’s good for younger people to see this Madison Avenue in New York City and later in Los film so that they can see what really is possible. When Angeles. Sassoon then launched his namesake line I was a 15-year-old apprentice, I imagined that being of haircare products with the declaration that, “If 40 was like being 100. I didn’t think that anyone could you don’t look good, we don’t look good,” and in even walk around at 40 or even do anything. I think the 1980s debuted on TV with his own show that Vidal Sassoon with managing editor Shelley Moench-Kelly too, as we were tinkering around with the film, that focused on health and beauty, and opened teaching at the Los Angeles premiere of Vidal Sassoon The Movie we’ve been through such a terrible financial crisis and academies that are now international. His clients ran that the film would be good for kids—I think of kids the gamut from the everyday woman to Mia Farrow, BSB: Michael, Vidal Sassoon is like the Lennon and being between 15 and 30 years old—that it would be Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Coddington—a former Sassoon McCartney of the beauty industry. What was it like very encouraging, that it might give them some inspi- model and currently the creative director of Ameri- when you began your collaboration? How did you ration. It seems that many people are emerging from can Vogue—as well as fashion designer Mary Quant, overcome any nervousness or fear? viewing the film really inspired. Nancy Kwan and model Peggy Moffitt, to name a GORDON: The first time I met Vidal was in the late few. In more recent decades, his influence revealed 1980s. I attended this big haircolor event in Miami; I How have you seen the industry change a deeply philanthropic side, including outreach think it was called Haircolor USA. I knew he was going since you first started? Is it better? Is it worse? to Hurricane Katrina victims with Hairdressers to be there along with other well-known hairdressers, I’ve not seen much change. I’m not impressed that it’s Unlocking Hope—an initiative to help Habitat for and I wanted to take portraits—their photo- changed in a good way. I would’ve thought it would Humanity build homes in partnership with low- graphs—to raise money for a charity called Hair have improved over the years. We were not against income families displaced by the tragedy—and the Cares for people who were suffering from AIDS. So having industry sponsors for the film, and there were Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of that’s when I met him. I took his photograph and two major hair companies we thought would sponsor Anti-Semitism and Related Bigotries at the Hebrew chatted a bit, and eventually, the pictures were well the film. And they didn’t. You can draw your own University in Jerusalem. So who better to produce received and that gave me the idea for Hair Heroes. conclusions. So you wonder what the industry is really a film about the legend than an industry leader in I used to talk about the book at the school we had doing for hairdressers ... what they’re really thinking. his own right, Bumble and bumble founder Michael at Bumble and bumble. People would always ask me Gordon? Beauty Store Business had the rare opportu- who my favorite hero was. And my answer was Vidal Was this movie your first foray into filmmaking? nity to chat with Sassoon and Gordon and attend the because he’s just in a different league from everyone Well, we used to make films at Bumble. We had a sold-out Los Angeles premiere of the movie. else, which is not to say that the others weren’t also tiny film department and we’d done a version of RELATIONS PUBLIC WEST 42 OF COURTESY IMAGES 14 May 2011 Beauty Store Business One-On-One Hair Heroes on film, but this was the places we’d like the movie to go because first serious film, absolutely. there’s practically no hairdressing salon in Japan that wasn’t taught or influ- And how did you find the experience? enced by Sassoon. Culturally speaking, Was it terrifying or something that Japan is amazing because they have felt natural? incredible skills and a need for perfec- It was both. It was a natural thing to do tion. For years and years, they would because I thought, essentially, [that] literally fill jumbo jets with hairdressers what I do is produce. Bumble was a pro- who wanted to study at Sassoon Acad- duction in certain aspects, so I wasn’t emy. It was huge. I think every hair- that intimidated until we got into it and dresser should see and own it and watch I realized how hard it is to make a good it twice a year. And their families should film and how important it is to get it watch, and they should feel proud. right. Because if it’s wrong, it’s terrible. So there were tough moments. It was In your opinion, is it harder to make really like four years of running a new a movie with a living subject or business that you don’t have much of an one who is unable to collaborate idea how to do. or provide input? It would be really difficult if the There’s an adage: It’s completely differ- subject was not around to collabo- ent to be friends with someone than to rate with. You have to do so much work with or for him. What was it like research [and it’s all second and third to work with Vidal? hand]. So I do try and catch them He was just a pleasure. He was just while they’re still alive (laughs). fantastic. He never criticized, never really interfered and was always sup- Sassoon’s client list ran the gamut from every woman to stars of the stage and screen, including portive. Only afterward when we’d Broadway maven Carol Channing. improve things would he say, ‘Yes, that’s much better now,’ you know? And as a dous company called Bumble and you’re going to need one heck of an performer, he was just brilliant because bumble, really superb. In fact, Estée editor.” It truly taught me how to he’s just very giving. And he’s used to Lauder got involved and eventually it write a book because everything I’d it so he knows how to go on camera. bought the whole thing out. I knew done before was with a ghost. And It helped a lot. And I’m probably his history, and we’d been friends for I just wanted to get my own voice tougher on myself than even Vidal some years. Once I knew that about down; to get the feeling of the way was; so working with him was easy. him, I figured we couldn’t go wrong. I felt at the time—as a child, young You know what it’s like? It’s like Tom age, middle age and now ... super This project began as a personal Ford (the designer mastermind who age! I think this film is one of the tribute to Vidal. How did it turn into turned Gucci from a $230-million best things we’ve ever done because a full-fledged film? company to a $3-billion enterprise in it can go to young hairdressers—in Yes, it was an 80th birthday present about 10 years).