(Errr hello, remember me? It's Louise, the girl who started a blog and then didn't post anything for a month. Big fat fail on the blog front, I know. Back now though, and determined that pesky (but necessary) paid-for work will not get in the way of blogging!)
Whenever my mum recalls her tales of growing up in the '60s I have to admit that it sounds quite alot better than the decade of my formative years (the '80s). Some comparisons for you:
Mum's first concert:
The
Beatles at Wimbledon Palais 1963 (I admit that the link probably doesn't do it justice but I thought it would be nice to see)
My first concert:
Five Star at Wembley (note: No one even bothered to record this for posterity)
Mum's teenage shopping experience:
Biba
My teenage shopping experience:
Two rails of 'teen range' clothes at the Topshop in Sutton
Mum's teenage haircuts:
The very first Toni&Guy in Streatham where she was a client of Toni himself (to this day she cannot walk past a T&G without mentioning this fact)
My teenage haircuts:
Dappers, a salon next to the newsagents at the end of my parents' road.
It's not hard to see why I've spent a great deal of time thinking that the '60s were rather special...
Vidal Sassoon The Movie only confirms this fact. I was lucky enough to see a preview of this fabulous docu-film two weeks ago (better bloggers would have posted immediately, I know!) and more than ever I feel we've missed out on possibly the most exciting decade ever!
In the most basic sense, the film charts the life of superhero hairdresser Vidal Sassoon. A man, should you not know (where have you beeeeen?), who changed the way women would wear their hair forever when he opened his salon in Bond Street in 1954. Inspired by the clean lines of modern architecture, he eschewed the shampoo and set for geometric haircuts that women could wash and style themselves at home. Indeed if it wasn't for this man, we'd have all spent most of our Saturday afternoons to date stuck under a hood dryer.
In the greater sense, for me at least, it just confirmed how wonderful and exciting the '60s really were and that my mum wasn't fibbing. Although Vidal opened Bond Street in '54, he didn't hit the haircut jackpot, so to speak, until 1964 when he gave Grace Coddington (yes, the very one at US Vogue) the 5-point bob and that's when the Sassoon revolution truly begins. Seeing the part a hairdresser played in the cultural shift of the decade is amazing. Add in an interview between Vidal and Mary Quant and I was fascinated and super envious that I wasn't there (oh the parties!) at the same time. It really was a time of enormous change in fashion, beauty and lifestyle, and it left me wondering if we'd really seen anything quite so radical or special since.
The rest of the film is equally brilliant - whether it's his early East End days or his more recent life in the US and the huge media success he found there. It's all incredibly interesting and inspiring even if you're not that interested in hairdressing. At the very least it will probably make you take up yoga - now in his 80s Vidal shows in the film that he is still very bendy (not to mention fit, stylish, chic and, dare I say for a man of his years, dashingly handsome)!
My advice would be to get and see it quick sharp. It's showing at selected cinemas thoughout the rest of May and into June, all the dates and times are on the website link above.
If you love the film, I'd try his
autobiography too. Maybe for the more fanatical fan (that'll be me then...) but a great read with lots of famous name dropping.
You owe this man a life's worth of Saturdays ladies, see the film and see why.
