You have taken care of celebrities and royalty. Is it complex to deal with people of this stature?
It certainly requires a certain human attitude. When I trained, however, in school, I was taught how to treat clients in the salon. In Paris, I took care of the image of beautiful and very elegant women. No inch of skin was forgotten, including the breasts! I had a special tool for firming it and also a skin care line dedicated exclusively to the epidermis of this part of the body. I was very surprised when I arrived in Italy and realized that women here were very demure and reluctant to treat the décolleté. Instead, from head to toe, nothing should be neglected.
Of the celebrities that you’ve worked with, who has stuck with you the most?
It’s hard to choose, but I can say that one person in particular is linked to a professional regret of mine. In the Paris salon on Rue Foubourg Saint Honoré came a very young Farah Diba, a very beautiful and sweet girl. For her wedding to the Shah of Persia, it was Jean D’Estrées who was in charge of the bride’s look. I should have followed him to Tehran for the event, but, at the last moment, he sent me to Madrid to solve some problems with the salon there. Years later, I am very sorry I could not attend the wedding, a truly unforgettable event.
After leaving the Grimaldi court, did you return to Paris?
Not really. I came to Italy, to Vicenza to be exact. La Bella e la Bestia was being staged at the Teatro Olimpico, and the Paris Opera asked me to do the makeup of the principal dancers, who were also my friends. It was not the first time I was in charge of the look of the dancers in the most important theaters in the world, from the Bolshoi to the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg. Back in the French capital, I received an invitation to dinner from the Allouche, founders of Biologique Recherche. They wanted me to help them bring the brand to Italy, certainly a challenging job. I thought, why not? After a year and a half, my training was completed, and I left.
It must have been easy, given his experience.
On the contrary! But I am a very tenacious person, and I did not give up. I left everything for Milan; it was the 1990s. At first, it was really hard—nobody knew me. I found the right space and opened the doors of my salon on Pagano Street, where I also did hair. It took a while, but then the business took off. It was not easy to convince clients to use Biologique Recherche: they were used to scented and, on the one hand, more “understandable” products, which clearly indicated on the label what they were reserved for. After initial puzzlement, however, the results spoke for themselves. At that point, if they could have, they would have even wanted to drink P50! The results on the skin speak for themselves.
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