Guido Palau
Encyclopedia
Guido Palau, is a British-born hair stylist
, known as a leading trend setter in the fashion industry.
Salon. However, his career in the salon was not long lived. "One day I filled the appointment sheet with famous names, like Barbra Streisand
," says Palau in a 1994 Vogue article. "Just for fun. I got found out and was sacked. They told me I'd never make it as a hairdresser." This setback caused him to reevaluate his career, and take his occupation more seriously. After working in numerous hair salons, he decided that his passion was session hair styling for photographic shoots and fashion shows.
's Freedom! '90
music video, which featured supermodels, including Naomi Campbell
, Linda Evangelista
, Christy Turlington
, Tatjana Patitz
, and Cindy Crawford
.
In the early '90s, just as the supermodel
era was ending and the grunge
moment was about to take hold, Guido began working with photographer David Sims, who had been taking documentary style photos of street-cast subjects. Once these images started appearing in the pages of The Face, they grabbed the attention of designer Calvin Klein
, who drafted Guido and Sims to transfer the ratty, anti-fashion hairstyles of London's plaid-shirt-wearing malcontents to the heads of James King and Kate Moss
. He was then asked by Calvin Klein to work on the designer's pivotal fall 1994 fashion show. Klein's endorsement brought global attention, and more high-end work followed, such as working on the Versace
campaign in 1996 with Richard Avedon
.
Today, Guido is described by British Vogue as "The World's most in-demand hair stylist." He regularly collaborates with fashion photographer Steven Meisel
and continues to work closely with David Sims. His work is featured regularly in Italian, French, British and American Vogue
, Love, V
, and W Magazine. Each season, he creates the hair look for more than 30 fashion shows, and according to a 2010 Allure article, has become one of the busiest runway stylists in the business – and the driving force behind many of the major trends. His styles are seen on the runways of fashion houses, including Prada
, Balenciaga
, Marc Jacobs
, Lanvin
, Alexander Wang
, Calvin Klein
, Versace
, Louis Vuitton
, Yves Saint Laurent
, Ralph Lauren
and Alexander McQueen
.
His first book, Heads: Hair by Guido, was published in 2000 and features a decade of his signature work.
In 2005, Guido was signed with Redken
as their creative consultant.
In December 2009, Guido was included on the British Fashion Council's list of 25 Most Powerful People in the Fashion Industry – a list that also included Alexander McQueen
, Nick Knight
, John Galliano
, Kate Moss
, and Naomi Campbell
.
Hairdresser
Hairdresser is a term referring to anyone whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques...
, known as a leading trend setter in the fashion industry.
Early life
Guido grew up in an Anglo-Spanish family in Dorset, England. Growing up in the countryside south-west of London, he was the fourth son of a Spanish father and an English mother. He toured Europe after high school, and then returned to London to work at the Vidal SassoonVidal Sassoon
Vidal Sassoon, CBE is a widely recognised British hairdresser, credited with creating a simple geometric, "Bauhaus-inspired" hair style, also called the bob...
Salon. However, his career in the salon was not long lived. "One day I filled the appointment sheet with famous names, like Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
," says Palau in a 1994 Vogue article. "Just for fun. I got found out and was sacked. They told me I'd never make it as a hairdresser." This setback caused him to reevaluate his career, and take his occupation more seriously. After working in numerous hair salons, he decided that his passion was session hair styling for photographic shoots and fashion shows.
Career
An early turning point in Guido's career was when he styled George MichaelGeorge Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
's Freedom! '90
Freedom! '90
"Freedom '90" is a song written and performed by George Michael, and released on Columbia Records in 1990. The "'90" added to the end of the title is to prevent confusion with an international hit by Michael's former band, Wham!, also titled "Freedom".It was the third single taken from Listen...
music video, which featured supermodels, including Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell is a British model. Scouted at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognisable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and she was one of six models of her generation declared "supermodels" by the fashion world...
, Linda Evangelista
Linda Evangelista
Linda Evangelista is a Canadian model. She has been featured on over 600 magazine covers and has garnered work on numerous modeling assignments with companies, most recently with L'Oréal.- Early years :...
, Christy Turlington
Christy Turlington
Christy Turlington Burns is an American model best known for representing Calvin Klein from 1987 to 2007. She has worked on dozens of modeling contracts with companies including Maybelline Cosmetics and Versace. Turlington starred in her fashion documentary Catwalk and Isaac Mizrahi's Unzipped...
, Tatjana Patitz
Tatjana Patitz
Tatjana Patitz is a German model and actress who rose to international prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, representing top fashion designers, campaigns, and collections, and who continues to model today.-Modelling career:...
, and Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford
Cynthia Ann "Cindy" Crawford is an American model. Known for her trademark mole just above her lip, Crawford has adorned hundreds of magazine covers throughout her career. She was named #3 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the 90s...
.
In the early '90s, just as the supermodel
Supermodel
The term supermodel refers to a highly-paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels...
era was ending and the grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
moment was about to take hold, Guido began working with photographer David Sims, who had been taking documentary style photos of street-cast subjects. Once these images started appearing in the pages of The Face, they grabbed the attention of designer Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
, who drafted Guido and Sims to transfer the ratty, anti-fashion hairstyles of London's plaid-shirt-wearing malcontents to the heads of James King and Kate Moss
Kate Moss
Kate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...
. He was then asked by Calvin Klein to work on the designer's pivotal fall 1994 fashion show. Klein's endorsement brought global attention, and more high-end work followed, such as working on the Versace
Versace
Gianni Versace S.p.A. , usually referred to as Versace, is an Italian fashion label founded by Gianni Versace in 1978.The first Versace boutique was opened in Milan's Via della Spiga in 1978, and its popularity was immediate. Today, Versace is one of the world's leading international fashion houses...
campaign in 1996 with Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
.
Today, Guido is described by British Vogue as "The World's most in-demand hair stylist." He regularly collaborates with fashion photographer Steven Meisel
Steven Meisel
Steven Meisel is an American photographer, who obtained popular acclaim with his work in US and Italian Vogue and his photographs of friend Madonna in her 1992 book Sex...
and continues to work closely with David Sims. His work is featured regularly in Italian, French, British and American Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, Love, V
V (American magazine)
V magazine is an American fashion magazine published since 1999. The magazine is printed seasonally and highlights trends in fashion, film music and art. A men's fashion quarterly entitled VMAN started as an offshoot in 2003.-History:...
, and W Magazine. Each season, he creates the hair look for more than 30 fashion shows, and according to a 2010 Allure article, has become one of the busiest runway stylists in the business – and the driving force behind many of the major trends. His styles are seen on the runways of fashion houses, including Prada
Prada
Prada S.p.A. is an Italian fashion label specializing in luxury goods for men and women , founded by Mario Prada.-Foundations:...
, Balenciaga
Balenciaga
Balenciaga is a fashion house founded by Cristóbal Balenciaga, a Basque designer, born in the Basque Country, Spain. He had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior. His bubble skirts and odd, feminine, yet ultra-modern...
, Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for Marc Jacobs, as well as Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, with more than 200 retail stores in 60 countries. He has been the creative director of the French design house Louis Vuitton since 1997...
, Lanvin
Lanvin (clothing)
Lanvin is a high fashion house founded by Jeanne Lanvin.-History:Lanvin made such beautiful clothes for her daughter that they began to attract the attention of a number of wealthy people who requested copies for their own children...
, Alexander Wang
Alexander Wang (designer)
Alexander Wang is a Taiwanese-American fashion designer.At age 18, he moved to New York to attend Parsons The New School for Design to study fashion design. After dropping out in his sophomore year, he launched his first women's ready-to-wear collection in 2007...
, Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
, Versace
Versace
Gianni Versace S.p.A. , usually referred to as Versace, is an Italian fashion label founded by Gianni Versace in 1978.The first Versace boutique was opened in Milan's Via della Spiga in 1978, and its popularity was immediate. Today, Versace is one of the world's leading international fashion houses...
, Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Malletier – commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton , or shortened to LV – is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label is well known for its LV monogram, which is featured on most products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes,...
, Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent (brand)
Yves Saint Laurent or YSL is a luxury fashion house founded by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé. Today, its chief designer is Stefano Pilati. Yves Saint Laurent, founder of the brand, died in 2008.-History:...
, Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer and business executive; best known for his Polo Ralph Lauren clothing brand.-Early life:...
and Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen (brand)
Alexander McQueen is a luxury fashion house founded by designer Alexander McQueen . Its current creative director is Sarah Burton.-History:...
.
His first book, Heads: Hair by Guido, was published in 2000 and features a decade of his signature work.
In 2005, Guido was signed with Redken
Redken
Redken is an American hair care brand owned by L'Oréal Group under the Professional Products division.The company was founded in 1960 by hairdresser/chemist Jheri Redding and actress/model Paula Kent, thus the name, "Red-ken."...
as their creative consultant.
In December 2009, Guido was included on the British Fashion Council's list of 25 Most Powerful People in the Fashion Industry – a list that also included Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE was a British fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows...
, Nick Knight
Nick Knight (photographer)
Nick Knight OBE is a British fashion photographer, documentary photographer, and web publisher—as director of SHOWstudio.com.-Life and career:Knight studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design....
, John Galliano
John Galliano
John Charles Galliano CBE, RDI is a Gibraltan-born British fashion designer who was best known as head designer of French haute couture houses Givenchy and Christian Dior , and his own self titled fashion house.-Family:He was born in Gibraltar to a Gibraltarian father, Juan Galliano, and a...
, Kate Moss
Kate Moss
Kate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...
, and Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell is a British model. Scouted at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognisable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and she was one of six models of her generation declared "supermodels" by the fashion world...
.