Ukrainian Hairdressers Do Not Want To Remain Observers

Every profession has its own elite. The influence of such an elite is especially strong in the fashion industry. For it is actually a relatively narrow circle of experts that decides what kind of clothes, shoes, and hairstyle we should wear. It is this circle that puts forth not only the ideas but also the ways of implementing them, that is, it creates new techniques, etc. And only afterward do masters and apprentices all over the world adopt this vogue on and spread it among the broad masses. Intercoiffure Mondiale, an international organization founded in 1925 in Germany by hairstylists from Switzerland, Germany, France, and Britain, today unites all those we call the trend setters of fashion. It includes over two and a half thousand highest-class hairdressers from 35 countries each of which has its own national section of Intercoiffure. Congresses, workshops, exchange of experience, youth training schemes, annual collections (spring-summer and fall-winter), publication of its own magazine, and its own Internet site — all this is a far from complete list of the various activities of this authoritative organization which exerts far-reaching influence from Paris, the world capital of style, on all the five continents. But in turn Intercoiffure accumulates fresh creative ideas and trends from each of its national sections. Actually, the postsocialist countries or, to be more exact, the hairdressers of these countries, were until recently barred from this mutually-enriching exchange and left to stew in their own juices. As the world political situation changed, Intercoiffure managers found, not without surprise, a most powerful source of burgeoning creative energy. Hence the stormy growth of the organization and the opening of new sections in Rumania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and China. Moreover, Intercoiffure keeps accidental guests at bay: what it need is high professional reputation and standards of mastery.

This is why the event that occurred the Sunday before last can be quite aptly called portentous: member of the board of directors of this international association, president of the Swiss section, managing director of the Guillaume Foundation (exercising patronage over young people), Otto Sommer and his German counterpart Klaus-Peter Ochs announced the founding of an Intercoiffure Mondiale section in Ukraine, the first in the CIS. This happened thanks to the active (including financial) support of the Wella Ukraine Company.

The minimal number of the national section members is 15, among them Kyivans Vyacheslav Diudenko, Oleksiy Antoniuk, Natalia Balabanova, Oleksiy Andersen, Olena Siedykh; Pavlo Butylsky from Luhansk, and Natalia Isachenko from Dnipropetrovsk. In other words, each of these names is well known to anyone who takes even the slightest interest in our national vogue. They are all young, ambitious, and full of interesting ideas. “We are aware that Ukrainian masters are so far dark horses for the hairstyle world,” Mr. Diudenko, president of the section, said, “but we are prepared to prove at any level our professional and artistic skills.”

“We’ve been given a brilliant chance,” Ms. Balabanova added, “and I’m sure we’ll be able to use it.”

After an official ceremony, our stylists showed the guests a small collection of hairdos for the new season. Messrs. Sommer and Ochs only nodded in approval: those who have joined the circle of trend-setters have clearly risen to their expectations.

№14 April 25 2000 «The Day»
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