Bring the Salon Home

這種風尚 古已有之 我們看各大總統-首相等等的帳單 多少可以知道權力 金錢和服務等等的關係 By Tatiana Boncompagni

Friday, August 10, 2007

It seems these days that everyone – not just the Jessica Simpsons and Victoria Beckhams of the world – wants a beauty entourage, the kind that starts with a Pilates instructor and ends with an eyelash extension guru. In other words, the same roster of beauty experts that any celebrity or it-girl worth her Louboutins has on her personal assistant's speed dial. So witness the rise of top-flight at-home beauty services, which doesn't seem like too much for your average luxury-loving consumer to ask for these days. Not when concierge companies, designed to make our busy lives that much easier, abound. New Yorkers, for example, can call on Fresh Direct, the online grocery store; Slate, a pick-up and deliver eco-conscious dry-cleaning and laundry service; and can even have a home fragrance specialist come to their apartment courtesy of L'Artisan Parfumeur.

Indeed, in a world in which convenience is king and personal service is paramount, why should anyone have to schlep to the salon or the spa for that pre-party blowout or monthly facial? That's what Susan Cunningham was asking herself, anyway, when she and her partner Courtney Yorio conceived Uptown Girl NYC, a recently launched beauty concierge business. It includes a small salon on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and a retinue of on-call hair and spa specialists, including some of the city's most sought-after eyelash and hair-extension artists. “We identified a need for a new trend in at-home beauty services for the quintessential cosmopolitan woman who can't always break away to fit in salon time,” says Cunningham. Take Vicki Pitcock, for example, a New York investment banker and mother of three young children. She receives regular house calls from a masseuse, yoga instructor, personal trainer and aesthetician, and recently added eyelash extensionist Yorio to her beauty entourage. “Considering the time it takes to get a taxi and come back, it's much easier to find one hour in my schedule versus two,” says Pitcock. Karen Grant, senior beauty industry analyst with NPD , a US market research company, links the increasing demand for at-home beauty services to the rise in internet shopping and popularity of spa parties. “This is part of a bigger phenomena of how people like to shop,” explains Grant. “They want convenience and highly specialised services.” And it is not just businesses such as Uptown Girl that are cashing in on the trend. Other top salons and make-up artists in New York, Los Angeles and London are finding that a greater number of clients want to receive their services in the comfort of their own homes. This despite prices that are sometimes double or triple what the same service would cost in the salon. “There's so much money sloshing around right now,” says John Barrett, whose eponymous salon occupies the penthouse floor of New York's Bergdorf Goodman department store, explaining why his clients do not mind spending $300 for an at-home or in-office blow dry that would cost $100 in his salon. “It's all about convenience, but it's also the concept of celebrity culture. Everybody wants to be a VIP,” says Brian Cantor, owner of Manhattan's Paul Labrecque Salon and Spa, which has seen 25 per cent annual growth in its “Paul On the Go” business since the launch in 2001. In Los Angeles, the hair salon Privé, which charges $125 for travel costs, plus $250 per hour for services, reports a 30 per cent increase in its out-of-salon business. Its sister spa, Ona, recently launched “Ona on Wheels,” for its more privacy-sensitive and time-pressed clientele. “It used to be special circumstances where celebrities or VIPs would require services to prepare for an event, photo shoot or weddings, but now we are finding that more and more business women, mothers, etc. are looking to consolidate and multi- task their duties,” says Laurent Dufourg of Privé. Likewise, Daniel Sandler, a London-based makeup artist and cosmetics entrepreneur, recently assembled a team of 30 make-up artists who travel across Britain to clients' homes to apply make-up or give personalised how-to lessons. Of course, there are limits to what can or should be done out of the spa. Philippa Holland, a London-based jewellery designer, has kickboxing lessons, massages and manicures and pedicures in her home but draws the line with hair colour and waxing because “it would be very messy”. Others counsel that you don't always get the level of service at your home as you would on-site – no head massages at the shampoo station, for example, or a complimentary glass of champagne or paraffin wax treatment during a manicure. In response to this, some hair stylists are finding a kind of middle ground between providing services in a client's home and in the salon. Paul Podlucky, a renowned New York hair-stylist and make-up artist, gives $400 haircuts (long layers are a speciality) out of his prewar apartment on the Upper East Side. Ashley Javier, meanwhile, an up-and-coming New York-based hair-stylist, leases two penthouses in a midtown building, one as his apartment and the other as his “parlor,” where he frequently hosts getting-ready-for-the party evenings for girls-about-town. “It's much cooler than a salon,” says Javier about his ultra-private atelier.

上門美容服務流行歐美 作者：英國《金融時報》撰稿人塔蒂亞娜•邦康姆帕格尼(Tatiana Boncompagni) 2007年8月10日 星期五

這

些日子，似乎所有人（不只是潔西嘉•辛普森 (Jessica Simpsons)和維多利亞•貝克漢姆(Victoria Beckhams)等人）都希望有一個美容顧問團，從一個普拉提(Pilates)教練，到一個睫毛加長顧問。換言之，任何擁有Louboutins女鞋 的名人或名門美女，都會將同樣一本美容專家名冊列在她私人助理的快速撥號欄中。

這見證了一流家庭美容服務的崛起，近來，對於平日喜愛奢侈品的消費者而言，這種需求似乎並不算太過分。畢竟現在還不是能讓忙碌的生活變得更輕鬆的上門服務公司大量充斥的時候。

例如，紐約人可以訪問線上零售店Fresh Direct；廉價取送乾洗、洗熨服務Slate；甚至還能叫一位家庭香氛專家到他們公寓來免費講授L'Artisan Parfumeur香水的使用。

的確，在便捷第一、私人服務至上的世界，為什麼人們要費勁地跑到美容院或水療中心，為宴會做準備或去做每月一次的面部護理呢？

總 之，這就是蘇珊•坎甯安(Susan Cunningham)在她和合夥人考特尼•約裏奧(Courtney Yorio)構思Uptown Girl NYC時捫心自問的問題，Uptown Girl NYC是最近推出的一項上門美容業務。它包括在曼哈頓上東區的一家小型沙龍，和一批隨叫隨到的髮型師和水療專家，其中有一些該市最受追捧的睫毛和接發設計 師。

坎甯安表示：“我們認為有一種對家庭美容服務的需求新趨勢，那些到處奔波的精英女士不能經常脫身去適應美容院的時間安排。”

以 維琪•皮特考克(Vicki Pitcock)為例，她是一位紐約投資銀行家，3個小孩的母親。她定期會接到來自女按摩師、瑜伽教練、私人教練和美容師的家庭服務電話，最近還將睫毛加 長顧問約裏奧加入了她的美容顧問團中。皮特考克表示：“考慮到打車和來回要花的時間，從我時間表中抽出一個小時比兩個小時要容易得多。”

美國市場調研公司NPD資深美容業分析師克倫•格蘭特(Karen Grant)，將家庭美容服務需求的不斷攀升，與網上購物的興起和水療聚會的流行聯繫起來。“這是人們所喜歡的購物方式大現象的一部分，”格蘭特解釋稱，“他們希望得到便捷、專業化程度高的服務。”

並不只是Uptown Girl等業務在利用這種趨勢。其他在紐約、洛杉磯和倫敦的頂級沙龍和化妝師發現，更多的客戶希望在家裏得到他們的服務。儘管價格有時是在美容院同樣服務的2倍或3倍。

“現在，人們在這方面揮金如土。”約翰•巴雷特(John Barrett)表示。他的同名沙龍坐落在紐約Bergdorf Goodman百貨商店的頂層。他在解釋為何他的顧客不介意花300美元在家或在辦公室做一次洗剪吹，而在他的店裏僅需100美元。

曼 哈頓Paul Labrecque Salon and Spa的所有者布萊恩•康托爾(Brian Cantor)表示：“這完全是因為方便，但它也是一種名人文化的概念。每個人都想成為大人物(VIP)。”自2001年創立以來，這家店的“Paul On the Go”業務每年的增幅為25%。

在洛杉磯，美髮店Privé的上門服務費為125美元，另加每小時250美元的服務費，該店上門業務增幅為30%。其姊妹水療中心Ona最近針對那些對隱私更為敏感、時間更為緊張的客戶推出了“Ona on Wheels”服務。

Privé 的勞倫•迪富爾(Laurent Dufourg)表示：“過去，名人或大人物會因為一場活動、一次拍照或婚禮要求提供這種上門服務，那都屬於特殊情況。而如今，我們看到越來越多的職場女 性和媽媽等也希望將自己的職責合併起來，同時進行多項工作。”同樣，倫敦化妝師、化妝品企業家丹尼爾•桑德勒(Daniel Sandler)最近組建了一個由30名化妝師組成的團隊，在英國境內前往客戶家中，提供化妝服務或教授個性化化妝知識。

當然，上門服務有一些限制。倫敦珠寶設計師菲利帕•霍蘭德(Philippa Holland)會在家中接受跆拳道訓練、按摩、修甲和修腳服務，但不接受染發、上蠟等服務，因為“它會讓家裏非常髒亂”。

其他人勸告說，你在家中得到的服務質量不總是與店裏一樣好，例如，在家中享受不到洗髮店裏提供的頭部按摩，不會得到免費的香檳，也不會在修甲期間得到巴拿芬(paraffin)手蠟護理。

作為回應，一些髮型師正在尋找一種介於上門服務和店內服務之間的中間地點。紐約著名髮型師兼化妝師對在其紐約上東區戰前公寓之外的剪發服務收費400美元（大層次髮型則另收費）。

同時，紐約新銳髮型師阿什利•哈威爾(Ashley Javier)在市中心一建築內租了兩所頂層公寓，一所是他的公寓，另外一所則是他的“會客室”，他在那裏頻繁接待那些為晚宴做準備的都市女性。哈威爾談到他的超級私人工作室時說道：“這比美髮店酷得多。”

譯者/何黎

《生活時尚》

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