April 17, 2017

Meet Charlie of Charile en Particulier in Los Angeles

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlie.

Charlie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
After my parents’ divorce, my mother left the Paris area to go to Dunkirk, in the north of France. I had a very hard time adjusting. I was 15 at the time and the move was unbearable to me. So at the age of 16, I stopped going to school and decided to start an apprenticeship in hairstyling. I went to a hairdresser in Dunkirk, but apart from cleaning up and being very frustrated, I didn’t learn anything.

My mother used to go to Paris once a year to get her hair done at one of the major hairdressing salons – the prestigious “Maison Carita” owned by two sisters, located in the Faubourg Saint Honore. This time I decided to accompany her. As luck would have it, one of the two sisters, Maria Carita, spoke to me and asked me a few questions. She then invited me to join their salon, all the while telling me that for the next seven years, I was mostly going to pick up hair before becoming a hairdresser. I was ecstatic, and this plan did not scare me.

I started at Carita in April 1974 and spent all my evenings frantically cutting and styling the employees’ hair. One evening, under the pretext of waiting for a taxi, Maria Carita stood close to me and observed me throughout my performance. Then she got into her cab which must have been waiting for a long time. I was terrified while she watched me but I finished the job. The next day, management summoned me and they told me that I would now be considered a hairdresser.

My first name was Laurence, but Maria Carita thought it was too commonplace, so I was called Charlie. I was not welcomed by the other hairdressers who had spent many years working in the salon before they become professionals, so Maria Carita decided to send me to work with the studios. I started working with fashion magazines and celebrity photographers who took photos of trendy clothes worn by gorgeous models. I loved it immediately. This is where I met Sarah Moon who guided me. She helped me develop a critical eye and encouraged my creativity. After that, Guy Bourdin, then Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, Paolo Roversi, Domiique Isserman, Andre Rau and so many others with whom I made headlines followed.

I worked with Sarah Moon on all the Cacharel commercials, a very trendy brand at the time. I started to travel for work, staying in great hotels and on beautiful beaches. We had to get up at four am to do hair and makeup, before dressing the models who had to be ready to shoot at sunrise. During the 80’s and 90’s, I styled supermodels, like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Ines de la Fressange, Carla Bruni and many others.

I left the Maison Carita after one of the sisters died, and began to work freelance until Elle magazine asked me to participate in a session with Catherine Deneuve for their 30 years’ retrospective of Saint Laurent. We went to Morocco with photographer Andre Rau who photographed many stars at the time. It was at this session that I changed Ms. Deneuve’s cut and color. Eight days before the release of the magazine, Elle called and asked me how I wanted to be credited. They thought CHARLIE was too short. That’s’ when I came up with CHARLIE en Particulier because it defined well what I was doing: particularly staging women’s beauty.

I was well known in the world of fashion photographers and magazines, but when the issue of Elle came out simultaneously in 65 countries, I faced an incredible media tidal wave. This was unique in the hairdressing world. I had a two-year waiting list. That’s when I decided to open my first hairdressing studio under the name CHARLIE en Particulier, situated in an apartment with moldings and wooden floors (in a Haussmann-style building). It was a place dedicated to women, because after the release of Elle, everyday women discovered me and totally surrendered themselves. I had become a well-known name.

From the moment I opened the studio, women were putting their total trust in me, and that’s when I began doing makeovers. It was in 1991. Then Dior offered to partner with me for makeup. I did this for nine years. During those years, I was surrounded by a team of 35 people to manage, but I didn’t like this role. I needed crazy energy for my assistants and then more for my clients. So one morning I closed my big hairdressing studio and opened a very nice workshop near the mythical Place Vendôme. I wanted to be alone and totally concentrate on creating again rather than managing 35 people. I loved and still love to feel free. Five years later, after a lot of water damage forced me to close for two years, I decided to come to the United States, get my American license and my Green Card. I opened a studio on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, across from the Urth Café.

I still went to Paris for one week every month to take care of my Parisian clientele. My work evolved in the US because American women started asking me to come to their house. In addition to creating a new look, they asked me to sort out their clothes and redo their wardrobe to fit their new style. I even took them shopping in Beverly Hills. It was easy for me because I had worked with prestigious magazines like Elle, Vogue, Glamour, Marie Claire and others. Recently, I closed my salon after deciding to go back to Paris to work again with my French and international customers that I had left for five years. As for my American clients, when I’m in town, I am able to fully concentrate on their particular requests.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The first very important challenge of my career was to cut Catherine Deneuve’s hair for the cover of ELLE magazine. Then, the session with Richard Avedon where I sewed 1.50m (4feet 11.055 inches) of hair on Isabelle Adjani. And finally, every woman who comes to me every day, because makeovers are challenging.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Charlie en Particulier – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Of course this road has been difficult. In the beginning, I had to impose my taste and vision to stylists at the most prestigious fashion newspapers, as well as to renowned photographers like; Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Sarah Moon or Paolo Roversi who already had their own vision. And of course, with each client who entrusted me with their metamorphosis. Fortunately, now that I built an international reputation, and that my work has been recognized through all the heads I styled, I don’t need to convince them anymore and people trust me. What differentiates me from the others is that I have a knack for this. My clients are very faithful because their cut is impeccable, lasts for three months and especially because they feel beautiful.

Every day makes me proud. To see women’s eyes, filled with happiness when they discover themselves in the mirror. And of course, Catherine Deneuve’s cut which was published at the same time in 65 countries around the world. It caused a 2-year waiting list.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I’m working on my makeup line.

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