Guido Palau brings classic glam back
PHOTOGRAPHY WILLY LUKAITIS
STYLING TONNE GOODMAN
Guido Palau’s sculpted up-dos elevate Upper East Side polish into understated rebellion. Lauren Santo Domingo takes them on, with Derek Blasberg on set.
Once upon a time — in the middle of the last century — women of a certain class would disappear into a beauty salon for half a day and come out looking done. Hair set. Fingernails painted. Makeup immaculate.
The look was not casual because it wasn’t meant to be. Think of Jackie Kennedy at a White House state dinner; high society’s science fundraiser Deeda Blair holding court in the U.S. ambassador’s residence in the Philippines; Maria Callas storming the streets of Rome, her hair as dramatic as her voice. Grooming was not a footnote — it was a declaration.
That era, and those women, captivated Guido Palau, the England-born, New York-based, renowned hairstylist, when he began thinking about this series of hairstyles rooted in 1960s glamour: the volume, the architecture, the unapologetic artifice. And yet. “I love the artifice of that long-ago era, but I kept wondering what that looks like, to do today?” he wondered.
His theory about contemporary beauty culture is simple: Women today expend just as much time, money and effort as their forebears — but toward an opposite goal. Today’s divas and society doyennes have replaced the pursuit of polish with the performance of nonchalance. They work hard to make it look easy. “Same effort, opposite visual effect,” Guido says. “But I wanted to tell a story of a woman who could do both with her hair — go up and down, tied loose under the chin, another when it’s tall and very grand.”
When it was time to find a muse, Guido thought of only one woman who could carry such deliberate extravagance without irony: Lauren Santo Domingo, co-founder of online emporium Moda Operandi, artistic director of home at Tiffany & Co., and one of the most stylish women in New York. “I had an idea she could carry these looks off,” Palau says. “But I was surprised how at ease she was with it all.”
Quality and proportion don’t age.
If I saw a woman stepping out in the street with that hair, I would be impressed.
GUIDO PALAU
SILK-CADY DRESS, THE ROW. HAIR PINS, GUIDO’S OWN
LAUREN WEARS COTTON DRESS, CAROLINA HERRERA. DIAMOND, PLATINUM, AND GOLD EARRINGS,TIFFANY & CO.
On set in New York, mood boards draw on a very specific lineage: the socialite Gloria Guinness, with her voluminous curls immortalized by Richard Avedon; the model Jean Shrimpton, whose sharp, graphic bobs helped define Swinging London — also through Avedon’s lens. There is the patrician elegance of Babe Paley, the insouciant glamour of Lee Radziwill, and the sculptural restraint of Marella Agnelli — women for whom hair was never incidental, but integral. Lauren Santo Domingo understands the assignment. “I love a glamorous broad,” she says. “These women understood presence — they used style as punctuation, not decoration.”
Her own references are equally exacting. “I’ve spent my whole adult life trying to achieve the perfect blonde,” she smiles, mentioning Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and Kristy Hume as her muses. She turns around in her makeup chair to drop this bon mot: “It’s important to have goals in life.” (For those aspiring to a similarly uptown polish, LSD — which is how she’s known to both close friends and her half-million Instagram followers — has some practical advice: “Consistency. A great colorist. Don’t overthink it. And yes, dry shampoo is a staple.”)
LAUREN WEARS CREPE DRESS, BRANDON MAXWELL. DIAMOND, PLATINUM, AND GOLD RING, TIFFANY & CO.
The appeal of this shoot, she explains, lies in balance. “I was drawn to the architectural but restrained — the hair that had a clear point of view without feeling precious.” And always, proportion. “The woman has to come first. If you’re wearing the hair, not hiding behind it, it works. Simplicity elsewhere helps.”
Guido and LSD agree that this philosophy extends beyond hair. He points to a thriving vintage haute couture market as proof that true quality transcends time. “If you get a couture dress from the 1950s, it’s still beautiful,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 70 years old — I feel like that with hair, too. It’s still beautiful and still works in today’s world.” LSD agrees: “Quality and proportion don’t age.” Would these looks work in the real world? “If I saw a woman stepping out in the street with that hair, I would be impressed,” Guido says. “Why does everyone try so hard at looking nonchalant nowadays anyway?” LSD is willing to toy with the idea. “My last major hair statement was getting a bob soon after my wedding,” she says. “Someone said it was good luck to cut your hair after a dramatic life change.”
At a moment when high fashion has wandered in the direction of either athleisure or — curse the words — quiet luxury, Guido declares that dressing as Jackie Kennedy feels positively punk rock. “It’s rebellious to look deliberately ‘done’ today, yes,” LSD says. Her life may not be changing, but the world certainly is. “Lord knows life these days is pretty dramatic — maybe it’s time for another bob.” She gestures to the conceptual, angular version Guido created for her. “Maybe I’ll do this one.”
I wanted to tell a story of a woman who could do both with her hair — go up and down, tied loose under the chin, another when it’s tall and very grand.
GUIDO PALAU
BLACK PEARL, DIAMOND, PLATINUM, AND GOLD EARRINGS, TIFFANY & CO.
LAUREN WEARS COTTON DRESS WITH GOLD-PLATED CHAIN, CAROLINA HERRERA. AQUAMARINE, DIAMOND, PLATINUM, AND GOLD EARRINGS, TIFFANY & CO.
HAIR AND CREATIVE DIRECTION GUIDO
PHOTOGRAPHY WILLY LUKAITIS
STYLING TONNE GOODMAN
MAKEUP DIANE KENDAL
NAILS JIN SOON CHOI
PRODUCTION KATE MCGRATH,
LAURA DETROW
COLORIST LENA OTT
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