| Fashion News Louisiana |
World-famous hairdresser comes to Louisiana to see storm-recovery efforts
LACOMBE, La. -- Vidal Sassoon, one of the world's most famous hairdressers, was in Lacombe on a bright, cool Sunday afternoon last
month.
He had come to celebrate the success of Hairdressers Unlocking Hope, an international fundraising effort by beauty professionals that
has generated more than $1.7 million for the East St. Tammany Habitat for Humanity.
Strolling around East Chestnut Street, he posed for pictures, helped screw in the railing on a new Habitat house and chatted with
dozens of hairstylists laying sod and spreading mulch around the tidy cottages they helped construct.
Looking remarkably fit (he swims four times a week) and naturally gray-haired at 79 years old (he turns 80 in January), Sassoon
borrowed a black marker and added his autograph to a piece of white poster paper listing contributors to the project.
That's when a young voice piped up.
"Hey, that's my name, too," said 11-year-old Vidal Amar, nephew of two new Habitat homeowners.
The elder Vidal flashed a grandfatherly smile.
"Is it? Well, look, everyone, I've found my long-lost son," he joked, wrapping a protective arm around the bewildered youngster, who
was suddenly flanked by photographers firing away.
Come to find out, Sassoon _ founder of the worldwide dynasty of shampoos and salons _ has a namesake in New Orleans.
Vidal Amar's mother, a cosmetologist, was a big fan of the Sassoon line of hair products. When she discovered she was expecting a boy,
she knew just what he should be called, said the youngster's grandmother, Bernadine Amar of New Orleans.
Vidal _ the name that's graced a million shampoo bottles.
"She loved those commercials," Bernadine Amar said of Sassoon's famous "If you don't look good, we don't look good" campaign.
She wasn't alone. Sassoon broke serious ground with his scissors.
His five-point cut _ with blunt lines as precise as a carpenter's square _ went off like an atom bomb in the hair care industry of the
1960s, a clip that triggered worldwide commotion.
His avant-garde cuts were christened "wash and wear." High impact but low maintenance, his styles freed women from the bondage of
bobby pins and weekly trips to the salon for a wash and set.
"It was changing the concept of hairstyling," said Sassoon, taking a seat in the big white tent set up in Lacombe for the Habitat event.
"What we did was create a cut that women could wash, condition, run their fingers through, and it would fall back into place. It was a
revolution."
His geometric bobs and asymmetrical styles became as synonymous with the swinging '60s as the miniskirt and mod look.
Sassoon crisscrossed the Atlantic, brushing and blow-drying backstage at magazine shoots and fashion shows in Paris and New York. At
home in London, he moved in the same circles as the Rolling Stones.
Actress Nancy Kwan and designer Mary Quant, creator of the micro-mini and the go-go boots, were clients, and Mia Farrow received a
staggering $5,000 crewcut from Sassoon on the set of "Rosemary's Baby" in 1968.
It was so modern that Sassoon's techniques remain the industry standard some four decades later. And in beauty schools around the
globe, instructors even today invoke his name as a verb _ as in, "To pass this class, you better Sassoon that bob."
Now retired, Sassoon spends his time and fortune focused on philanthropy. He established a charitable foundation and supports the
Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism and Related Bigotries, at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Sassoon was at his house in Beverly Hills when Hurricane Katrina roared ashore in south Louisiana. Glued to the television, he
watched families stranded on rooftops and children crying in the Superdome. The images hit him close to home.
"It brought back memories of my childhood," said Sassoon, who grew up poor. "It's not something you can really talk about, but I was
shocked and outraged. I was angry."
That anger quickly turned to outreach, and Sassoon was writing a $100,000 check for the construction of two East St. Tammany Habitat
for Humanity houses. Last fall, a single mother of five and a family of four moved into those houses.
Sassoon then teamed up with his friend Mary Rector-Gable, founder of behindthechair.com, a beauty industry Web site that boasts
600,000 visitors each month, to launch Hairdressers Unlocking Hope, with the goal of helping Habitat build 18 more homes. The project
eventually raised enough money for 20.
Some of the biggest names in the beauty biz signed on, including John Allan, Bumble and Bumble, Paul Mitchell Schools, Neil Corp.
and PureOlogy, among others.
On Nov. 4, about 140 stylists, salon owners and industry executives gathered in Lacombe to finish the landscaping and dedicate 10 of the
new homes. An additional 10 houses will be built this spring.
Football Fashion Defies Norm
By Barry Jacobs
Posted: Dec. 12, 2007
Sometimes it takes awhile to see what’s right in front of us.
Consider the long-time sports fan explaining to a novice how to watch a game on television, how to read at a glance the information on the screen.
You point out that team names are displayed at the edge of the picture, the visitor’s name atop the host’s, or to the left if they’re rendered
horizontally.
Simple enough.
You don’t stop there. Having spent years, perhaps decades, watching sports, you note helpfully that, even when a viewer is too distant to read
words on the screen, color schemes tell a story, too. The home squad wears white, while the visitors display their school colors.
Then one day you’re watching a college football game and you notice the home team is not wearing white. If you’re seated on your couch rather
than at the stadium, you flip to another TV channel, then another. And you discover that, except for Louisiana State, no home football team wears
white. (We’ll get to LSU shortly.)
The rule of thumb you took for granted, the rule of thumb in most major sports, is no rule of thumb at all when it comes to football.
Our culture’s good-guy hue is white, the color of angels, of freshness, the color that for poet Percy Shelley conveyed the “radiance of eternity.”
You would expect home teams to garb themselves accordingly. That’s the way it is in basketball, baseball, soccer, you name it. The men’s
basketball rule book, for instance, mandates in Rule 3, Section 5, Article 10: “The home team should wear light game jerseys and the away team
should wear dark jerseys.”
But not in football. With rare exception, there the color scheme is reversed _ the visitors wear white and the hosts appear in full plumage.
Which leads, inevitably, to wondering why football is the sartorial opposite of other college sports. Even those who devote their professional life
to the sport can’t explain the practice.
“I have no idea,” North Carolina coach Butch Davis said regarding football’s color scheme. “Nobody’s ever asked me that.”
“I have no idea,” agreed N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien.
“That’s a great question,” said Bo Carter of the National Football Foundation in Irving, Texas. “The football thing really took shape about 35 years
ago. Well, more like 40 years ago. In the late sixties the NCAA mandated you had to have contrasting jerseys."
Dan Jenkins, the foundation’s official historian, blamed the usual suspects for that mandate.
“I think some fool in TV suggested it without thinking, and the NCAA, being ga-ga over TV, blithely went along without questioning it,” Jenkins
offered. “At the time, people would kill to be on TV. Some of us have learned better.”
Both teams usually wore light colors during football’s early days. The Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s put a strain on funding for
sports, causing football teams to almost exclusively employ one dark set of jerseys that were less likely to show dirt. Fashion became more
haphazard once prosperity returned, and teams again gravitated toward white, causing confusion for casual observers.
“Before TV became popular, there were a lot of games where both teams wore light jerseys,” said John Adams, secretary-editor of the NCAA
football rules committee. “TV was the one that made only one go white, because they needed the contrast.”
Makes sense. But why did football go in an opposite direction from other sports in choosing who wore white?
“I think I’m guilty, to tell you the truth,” said Adams, assistant to the commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference. “There really wasn’t any
reason for it. We just thought it would be nice for the home team to wear red or blue or whatever their other colors were.”
That arrangement became fixed in 1983. One exception was made. LSU successfully lobbied for white at home, arguing that to wear dark colors in
the heat and humidity of Baton Rouge was “the death penalty for us,” Adams recalled. So the committee caved, a decision Adams said he regrets.
As for college football’s take on jersey colors, Adams is not convinced his sport is the deviant in the group.
“Let me give you another version – baseball and basketball are wrong,” he said. “We’re right.”
Baggy pants debate buckles up for bumpy ride
Ruth Roberts
Published 11/26/2007 - 3:14 a.m.
The baggy pants fashion has sparked some debate among local city officials, parents and the teens who wear them. Some opponents call it indecent
exposure and urge cities to officially ban the saggy style.
When Janelle Mota spoke before the Antioch City Council last month deriding the fashion of wearing pants below the hips, she called the look
offensive and asked the council to outlaw the popular style.
“These guys that you see wearing their pants down around their knees … Other cities are calling it indecent exposure,” said Mota. “Why can’t
Antioch adopt that?”
The debate over the wearing of baggy or low-slung pants has become a hot-button issue in at least eight states throughout the nation. Opa-Locka, a
small Miami suburb, is the latest municipality to put a law on the books. In an effort to curb crime, the town of 15,000 has made drooping drawers
a misdemeanor, but the citation carries no fine or punishment.
The adolescent fashion statement is, according to some, merely the newest generational style designed to irritate adults. Just as the youth of the
l960s flaunted the mini-skirt, and those of the ’70s paraded around in bell-bottom jeans and long hair, every decade has its own fashion vision. But
the baggy-pants look has its roots in the penal system, where belts are prohibited for reasons of security, and some feel the criminal fashion
encourages gang activity and lawlessness.
Indecent exposure or constitutional right? The answer seems to depend on whom you ask.
“I don’t feel the government should get involved,” said Brentwood Mayor Bob Taylor. “I think children should dress as the schools and their
parents so deem. I remember we used to wear white bucks and white pants. Every time has its style and fad, and it hasn’t destroyed teenagers yet,
or America.”
But some states disagree. Six cities in Louisiana and one in Georgia have recently passed the indecency statute, and the law is currently being
considered in a handful of other states, including New Jersey and Texas.
According to a USA Today news report, Marjorie Esman, executive director of the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, says
baggy pants are protected under the First Amendment. “The wearing of clothing is absolutely free expression,” said Esman.
Antioch City Attorney Lynn Tracy Nerland concurs that it might be a tough law to get on the books, especially in liberal California. “This was the
first time the issue had come up in public comment,” said Nerland, referring to Mota’s statement to the City Council. “And the League of
California Cities was looking into it, but there has been no action taken, and the city has no plans to pursue anything at this point.”
Freedom High School Principal Eric Volta has seen plenty of fads during his time on campus, and for him, the droopy drawer look is much ado
about nothing. “It’s not a hot button issue for us,” said Volta. “We just tell the kids we don’t want to see boxers, and for the most part they are
good about it. From a school standpoint, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the learning process, we just deal with it.”
Danny Pedroza, a junior at Freedom High, agrees. “It’s just a style; it’s no big deal,” he said. “It’s comfortable; I like it. No one in my family
complains about it, except my grandma, and the girls like it.”
Some girls, that is. “The Romick women prefer the cowboy look, the tight jeans look,” laughed Oakley Mayor Kevin Romick. “Personally, I don’t
think the plumber look is a very attractive look, but if we start making ordinances to address the way young people dress, I’m not sure it’s our
place. I think it’s just a little adolescent rebelling; there are worse things they could be doing.”
And then, of course, comes the question of gender discrimination. “What about girls that wear those low-cut jeans or sports bras?” said John
Atkins, a student at Los Medanos College. “Couldn’t you make a case that that is indecent exposure? Not that I’m complaining, but it works both
ways.”
Either way, it seems most local municipalities prefer to focus their attention on more pressing civic issues, at least for the time being. “I can’t speak
for my City Council,” said Taylor, “but as far as I’m concerned, we have other things such as road and economic issues to worry about – things we
might have some control over. Let’s let parents deal with those fads.”
Plant Pear Trees and the Whitetails Will Come
By Tommy Kirkland
-- You've tilled the land, adjusted the soil's pH, and labored endlessly for a productive food plot, consisting of clover and chicory. As the season is
just about to get underway, an unexpected problem arises - only a few deer, mostly young bucks, are reaping the benefits of your work. The larger
bucks and does have vanished!
You immediately look for an answer. A quick line of communication conveys that a nearby landowner has fruit trees, primarily pears - a real
magnet for attracting whitetails.
Whitetails are known to be selective browsers. They search for the most nutritious and digestible vegetative food sources. They also possess a
craving for the sweet soft mast of fruit trees - especially apples, persimmons and pears. Full of nutrition and providing energy from carbohydrates,
fruit is an excellent supplement to help bucks reach their potential and for females raising their young. Also, having fruit trees adjacent or near your
food plots is highly recommended by several prominent deer biologists.
While persimmons and apples are good choices, there are several varieties of pear trees that are more adaptable to stress and require less
maintenance. They can also produce more soft mast than other trees in a shorter amount of time. So for those who work the land for whitetails,
planting various types of pear trees is a wise choice.
Matt Jeane, owner of Jeane Farms in Ruston, La., can attest to the pear tree being a whitetail magnet. He has been in the nursery business since
1994 supplying hardwoods and in 2000 added fruit trees - especially certain varieties of pears. Jeane, an experienced hunter, knows whitetails and
their feeding habits and has discovered that certain types of pears are a reliable food source.
Over the years, he has propagated about 12 different varieties of pear trees, which are highly resistant to blight and produce good crops of
nutritional soft mast for white-tailed deer. Jeane produces the common Kieffer pears and the James tree, which was developed from an old farm in
central Alabama, to name a few. The tree farmer is working to keep pear trees thriving. Once farmland is sold and not traditionally managed, fruit
trees are usually forgotten.
Matt highly recommends the pear tree for landowners in the South and Southeast; whereas, apple trees fair better north of the Mason-Dixon line.
These pear trees can handle the heat and humidity and begin to produce fruit within just three to five years of planting. They handle drought fairly
well and need a soil pH in the range of 6 to 7. Pear trees are suitable for a wide range of soil types, as long as they have adequate drainage.
Unlike apple and other fruit trees, pear trees require less time to bear fruit with little pruning. Planting pear trees adjacent to clover food plots is
advisable. The nitrogen enriched soil helps to nourish the trees. You can also create funnels with the trees. Jeane advises planting pear trees in a
triangular fashion - an excellent set-up for bowhunting.
Planting different varieties of pear trees will consistently supply whitetails with food; and having diversity is especially important when there are
years of hard mast failures. Simply, if acorns aren't available, then whitetails will spend more time visiting plots and fruit trees. Even if the hard
mast is prolific, whitetails will still ravage plots of pears; and by alternating pear varieties, deer will always have available soft mast every year.
Pear trees are sensitive to fertilizer so caution is needed here. For those who perform prescribed burns, the trees possess soft bark and need to be
protected.
As mentioned above, deer are preferred browsers. Your newly planted trees will have to be protected or the whitetails can possibly damage or kill
the young trees. Tall wire cages will allow the trees to thrive and grow - eventually bearing delectable fruit on your property.
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