Salon Identité: where aesthetics, politics and authenticity meet.
More : Hairstyle, Montréal, Salon Identité
by Claudia Bourgon
on November 18, 2010
If you walk past fast enough, you might miss it. Tucked into a tiny 252 square foot storefront on avenue des Pins Ouest at Hôtel-de-Ville, Salon Identité is a mini-wonder of modern minimalism and baroque panache that proves the old adage that good things really do come in small packages.
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Opened this past September by stylist Julie Matson, Identité is a new brand of salon, one that refuses the paradigm of giant, chaotic gossip factories where clients feel like they are on an assembly line. Instead, Identité aims to recreate the feeling of getting a living room haircut from a good friend (albeit a friend with viciously good taste for interior design). The space has only 3 chairs and employs two hairstylists, Matson and Dave Landry (of three time Best of Montreal #1 hairstylist fame).Matson, a queer activist and artist who transplanted to Montréal from Vancouver a year ago, chose to name her salon Identité to reference both gender/sexuality and her mission to have her clients “express visually how they see themselves on the inside.” Putting politics into practice, Identité’s pricing scale is genderless, a policy that makes the salon more welcoming to trans folk and acknowledges the irony that though men statistically make more money than women, they generally pay less for cuts that require just as much skill.
Matson is a miracle worker who specializes in precision cutting that works with each individual’s natural hair texture, giving cuts that grow in thoughtfully, almost inspiring a person to think that she can predict the future. Matson has travelled extensively, teaching cutting and styling for the Spanish company Lakme in countries such as Thailand, Taiwan, China, Spain and Sweden (to name a few).
Landry, perhaps the prince of the asymmetrical haircut, describes his style as focusing on “lesbian rocker haircuts for men and women.” Trained in New York, Landry has built himself a reputation in Montreal as a an off the wall and high energy character who’s impeccable taste and hospitality draw clients to him like moths to a flame.
Landry and Matson met while working at Helmet Salon where their first connection was “music, feminist thought and gay things…. like Liza Minelli and cats.” As a pair of politically minded, artsy music nerds, they both approach their trade untraditionally, dreaming of a salon environment where they could “talk to clients about all the things that they teach you not to talk about in hair school,” such as politics and your personal life. Both describe Identité as a “queer clubhouse” where their long term clients develop meaningful relationships with their stylist, taking their appointments as opportunities to share stories, have major personal and aesthetic transformations and be exposed to new art, music and ideas.
So if you’re in the market to find out about the latest obscure music sensation, read the new prisoner correspondence project newsletter or get the best haircut of your life, make sure to plan ahead! Salon Identité is open Tuesday to Saturday but is by appointment only.
Salon Identité
165 Ave Des Pins Est, 514-777-1277
165 Ave Des Pins Est, 514-777-1277
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