Roberto Ligresti
Roberto Ligresti

New Year’s Eve might be your client’s biggest night out planned for the year — she has her dress, her manicure, and her makeup appointment scheduled. It’s up to you to give her the finishing touch. We invited Ted Gibson and Jason Backe to showcase their own sexy holiday looks.

When Ted Gibson saw Kim Kardashian on the cover of Vogue this past April, it made him think more about what he does on a daily basis. “When a woman comes into a salon, she is not coming to get her hair done; she is coming in to feel sexy and beautiful,” Gibson says. “Her goal is to be the ‘ultimate.’ If we do not have the intention of making a client feel sexy, we are not doing our job.”

In response, Gibson and partner Backe have come up with a collection, translated here, called “Erotica.”

“It is an attitude,” Gibson says. “It’s hair, fashion, makeup. It is beauty from head to toe.”

Influenced by Bettie Page and Madonna, this trend is “very in-your-face,” Gibson says. “But it is still quite versatile and tasteful. It is couture and translated differently for each client.”

Hair: Ted Gibson and Jason Backe

Assisted by: Kitty Nadel, Eric Rosado, Jennifer Vanel, Devin Toth

Photography: Roberto Ligresti

Makeup: David Maderich for faceatelier.com

Fashion styling: Rod Novoa and Dennis Pinto

Nails: Joan Roberts

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