Wella Announces the Finalists of Wella Trend Vision Awards
This year’s awards centered around the Monochromatic trend, which is rooted in minimalism and intentional by design.
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Choose Beauty: Nathan Rosenkranz
Today, Rosenkranz is the fashion director at the renowned Patrick McIvor Color Studio in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a winner of the Matrix Mannequin Mania contest, an accomplished platform artist, a frequent backstage talent at NYC’s Fashion Week (Betsey Johnson, Diane Von Furstenberg, Tadashi Shoji) and a respected cutting and styling specialist who frequently shares beauty tips on WFMZ’s Channel 69 News segments. Did we mention he’s still under 40?
July 11, 2011
3 min to read
Working more
than 60 shows
at New York
Fashion Week,
Nathan Rosenkranz
learned
to style the hair
during simultaneous
make-up
application.
Rosenkranz's winning
mannequin, "Ava" in
Matrix's Mannequin
Mania contest.
Rosenkranz Confidential
Past Life: Sang backup for a Nine-Inch-Nails-style industrial band called Silence.txt.
Flash Forward: "My goal is to create an empire."
Easy Rider: A motorcycle aficionado, he's also been a snowboarder for 20 years.
The Mix: Even in his reading material, Rosenkranz loves mash-ups, like Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, which "combines fact and fiction."
Tattoos: career killer? Nathan Rosenkranz proves talent trumps tats.
As part of their dress code,
some salons ban tattoos or
require they stay hidden
until a stylist is "established." But
Nathan Rosenkranz came to terms
with 'tudes about tats long before he
entered the profession-back when
his mother gave him his Christmas
cash with a note that read: "Not for
tattoos."
"She was worried about how people
would perceive me," says Rosenkranz.
Well, Mom can relax: Today, Rosenkranz
is the fashion director at the renowned
Patrick McIvor Color Studio in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a winner of
the Matrix Mannequin Mania contest,
an accomplished platform artist, a frequent
backstage talent at NYC's Fashion
Week (Betsey Johnson, Diane Von Furstenberg,
Tadashi Shoji) and a respected
cutting and styling specialist who frequently
shares beauty tips on WFMZ's
Channel 69 News segments. Did we
mention he's still under 40?
Mentors Matter
Rosenkranz grew up in Southwest Philly
where his extended Irish Catholic family
socialized him fast. He tried architecture
in college and liked the art part-
the math, not so much. So he chose
beauty and post-graduation got a gig at
Calista Grand Salon, where owner Sheri
Cowan inspired him to excel.
"She's my personal hero," says
Rosenkranz, "She always said, ‘In 10
years, you'll teach me.'"
Eventually, he was recruited by McIvor. When he told McIvor he was going
to enter and win the Matrix Mannequin
Mania's Friends and Family category,
he created a revealing three-step plan
for success:
1. He had four months to enter, so he
studied what other entrants did for
the first three. Few did fingerwaves,
so he knew they would make his entry
stand out.
2. To go above and beyond, he used 41
wefts and fitted them to the head for
layers of fingerwaves. (Most entrants
used mannequin heads with implanted
hair.)
3. Stepping it up, he used a full-body
mannequin and enlisted friends (a
photographer and one with great
fashion sense) to help with his shoot.
For his semi-final and category wins,
he won a total of $26,000, a portion of
which he spent on an engagement ring for
his girlfriend, which he presented in Paris.
Idio-Synchronicity
For the artistic individual, meaningful
coincidences can get downright idiosyncratic.
Recently, Rozenkranz's mother,
who has long realized that people like
him for who he is, tattoos and all, announced
that at the age of 68, she'd like
to try a tat herself.
Maybe it's not so surprising she wants
to "own it," since that's her son's mantra.
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