Paris is synonymous with style and luxury, tracing all the way back to the fashionable court of Louis XIV, and during Fashion Week, the city showcases its reputation as a world fashion capital.
The first recognized Paris Fashion Week was held in October 1973, organized by the Fédération Française de la Couture. Both American and Parisian designers attended the event, including Anne Klein, Bill Blass, Stephen Burrows, Oscar de la Renta, Hubert de Givenchy, and Yves Saint Laurent.
Back then there were few, if any, Black designers, and certainly no Black folks in the support positions of hair and makeup, but that has changed dramatically. One thing that hasn’t changed: Paris fashion week is still by invitation only! So how does one get invited to Paris Fashion Week? Hairstylist and Roxbury native Aleah Harrison got one of the coveted invites this year, and life has not been the same since! But let’s take a step back to the beginning.
Harrison always loved all types of art. As a child, she was a dancer, but by high school, advanced dance lessons were very expensive. By then, she had started doing the hair of her friends and family. As a teenager, the money was quite good.
She made the decision to go to school to get her cosmetology license. Massachusetts has long been on the radar for great cosmetology training, thanks to legends like Olive Benson.
“Olive Benson, she was somebody that I wanted to work for. I would drive by her salon and was too nervous to go in there, but if you are talking hair and you are from Massachusetts, you have to mention Olive Benson,” says Harrison.
Harrison eventually established herself at a salon in Newton, where she learned to do all types of hair and grooming, something that would serve her well. It was at this salon where one of Harrison’s clients asked her if she was interested in working on film sets as a hairstylist. This client was an actor and was lamenting on how there were never any good stylists for Black people, and how most of the time that actors of color ended up wearing horrible-looking wigs.
Harrison shared her contact information with the client, and Northern Lights called her to work on its Frederick Douglass documentary. Then she got the call to work on the Ellen Garrison story, all the while creating her magic using the actors’ real hair, not wigs.
Harrison’s reputation started growing as the one who can do everything, and fast. Harrison says meeting all the younger folks on these movie sets was an eye-opener, and after helping one of her colleagues out, the hair and makeup department leads suggested that Harrison would be great on their team for New York Fashion Week. But what Harrison didn’t know at the time was that the team really needed her in Paris.
When her ticket and arrangements arrived, she said, laughing, “I couldn’t read it! I’m like, where in New York is Charles de Gaulle Airport?” She called the team leader, who explained that they were taking her to Paris, not New York. For Harrison, this was beyond a dream come true! It was everything she imagined, she says. She hit the ground running. Upon arrival, she jumped right into the organized chaos that is Paris Fashion Week! She was creating “crazy beautiful” avant-garde hairstyles, the kind of stuff she had dreamed of but never thought she would get an opportunity to do. At this moment, Harrison says, she knew her hard work had paid off.
This mother of two is now on the list to participate as a hairstylist for Milan Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week and, yes – back to Paris for next year!
Harrison has advice to all the young stylists with big dreams.
“People get so comfortable at what they know, they don’t elevate themselves to learn anything else. Make sure you are well-rounded. No matter what school you attend, don’t limit yourself to just doing Black hair. You don’t have to be great at everything, but you do need to be able to do everything!”
She shared another important point: “When you are starting out, just because you’re not paid cash on a job, it doesn’t mean you aren’t being paid. The favor I did got me to Paris Fashion week, and as they say, ‘The rest is herstory.’”
