BOV style 2013: Moustache & Darling hair genuis Nicole Lefaivre's style bests

    1 of 1 2 of 1

      Damn, Nicole Lefaivre knows how to wear red lipstick. Possibly the coolest girl in the Gastown ’hood, she is also basically the Marie Curie of hair. Just ask the legions of artists, designers, and musicians who slip into her pocket-o’-charm salon, Moustache & Darling, on East Cordova, so she can work her genius on their locks.

      Actually, it’s more like gorgeous modern art that flows from the fingertips of the sweetly irreverent, mad-gifted, Vidal Sassoon–trained hairstylist (that’s right: London) and former co-owner of Barbarella Hair Saloon. She’d just had a martini at Six Acres when we talked (and another, at HousexGuest, right after)—then again, she pretty much always sounds like this.

      Describe your personal style, please: “Tomboy disco preppy punk old-man goth casual. My hair just wants to be from the ’70s, plus I’m, like, disco in my heart.” And your hairstylist credo? “I’m trying to make people leave my salon walking a foot taller. I’m trying to get people laid—how’s that?”

      Okey-dokey. On that note, here are Lefaivre’s Vancouver style bests. Hopefully, they’ll also help get you laid.

      Best style-addiction fix

      Tom Ford Narcotic Rouge lipstick at Holt Renfrew
      737 Dunsmuir Street

      “Then vodka martinis with a lemon twist. I really, really like the vodka martinis they make at Jules Bistro.” Uh, martinis are part of the beauty fix? “I just heard the word addiction and that was my answer.”

      Best hairstylist/salon other than you

      Barbarella
      3277 Main Street

      Clementine for Hair
      3015 Cambie Street

      Heartbreaker Salon
      629 Kingsway

      “Because I see their work and it’s good.”

      Coolest discovery ever

      Erin Templeton
      511 Carrall Street

      “She makes the best bags ever because she has invented a bag that has a secret pocket that fits a bottle of wine.”

      Best beauty mecca

      CurliQue Beauty Boutique
      410 Robson Street

      “Blanche Macdonald has a beauty-product store in their school and they’ve got good shit there: Oribe and Sachajuan for hair; Kevyn Aucoin, Eve Pearl, and Sappho cosmetics; and Darphin, Eminence Organics, and Jan Marini skincare.”

      Best vintage

      Community Thrift & Vintage
      (relocating, currently at the Frock Shoppe)
      311 Carrall Street

      Erin Templeton
      511 Carrall Street

      Duchesse Vintage and Such
      430 Columbia Street

      “They’ve got good pickers at Community. They go to the fucking huge dumps with everyone’s unwanted clothes and they pick out all the good ones. There’s no, like, Garfield Capricorn shirts there, you know what I mean?”

      Best place to see the beautiful boys and girls

      “My living room.”

      Best style by a local musician

      Johnny de Courcy

      “He does his hair himself now [Lefaivre used to style his trademark locks] and it looks like a woman’s wig. He just has a preternatural way. And his clothes are fascinating, ’cause he can still look hot in a dress.”

      Best style zone

      Main and Hastings

      “’Cause it’s like, hipster or homeless? It’s hard to know which one’s which. I actually really mean that. There’s a guy called Kelly who does drawings on the street and his style is amazing. Sometimes he does five costume changes in a day. Like, he will wear a woman’s silky robe, but with a bowler hat and army boots. Then, two minutes later, he’ll be wearing a pinstriped gangster suit with a green toque with safety pins all over it.”

      Best local designer

      Dace
      www.dace.ca/

      Mandula
      206 Carrall Street

      Hendrik Lou
      www.hendriklou.bigcartel.com/

      “Dace is classic Vancouver. She never fails. She’s a mainstay. And Mandula, I think, pushes the envelope. And I’m really into Hendrik Lou’s new knits.”

      Best splurge

      Signature Facial at Breathe Spa, with Victoria
      464 Granville Street

      “I’ve sent a million people there. It’s absolutely the best facial ever. You feel 10 pounds lighter, your skin glows for a week, and you just feel amazing.”

      Best jewellery designer

      Anna de Courcy

      “Anna de Courcy is strictly the only jewellery I wear. If there’s a guy out there who wants to get their girlfriend or wife a present, it’s a nonfail. Everybody wants a piece of Anna’s jewellery. She sources really beautiful little tassels and baubles and bits from France and London that are, like, from the 1800s, and she mixes them with her new versions of thicker, punkier chains.”

      Best new Hangout

      Don’t Argue Pizzeria
      3240 Main Street

      “It actually coincides with where to see beautiful people. They have a mashed-potato pizza. It’s good beauty advice because you go there and you get to look at what everyone’s wearing and listen to cool music and have nice wine and eat delicious things.”

      Best place to get naughty- or good-girl undies

      “I’m a hairdresser, not a stripper. Next question, please!”

      Comments

      1 Comments

      Marty

      Nov 26, 2013 at 2:40pm

      The fact that "hair genius" is used without the slightest trace of irony proves we live in absurd times. The energy spent on self-curating in this town is preposterous.
      I didn't get the Pidgin protests until I walked through that neighbourhood a couple of days ago. I'd be pissed, too, if I was surrounded by that many intensely self-involved, supremely spoiled, recreational consumers. Well done, hipster masses. Maybe if you spent half as much on making a positive fucking difference...