High above Fifth Avenue, in an enormous beauty salon designed like a Venetian palazzo, a Cuban-born charmer with the face of a movie star and the body of a steelworker is fast becoming the hottest hairdresser in America.
He goes only by his first name, Oribe (pronounced OR-BAY), and women wait up to a year to pay him $250 to cut their hair. His high-profile clients include super-models Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista, actresses Demi Moore and Meryl Streep and tennis champion Monica Seles.Oribe opened his $2 million salon at Elizabeth Arden this month. Everything, from the tiny bows on the soft pink-lit rococo mirrors, to the elaborate fresco behind the reception desk, was designed by Oribe and his close friend, a designer who died just before the 10th-floor salon opened.
"We wanted to get rid of the unisex idea and bring back the salons of the 1940s where women could go and really feel glamorous and beautiful," Oribe said in between appointments this week.
Given the sumptuous surroundings and impressive clientele, one would expect the proprietor to adopt airs as well. But Oribe, whose parents fled Havana when he was 6 and moved to Charlotte, N.C., is as pretentious as a plumber.
He dropped out of high school and quit beauty school three times before graduating. He came to New York to be an actor but found work at several salons instead. Oribe's big break came a few years ago when he cut the hair of GQ magazine models.
"I look around sometimes and think, here I am on Fifth Avenue, at Arden," said Oribe, who shed his last name, Canales, as he gained fame. "But I'm still the same person. I'm not even sure how I got here. I'm ambitious, but a lot of it was timing and luck too."
More than luck has rocketed the 35-year-old stylist past such rivals as Kenneth, long THE stylist for older New York society like Jacqueline Onassis, and Frederic Fek-kai, who works at Bergdorf Goodman down the street.
Oribe builds loyalty by tailoring each style to the client - scorning what he calls "factory" cuts - and spending as much time as it takes to get the look just right. His personal manner also helps.
He's warm and flirtatious, but keeps a slight distance - a mix that works well with high-maintenance types such as Evangelista, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell, the modeling trio that Evangelista once said "won't wake up for less than $10,000 a day."
"They're nice girls but they can be tough on people," he said.
Oribe recalled one fashion show in Milan, Italy, where Evangelista became incensed that Oribe had given a lesser model a cut like hers. She put her head under the faucet and threatened to soak it unless Oribe gave the other model a different style. He did.
"Linda's obsessed with herself," Oribe said pleasantly. "Christy doesn't care that much at all. She has this incredible face and she doesn't really care. Naomi can be tough too. But I've known these girls since they were babies. They only give you a hard time if they don't know you well."
Oribe appears equally at ease with lesser-known clients.
After Seles left Tuesday, Oribe greeted a less famous but equally wealthy woman with a smile that could melt brick, then ran his fingers through her long hair.
"I try to find the sexual aspect of their hair - and their personality," said Oribe. "I think Movie Star always."