I am absolutely loving this haircare line
http://www.number4hair.com/ - not only is it paraben free and with no animal testing but it was created by the clothing designer Juan Carlo Obando....who is based here in LA!!!!
The fashion industry is now in the midst of its own extreme makeover. Younger designers are taking the lead in finding new ways of doing business that can sustain the dream.Juan Carlos Obando is relying on shampoo.Obando is a Los Angeles-based, self-taught designer who learned his craft by deconstructing exemplary frocks by Azzedine Alaia and Chanel that he purchased at Decades, a vintage couture boutique in Los Angeles that supplies red-carpet dresses to celebrities. Obando came to the fashion industry by way of advertising, where he developed a reputation as "the car guy," with campaigns for companies such as Toyota. He launched his collection four years ago, and on Fashion's Night Out, he will be giving salsa lessons at
Barneys New York.Obando's work is not based on trends but rather his own quirky, somewhat indulgent sensibility. For his fall collection, for instance, he created airbrushed white chiffon dresses that were hand-pleated and steamed, creating the illusion of a finely etched shell. It took three days to pin the fabric into place and four days to sew it. Obando has cut the production time from a week to three days, and the dresses are priced at $9,000. "I refused to let these dresses go above $10,000," Obando says with obvious pride, for merely staying within a budget that's comparable to the gross national income per capita in quite a few countries.Obando, 32, is a tall man with a charming manner, a medium build and dark hair. His laugh is more like a giggle, and that, along with his ability to describe a suit that sells for $1,500 as being at entry-level pricing, belies the fact that he is a savvy and serious businessman.The designer works out of a 2,100-square-foot former soap factory in Silver Lake. He has four retail accounts and one of them is Barneys, to whom he delivered 21 pieces for fall. He has five employees, and everyone gets paid. (Small design houses often survive on the kind of free labor that would make the Teamsters riot.)The clothing line, Obando says, "is 100 percent financed by hair care." Consumers, it seems, are more inclined to buy fancy shampoo than fancy frocks.He launched Number 4 hair care during his spring '09 show. "I built Number 4 to be high-end," he says.
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