It is the 3 year anniversary of my trip to Italy for the World Wide Hair Tour and the opening of The Davines Village in Parma, Italy. The event hosted 3,500 industry professionals coming from 80 countries over 3 days. I am so grateful that I was able to travel with my fellow hairdressers before our lives and work were put on hold. We have all missed out on sooooo many things during this extended closure and looking back on this trip helps me look forward to travelling and celebrating the hairdressing industry again.
The Davines Village is the realization of the brand’s core value: sustainable beauty. Built on almost 83,000 square feet and surrounded by the “Green Kilometre,” a strip of trees and plants that protect the area from traveling emissions from the highway. About 20% of the Village houses the complex where the brand operates: Research and Development laboratory, offices and training spaces, production plant, warehouse and a large central greenhouse used as a restaurant and co-working area. The other 80% is dedicated to green spaces including several types of gardens where researchers investigate the properties of plants, new essences and ingredients. I am proud to say that one of the lavender plants was brought by me! All of the attendees were given a plant and walked it over from the auditorium down the street to the garden to be planted, you can see a summary in this video.
I was lucky to travel with many hairdressers from Ontario and thanks to our distributor, Metro Beaty Supply, we were treated to extra days of Italian culture visiting Verona and Milan on our way to Parma. The company, food wine were absolutely amazing! In Parma we attended parties, a gala dinner with a surprise opera performance and of course watched amazing artists preform hair on stage. We were also given an art gallery tour by the curator of “The Third Day” art exhibition that put together 40 international artists and 115 works and installations illustrating the relation between art and nature. A night street festival had live music and dance performances along the historical streets of Parma. You can see lots more on our Instagram Story hi-lights. As you can imagine it was beautiful, inspirational and delicious! As much as I miss doing hair, I also miss my Metro and Davines family.
The stage hosted top international artists who have been part of the Davines family from the very beginning including Tim Hartley, Anna Pacitto, James Abu-Ulba, Sal Misseri, Brian Suhr & Kirsten Demant, the Allilon team and Angelo Seminara. Unfortunately I did not have a great view in the packed auditorium so most of my photos are of screens, above gives you an idea of the work on display.
I cannot wait to reconnect with the international Davines community and celebrate our industry, we need to so much more now!