Throw back Thursdays: The Real Fashionista's of Atlanta...

If reality shows were as popular in the late 90's early 2000s, I would have the top grossing hit show with two of my dearest and wackiest clients. One from NYC, and one born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia both being as proud as ever to tell it. 

Joan Dressler, was mistaken as a witch doctor, fortune teller, and circus conductor pretty much everyday. She came to get her hair and make up done twice a week, Tues. & Fri with Rod Lawson and myself, in which she wouldn't wash her face or change her hair until her next visit. She wore all black everyday, labels you didn't even know existed like, Yohji Yamamoto, Marithe & Francois Girbaud, Issey Miyake and Vivienne Westwood. It gave me such joy to see high fashion worn as everyday attire. Rod and I were pushed to make the hair and make up just as couture, I truly think my abilities to create fascinating make up came from doing Joan twice a week for 3 years or more. She would allow me to shave her eyebrows off to get an authentic geisha look, including the Kabuki white face, and Rod would create head pieces with such architectural appeal, you couldn't figure how it stayed on her head. When Joan left us and moved to North Carolina and in her own words to become "Ordinary" for her children and grandchildren, Rod and I morned for a long time. We are still looking for our next Joan, of course there will never be another!

Wight Crawford, was the epitome of the southern bell. She came in every week for a blowout and make up, with a mint julep sterling silver cup (filled with Gin, instead of bourbon). She once was a model and was so transformable that she could look like Elizabeth Taylor or Marilyn Monroe just by changing her hair. Her father lived well into his hundreds, I think... and like a southern little girl, she called him "Daddy." I would get so excited to try new versions of red lipstick on her, she only wore red lipstick. As she aged and with the torment that models hair go through for their careers, she had about six strands of hair left, but Rod would create a mound of hair with some hairspray and rollers.

If only there was a camera that would have followed these two ladies around Atlanta, it would not only been great TV they would have taught ladies a thing or two about dressing up just because you're a women and it makes you memorable....Nobody remembers or cares about a women in her workout clothes.

Joan is on the far right...

Wight Crawford