It’s all About BEAUTY!
Septuagenarian Jerry Gordon to be featured in international documentary on beauty experts
Karen Gordon, a member of the board of directors of Cosmetologists Chicago, which is the largest association of licensed beauty salon professionals in the country, just returned from Italy. She was joined there by Allyson Tinberg (who received a scholarship from Margaret Vinci Heldt, inventor of the iconic Beehive hairdo!) and Sylvia Kawa, both of whom are also members of Cosmetologists Chicago and were awarded Presidents Scholarship Awards to attend the Artego Academy in Rome. The threesome interacted with hairdressers from around the world as they did hands-on hair cut and color training. They have returned to the Lincoln Park J.Gordon Designs Salon with the latest in international trends just in time to help Lincoln Park ladies look their most fashionable for Fall 2013.
Jamie Carroll-- an internationally recognized salon owner from Sydney, Australia-- recently came to Chicago to film a documentary about Lincoln Park resident Jerry Gordon, Past President of Cosmetologists Chicago and America's Beauty Show. He is the owner of J. Gordon Designs, an award-winning salon in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Jamie will take an in-depth look into how growing up in Chicago influenced Jerry's life and career. He will capture many of the fascinating stories that Jerry has to tell, and record many of the uncensored "Jerry-isms" that so many people have come to love.
Though young-at-heart, Jerry Gordon has been in the beauty business for over his 50 years, thirty-five years as owner of his Chicago salon. As the third generation (with his son and daughter as the 4th) in the beauty business, Gordon says he loves what he does, “more today than when I was young.” To Gordon, “It was like growing up in show business. I was already there. My grandmother was a wigmaker, my mother a cosmetologist who loved her work. I was lucky to have a lot of freedom to travel and study with masters all over the world.”
Retirement is “not in my lexicon. I don't understand why people retire unless they're in poor health or unless they hate what they do. I love what I do. I have great clients, amazing women who are a pleasure to be with, great workers-- teaching them is my responsibility, to be a master craftsman.”
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Part of that aptitude, Gordon believes, lies in keeping one's eyes open; “constantly investing in one's career is how to grow, like seeds. You need seed and fertilizer to grow -- you need to keep growing aesthetically and intellectually, go to museums, observe how fashion changes, how looks change.” In learning the profession, he advises, “Look for people who make you say 'my, that's beautiful,' learn from people who are better than you are-- that's growth.”
Gordon is most proud of his son and daughter. Tony Gordon started with his father. “After eleven years, he had an opportunity to buy an existing salon, which I recommended he do, and it's a big success.” His daughter, Katherine Gordon, “is a theatrical artist who does hair work for period and modern films, from I Walk The Line to Ocean’s Eleven and others. She learned how to do hair for opera at the San Francisco Opera, and was at NBC in New York on the Today Show and Saturday Night Live for fourteen years; then she went to Hollywood, and she's done very, very well.”
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Jerry Gordon is a man who loves life and has lived a great one; the documentary film is bound to be fascinating. Concludes Jerry, “Fashion, style, music, the arts -- these things should be fun, give a sense of joy. And joy is exciting. I want to do everything in a state of excellence as long as possible.”
It’s a beautiful life for Karen and Jerry Gordon.
