- Luxury Brands
- History of Oribe and GPS
- By: Gary P. Gemma
Gary Patrick Salon carries Luxury Brands professional hair care products that cater to every hair type. GPS is proud to provide our clients with quality product that promotes healthy beautiful hair.
I met Oribe over fifteen years ago, when he was introducing his first palmade line in San Francisco. We met backstage and hit it off immediately. At the time, Oribe was doing editorial hair styling for Elle Magazine USA, and I had considered taking my career down that path as well. It was an exciting time for me, both personally and professionally. I had just welcomed my first beautiful little girl into the world, I was preparing to open my San Francisco location, and I was flirting with a possible career change. As a new friend and as an expert in the editorial world, Oribe gave me some sage advice. He said if I wanted to be part of my daughter’s life, editorial styling is not the direction you would want to take your career. Instead, he suggested a joint venture and proposed that we open a barbershop style salon in San Francisco. It was an idea that had a great deal of potential, but life got in the way as it sometimes does, and the project remains an unexplored opportunity.
Throughout the years, Oribe and I have stayed very close. I spent time with him at his New York Salon on 5th Avenue, which was located above Elizabeth Arden. There I met most of his top stylists and enriched my styling repertoire with many of his signature techniques. Even during Oribe’s hectic schedule and his constant travel, I was always able to stay in contact with him through Omar, who was his business partner at the time. I was fortunate enough to attend the opening of his first salon in Miami. While I was there, I hung out at the News Café, which is one of Miami’s well-known hot spots and a hub for Oribe’s staff, fashion models, and locals alike. News Café also stocked its shelves with Oribe’s first line of palmades.
I have come to hold Oribe’s opinion in the highest regard. As a matter of fact, the only tattoo I have is by the recommendation of Oribe and Omar, done by Sean Vasquez— a world renowned tattoo artist, whose list of clients include the likes of Brittany Spears and Howard Stern.
The twenty years I’ve spent in this industry have provided me with a unique understanding of business, but more importantly, they have taught me the value of relationships. When I learned Oribe was introducing a new product line, it was the relationship I had cultivated over the years with him along with other industry leaders, such as Daniel Kaner and Tev Finger, that inspired me to unite with his new line.
For thirteen years Gary Patrick Salon has been committed to a product line that had originally shared the same characteristics and vision of salon culture and image. Throughout the relationship, I have created an identity incorporating the like-mindedness, vision, and direction of this other line. Although there is an advantage to such an alliance, the foundation shifts when product lines change direction and lose their relationships with their network.
In the future, Gary Patrick Salon will never base their sole identity and define its culture on another product line. Gary Patrick Salon has chosen to associate with individuals and companies, whom I have cultivated and established relationships with and that company is now Oribe.
