It’s a weekday afternoon in Olivier Salon & Spa, and nobody is in a hurry.
Several customers sip beverages as they get styled or colored. In one corner sits the display case of fine jewelry – because obviously, sometimes a pleasant afternoon at the hair salon just needs to be accentuated with diamonds. On display cases near the front sit a variety of products from Balmain of Paris; Stephane “Olivier” Manoury and his staff are all Balmain-certified, a process evident through the tasteful diplomas the famed Parisian hair product company gives out to hair professionals who complete its classes in, well, how to properly use Balmain products. On another shelf sit the hair and skin products of Orianne Collins, Phil Collins’ ex-wife; Manoury will be dining with her and her son later tonight, he says.
Against one wall sits a sleek selfie station, equipped with camera, monitor and buttons you can press to share a satisfactory photo straight to the social media platform of your choice. (With his partner, Manoury is also in the nightclub business; these are hugely popular there, he says.) Spa rooms are towards the back.
If none of this sounds like the recipe for a budget hair styling or dye job, you are correct. The Parisian, who divides his time between Fort Lauderdale and New York, happily admits that if you want the services of his salon, you’re going to pay for it.
But of course, you’re going to get the sort of experience that film stars, models and even Kennedys also pay for.
“We work,” Manoury says, “to make people a superstar.”
Manoury began his career in Paris; after brief stops there and in Mexico, he then truly made his name in New York. Famous clients have included Sigourney Weaver, Sting and Trudie Styler, some of the Kennedys – let’s just say there’s a list. With his partner of more than two decades, Edward Lafaye, he’s also in the club and restaurant business. They are co-owners of Lips, the drag dining club with locations in Wilton Manors, New York, Chicago, Atlanta and San Diego. And whisper it, but they’re now scouting locations for a new club. Manoury describes the concept as S&M but classy, like cabaret.
So business wasn’t exactly bad. But four years ago, Manoury decided he needed another salon to compliment his New York business.
“I thought, Fort Lauderdale is booming right now,” he says. “This is the place to be.”
Four years later, it’s not a decision he regrets. He’s now stepped back from hair himself, preferring to focus on big-picture business management while bringing in a team of experienced pros to do the work.
“I like to run the show and do events,” he says. “I push everyone to be on top of everything. We try to be number one in every detail.”
He also enjoys getting to know his new community. When he says he loves events, he means it – he’s now trying to get back into the pre-COVID world of hosted charity events that became a staple of the business’s first couple years in Fort Lauderdale. He’s also looking to bring back a group he loved working with before, Wilton Manors-based charity Kids in Distress. For several days around Christmas, he’s had the salon swarming with 40 kids at a time, getting presents and visiting with Santa (Manoury’s partner in a Santa suit). He missed that, and wants to bring it back this year.
First though, business calls. He’s looking at potential locations for the new club, then getting on a plane to New York, which is still really home. Not that you’d necessarily know that from a weekday afternoon when nobody wants to leave the salon in Fort Lauderdale.
