The Modern Day Salon Angela Keslar Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the ...

71 Pages·2013·0.3 MB·English

The Modern Day Salon
Angela Keslar
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Fibers
at
Savannah College of Art and Design
© May 2013 Angela Keslar

The author hereby grants SCAD permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and
electronic thesis copies of document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter
created.

Signature of Author and Date

Deborah First
Committee Chair sign here date

Lee Griffith
Committee Member sign here date

Scott Sinemus
Committee Member sign here date
The Modern Day Salon

A thesis submitted to the faculty of Fibers
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Fibers
Savannah College of Art and Design
By
Angela Keslar
Savannah, GA
May 2013
Table of Contents
Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
The Story Behind The Modern Day Salon ………………………………………………. 2-8
A Note on Culture As It Relates to Fibers ………………………………………………. 9
The Idea :: The Experience :: The Lifestyle :: The Recipe………………………………. 10-14
Table of Contents (for the actual cookbook) ……………………………………………. 15-20
Writing Sample (for the actual cookbook) ……………………………………………… 21-37
Marketing and Media Experience ……………………………………………………….. 38
Author Bio ……………………………………………………………………………….. 39-40
Author CV ……………………………………………………………………………….. 41-46
Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………… 47-48
Appendix (Business Plan and Branding Development) …………………………….......... 49-68
The Modern Day Salon
Angela Keslar
May 2013
This thesis paper comes in the form of an industry standard cookbook proposal. It is part
of the business plan (included in the Appendix) for The Modern Day Salon, a lifestyle brand that
I developed while studying Fibers. The concept of Fibers can be understood and expressed in
many different ways, including the unseen but omnipresent fabric of society. I see The Modern
Day Salon not only as a branded lifestyle but also as a cultural proposal that stands to affect the
texture of this fabric of society. The brand is inspired by the Parisian salons of the
Enlightenment, where food and conversation were cultural values. The guiding spirit behind The
Modern Day Salon is building relationships through the art of food and conversation. The
connection between Fibers and food may seem fuzzy, but it quickly becomes clear when food is
seen as a vibrant fiber in the fabric of culture. In addition, the culture of America is consumer
oriented, so it makes sense to attempt cultural change by offering products that are meaningful
and create relationships.

1
The Story Behind The Modern Day Salon
On 28 October 2009, I found myself standing in front of 30 Boulevard St. Jacques in the
14th arrondissement of Paris.
I was 36, newly divorced and feeling eager to end the perpetual mid-life crisis that had
plagued me since birth. In an attempt to give some meaning to my post-divorce lifestyle, I
enrolled in an M.F.A. program at an illustrious art & design school. They had a program in the
south of France, so I spent my first quarter surrounded by the language of love. That is how I
ended up in the 14th arrondissement of Paris on 28 October 2009.
At the time I did not realize it, but my life’s work was about to be revealed to me.
30 Boulevard St. Jacques houses the studio of world famous trend forecaster Li
Edelkoort. A self-proclaimed “archaeologist of the future” Edelkoort’s rarified vision holds the
key to many global markets. Her forecasts influence everything from fashion to automobiles.
My class was about to receive a coveted trend forecast from her team.
The presentation transformed me. Two things captivated my imagination.
First: market trends are not the only sort of trend. Culture experiences trends just as
markets do. Market trends last 2-5 years. Cultural trends, on the other hand, last 10-50 years.
Second: no corporation has branded an identity based on true well-being. Edelkoort did not
define true well-being, so it left me wandering around the courtyard of her imagination to pick
up the pieces.
After several days of journaling and soaking up the personality of Paris, a thought began
to percolate: The new economy will sell things that cannot be bought. I liked this idea and so
followed it up with the question: What kinds of things cannot be bought? The answer:
2
Relationships. Good relationships lead to happiness and a sense of belonging. In essence,
relationships create a sense of true well-being. Eureka!
With two helpings of history and a healthy dash of imagination, I filled in the gap with
The Modern Day Salon, a lifestyle brand inspired by the illustrious salons of 18th century Paris.
During the Enlightenment, salons were a place where a hostess gathered people of all social
classes around the campfire of good food and good conversation. What makes for good
conversation? Like Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “Great minds discuss ideas, average minds
discuss events and small minds discuss other people.” I personally find an 80/10/10 mix to be
the best. Of course you want to know what’s going on with the neighbor’s lawn boy! Just wrap
it up in some observations of the human condition and voilà, you have good conversation.
The next step was to think about the best way to get people excited for this new lifestyle.
I decided that a cookbook would be the best way to launch a conversation in the marketplace.
The food industry is flourishing, leaving people hungry for culinary inspiration. But our social
culture has gone online, leaving people hungry for authentic interactions. The Modern Day Salon
cookbook aims to bring people together, creating a culinary bridge between the tradition of
conversation and the culture of social media. Social media, while fascinating and addictive, is
more or less a cardboard cutout of the real deal. The cookbook is a lifestyle primer, an inspiring
guide that brings the “cardboard cutout” alive. It shows you how to go about planning your guest
list, the key to the experience. I see the first book as both a franchise and a cornerstone of The
Modern Day Salon brand. By showcasing actual salons and telling their stories in photographs,
the cookbook will inspire the reader to experiment with this old/new/fresh lifestyle. The spirit of
this lifestyle comes alive only when it is experienced, so the photographs will be taken with this
3
idea in mind. Along with photographs illustrating the salon experience, the chapters will contain
menus, a salon primer, rules of civility, and the art of conversation.
I see The Modern Day Salon as part of an emerging cultural trend toward authenticity.
Why is authenticity so alluring to so many people? It has the unique ability to make the human
spirit feel rich. How does authenticity make the human spirit feel rich? It usually exudes three
qualities: fun, romance and quiet sophistication. These are the exact qualities of the salon
lifestyle. Having money and being rich aren’t necessarily the same things. I like to frame it this
way: Whereas brands like Louis Vuitton lead people to think you have money; brands like The
Modern Day Salon let people know you are rich. There is a difference between having money
and being rich. Money is a material possession devoid of meaning unless you use it in a
meaningful way. Rich is a state of mind, a dynamic feeling. Pursuing money is an ordinary
endeavor; cultivating riches is an extraordinary endeavor.
This idea of bringing people together over food and conversation is not new, but this is an
advantage. Neither coffee nor coffeehouses were new, but Starbucks built an empire out of both
and has become part of the cultural landscape.
My favorite salon was held in Washington, D.C. It was fun, romantic and quietly
sophisticated. The host, F. Gray Shealy, followed The Modern Day Salon formula for creating a
successful guest list: he invited good friends and peppered the list with people he had been
meaning to get to know better. Then, he asked his best friend, Perrine Punwani, if she knew of
any people who would be interested and interesting. We had quite a cast of characters from
different political, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Here is a quote from Perrine about
her experience:
4
“Loved it. Just got off the phone with my Dad about this. He was totally intrigued. I don't
think I understood the salon until I experienced it (emphasis mine). While we ate the 10 courses,
we had normal superficial dinner conversation, but I think the salon truly began when we were
all sitting together and Chris and Angela started throwing out their thoughtful questions. I
believe the conversation grew more interesting when we started to float into the more "taboo"
topics and experienced real dissent of opinions. The salon allowed us to examine our views of
culture and view the distinctions between our thoughts and our pre-conceptions about what
others thought. We need to do it again... Let's start doing these monthly at different people's
homes adding to and changing the group composition regularly.”
Ironically, Facebook has prepared us quite well for the concept of The Modern Day
Salon. Facebook loves to recommend friends of friends and so on and so on. We easily friend
them if they peak our interest. This concept is key to the Salon lifestyle. But there is something
missing. I like Facebook’s idea of instant friends at a click, but it can leave me feeling empty
and sad. I am not alone.
In fact, I am in good company. The late New York billionaire Theodore J. Forstmann saw
great value in the salon lifestyle. He left an enduring legacy with his annual Forstmann Little &
Company Conference in Aspen, Colorado. Mehmet Oz, one of his close friends, said: “In a way,
it was his greatest talent. He created a party around ideas. I guess Teddy was the modern-day
equivalent of the folks who hosted salons in Paris in the 1920s.” Elizabeth Lack, whose husband
runs Bloomberg Television and who helped to organize the conference, said: “He loved bringing
together people who were smart and influential and diverse for a weekend of intelligent
discussion and fun…He always said—which was true—that unlike other conferences, there was
no agenda, no business purpose…And over the years, all these people entered Teddy’s orbit,
5
kept coming year after year and were much the better for it.” (The Daily Beast, November 21,
2011)
Sherry Turkle, a psychologist and professor at M.I.T., calls herself a “partisan for
conversation.” In “Flight from Conversation” (New York Times, April 21, 2012), she talks about
the need for a culture of conversation. She acknowledges that digital culture has a place in
established friendships and relationships, but says: “No matter how valuable, they do not
substitute for conversation.” She declares: “Human relationships are rich.” I liked seeing this in
print in one of the most highly respected newspapers in the world, stated by a woman who is top
in her field. Human relationships cannot be bought, but they can make you rich. No amount of
canary diamonds can fill the space of a good friend or a friendly conversation. During her TED
Talk, Ms. Turkle told the story of being on The Colbert Report. “I was caught off guard when
Stephen Colbert asked me a profound question… He said: ‘Don’t all those little tweets, all those
little sips of online communication, add up to one big gulp of real conversation?’ My answer
was ‘No’.” She said that texts and tweets are fine for established relationships, but that they
would never help us to get to know someone.
In a November 28, 2012, The New York Times ran another article that shared a common
thread with Ms. Turkle’s. “Guess Who Isn’t Coming to Dinner” highlights the success of
Sunday Suppers, a Brooklyn based business built on the art of gathering people around food and
conversation for the pure enjoyment of it, as opposed to social climbing. According to the
owner, Karen Mordechi: “The point of Sunday Suppers was not originally to turn dinner parties
into business… ‘I photographed our first one and posted it to a blog. Suddenly we were getting
e-mails from strangers and people from all over who, I guess, wanted that old-school dinner-
6
party feel.’” The $150 reservations sell out as soon as they are posted to the website. “It’s
basically about making friends and hanging out,” Ms. Mordechi said. “And eating good food.”
There is also evidence of this trend in high art. Tino Sehgal, dubbed “The Question
Artist” by Lauren Collins in The New Yorker (August 6, 2012), uses conversational techniques to
create intimacy among strangers. According to Collins, his piece at the Guggenheim, “was
exhilarating.” Sehgal’s work is being featured at Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (March
19- April 28, 2013). The press release from e-flux reads: “This situation, 2007, a piece newly
acquired by the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in its bilingual (French/English) edition is
evocative of a contemporary salon. Drawing from quotations selected by Sehgal from 500 years
of thought, the players discuss among themselves and with visitors such issues as the aesthetics
of existence and the implications of moving from a society of lack to one of abundance.”
Admittedly, Sehgal’s work is lofty but so is Alexander McQueen’s, whose runway work
eventually ignites trends in the mass market. Trends generally begin at the level of high culture
before filtering down to the mainstream.
It’s been 3 years since I sat in Paris at Studio Edelkoort listening to that fateful trend
forecast. During that time, the sleeping beauty of the salon has stirred in the imagination of our
culture. The salon of Gertrude Stein has inspired 3 exhibitions at 6 major museums: The Steins
Collect: Matisse, Picasso and the Parisian Avant-Garde (San Fransisco Museum of Modern
Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais);
Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories (National Portrait Gallery and Contemporary Jewish
Museum); The Stein Family at the Grand Palais in Paris. In addition, Woody Allen won an
academy award for best screenplay portraying Stein’s salon in Midnight in Paris. People are
7