After months of being #underconstruction, the highly anticipated Wella Professionals studio in Toronto’s Liberty Village is now open! We attended the grand opening celebration on October 14-15 for a first look at the new space.
With more than 5,000 square-feet, the space is the new home of Wella’s education studio and the brand’s corporate offices. “We’ve been fighting for a studio like this for a number of years. I cannot even begin to express how much joy we have,” says Marianne Medeiros, Wella’s country manager for Canada. “It’s the people that will really bring this to life.”
To kick off the grand-opening event, Sassoon Toronto took the stage to showcase precision cutting and textured styling techniques, before presenting a range of five looks.
Some of the brand’s top stylists, including Antonio Quintieri, Paul Nasrallah, Emily Murphy and Gianpaolo Colombo, along with teams from Salon Gaboa, Salon Alessandro and Valvano Salon were also in attendance.
Complete with industrial and high-end finishes, Wella Studio T.O. also includes nods to some of its leaders, with replica Hollywood Walk of Fame stars for Francois Coty (founder of Wella’s parent company, Coty), John Sebastian (founder of Wella’s sister brand, Sebastian Professional) and, of course, Fabio Sementilli, the brand’s late vice-president of education who passed away in 2017. Among the attendees was Mirella Rota, Sementilli’s sister, who was brought to tears by the homage to her late brother.
It was also an emotional moment when Sal Mauceri, senior vice-president for Coty Professional Beauty took the stage as it was recently announced that he will be parting ways with the company after 15 years. “I fell so deeply in love with [the industry] and I tried to lead by example by showing my passion. People say this is a relationship business, but a lot of executives don’t get outside. And, for me, my fuel was always about getting outside and getting in front of our customers, our stylists, our educators, our sales reps,” says Mauceri. “It’s been an incredible journey for me.”
Wella educator Jean-Sebastien Tremblay provided a sneak peek of the brand’s new Koleston Perfect Me+, which will be launching early next year. On October 15, the studio hosted a look-and-learn class featuring Wella Studio TO manager, Fay Linksman, who demonstrated a Pure Glossing technique using the new colour line, while Paul Nasrallah showcased cutting techniques from his Advanced Creative Cutting class.
Wella Studio T.O. is the brand’s third studio in North America.
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