Andrew and Liz Collinge: There’s something unique about Liverpool

Jun 12 2008 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

Emma Johnson talks to the husband and wife team behind the famous Andrew Collinge brand

IT IS a busy time right now for husband and wife style team Andrew and Liz Collinge. Fresh from teasing the tresses at the Royal wedding of Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly, the pair just wowed industry insiders with a stunning hair and fashion show in London, and next week they will be leading the way as principal supporters of the first Design Show Liverpool.

Covering everything from fashion design to homewares and interiors, the Design Show, which takes place from June 19-22 at the Contemporary Urban centre, on Greenland Street, will feature more than 150 exhibitors from far and wide.

“This is a new venture for Liverpool,” says make-up artist and cosmetic supremo Liz, 51.

“The Biennial has been a fantastic success and this will hopefully be to design what the Biennial has been to art. It covers all different aspects of design and it should attract lots of different people.”

Although Andrew and Liz, and their creative team of stylists plucked from across their 10 salons, will be providing looks across the four days, Friday night will be their opportunity to show why the Collinge name is still a byword for elegance, 56 years since Andrew’s father, Peter, opened his first Liverpool salon and almost 100 years since his grandfather took up the scissors.

Their showpiece is likely to be inspired by their recent trip down to Earls Court where they opened the prestigious L’Oreal Hair Trophy event with a hair show featuring fashions from rising Liverpool designer Kirsty Doyle.

“They have been asking us to do something for a couple of years,” says Andrew, who became one of the UK’s first celebrity hairdressers after being asked to appear on daytime TV show This Morning, in the late 80s.

“We realised that this was a great shop window opportunity for us to do something special for this our culture year, in London.”

To that effect the show, which featured music from The Beatles to The Zutons and The Wombats, was a whirl of retro-inspired geometric styles with plenty of Liverpool touches.

Keeping his hometown in the spotlight has long been a key theme for two-time British Hairdresser of the Year Andrew, whose father pioneered the blow-dry in the 60s, causing queues around the block for his Lime Street salon.

Andrew and his one-time hair model Liz, whom he married in 1980, opened their first hair and beauty salon in Heswall in 1985, and four years ago launched the flagship Andrew Collinge salon in a former bank on Liverpool’s Castle Street.

“It is true to say that Liverpool is Britain’s greatest provincial city,” says 51-year-old Andrew, who still spends much of his time in Liverpool, although the couple recently purchased a London bolthole.

“We are very proud of our roots. We have not deliberately avoided London, we have just been determined to build a national brand without having to go to London.

“We work in London quite a lot because a lot of the work is down there, but there is something very unique about Liverpool.

“Liz and I are great fans of companies like Boodles, their name is synonymous with quality, and I find them very inspirational. Cricket is the same.”

The Andrew Collinge brand itself has proved inspirational for many. The training academy, run by Andrew’s sister, Sarah, trains for 60 salons across the region, and encourages young people through the business, and is clearly very important to Andrew and Liz.

However, it remains to be seen whether the pair’s children Charlie, 24 and Ella, 21, will be looking to follow in their successful parents’ footsteps.

“They are in the creative field,” Andrew says. “Charlie designs modern furniture and has been shortlisted for Homes and Gardens designer of the year.

“Ella is a graphic designer and has just done an exhibition in London. Although they are not hairdressing, I think they could bring a new dimension and new skills to the business.

“My father made the Collinge name great in Merseyside and set the standard, and my legacy might be taking the name into a national brand. The next step, I think, will be to take the business into a different league.”

As well as backing the Design Week venture, Andrew – who was among the Liverpool figures invited onto St George’s Plateau for the opening ceremony of Capital of Culture – is a firm supporter of Liverpool’s 2008 success, and he and Liz have plans for a city showcase later in the year as their own contribution to the celebrations.

Says Liz: “I think Liverpool has shaken off an image that was not very positive, and now people are curious and want to find out what this is all about.”

“Liverpool is bursting at the seams with culture. This year has been the best thing to happen to Liverpool,” Andrew continues.

“It has been good for the people of Liverpool and for the companies that have been here through the good times and the bad. I have great confidence in Liverpool in 2009 and 10. I think ‘08 is just the catalyst.”

* THE Design Show Liverpool runs from Thursday, June 19, to Sunday, June 22. It is open from 10am to 6pm, except Sunday (11am - 6pm). Tickets are £5. Call 0151 280 8220 or go to www.designshowliverpool.com

emmajohnson@dailypost.co.uk