Photograph by Robert Scheer
Owner Judy Marquez styles Julie Innamorato's hair in her home-like salon.
By Mark Kregel
Fringe Culture, a newly renovated hair salon in downtown Saratoga, integrates modern hair with modern art to create a space that owner Judy Marquez described as "similar to an 18th-century French parlor."
"It has a nice feeling to it, and everyone loves it," Marquez said of her redecorating effort, which includes a comfortable sofa and chairs, colorful art on the walls and plush Oriental rugs on the floors.
Marquez, who has been doing hair design for 20 years, has kept shop in Saratoga for seven of those years. Her business was called Concepts Salon until she started remodeling a year ago. Redesigning the salon herself, she changed the look, feel and style of the place, from hair salon to sitting room. And she changed the name.
The salon is decorated with art from Kismet Gallery in San Jose, including work by Bay Area artists John Weinbaum, Patricia Hutchinson and Valery Yershov.
The art is eclectic, and the salon has been described as everything from a turn-of-the-century tea room to an Indian sitting room.
"I felt as if I'm in a foreign land," said customer Tyler McKenny.
Others describe the atmosphere as peaceful and serene, yet modern.
"It's a little oasis," customer Julie Innamorato said. "You can get away from the world for a couple minutes."
Marquez said her customers' needs were a factor in the redesign of the salon. "I want my clients to feel as beautiful inside as they do outside. I tend to cater to people who come in stressed out and [need to] feel like they're special."
She also holds poetry readings the first Sunday of every month.
Fringe Culture is located at 14577 Big Basin Way, down an alley behind several shops. 868-9576.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, February 26, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.