But why suffer so? Why won't the AIDS Ride do? Well, it did, but then it was time to move on.
“I’ve always lived near the park, so I'm an OK runner”—actually, he can do a 10K in a more-than-respectable 40 minutes-“but then I got into biking, doing the AIDS Ride from Los Angeles to San Francisco and Boston to New York. I liked it, but I did it for ten years, and then I thought about trying something else.”
And so he began to think out loud about pulling it all together in a triathlon. One client who listened was Mary Leonard, owner of the U.S. Athletic Training Center. She introduced him to her client Gostigian, who made it all happen. Gostigian, not Licari, was the first to experience culture shock.
“I met him at his salon,” he says. "And there were 40 women sitting around with foil in their hair. I was freaking out. I was actually afraid that if he didn’t get to them fast, the coloring would fry their hair off! But he really took the time to talk. He’s really committed.”
The two bonded, especially after Gostigian’s haircut. (“I don’t need Page Six writing about how I'm running around the park with Grizzly Adams,” Licari told him.) Since then, Licari has been training six days a week. "This isn't for people who constantly cancel," he says (thus disqualifying 95 percent of all New Yorkers). On most days, Licari rides U.S. 9W and/or runs up to ten miles In Central Park. It can get brutal. “I’ve done color for 20 years. But here I’m playing catch-up,” Licari says.
When he works out. peroxide and highlights are a distant memory. Except when the Today show is on TV in the cardio room. One morning, he looked up and caught – horrors! – Katie Couric with a completely different “tonality” than what she had left the salon with. “I was shocked!” he says, quickly noting that she, um, experiments with her color in a pinch. (So don’t blame him.) At this moment, Annette Bening is pitching American Beauty, for which Licari had frosted her hair. “It suited her character," he explains.
A half-hour later, Licari jumps off the bike, ducks into the locker room, and emerges at the pool a quick-change skill he has honed as a triathlete. (When he first started racing, his arms and legs were shaking so badly that it took him five minutes to change between events; now it takes seconds.) In the water, he swims lap after lap of freestyle strokes, sidestrokes, breaststrokes. Gostigian tells him to tuck in his derriere, and he quickly adjusts.
On summer weekends, Licari takes his bike on the company van (used during the week to ship hair products from warehouse to salon) out to East Hampton, where he swims in the ocean. Frequent sightings have made many overwrought Hamptonites think that Licari was offering door-to-door service. One was hear sniping, “I don’t know why her toots are still showing. I see Licari truck near her house all the time!”
In fact, more pressing matters were at hand. “The first time I saw him swim, it was like, he was in a shipwreck,” Gostigian says.
“I didn't have a chance in hell,” agrees Licari, who at the time still had issues with putting his face in the water. But he started with the basics – blowing bubbles, learning how to exhale and inhale. Gostigian devised special exercises to smooth out the curvature in his neck and back (from years of hunching over clients) and to increase his range of motion. This year, at 48, Licari finally, stopped wearing a nose plug.
After one month of training. Gostigian signed him up for road races. “I was frightened out of my mind,” says Licari. “In one of my first races, Mike started yelling, ‘Come on, faster,’ and I just yelled, ‘Stop! Just stop!’ and literally went into a fetal position.” Much improved now, Licari often finishes in the top 25 percent for his age group, and he attributes his success to Gostigian. “I am in awe of Mike. He’s changed my negative attitude.”
By 9:30 a.m., Licari, in standard-issue Old Navy khakis and a bright-white shirt, arrives at the salon. “You’ve already got seven people waiting for you,” his slightly panicked assistant says. Completely composed, Licari prepares for his first client. He’s off to a running start. Vogue, 12.2000
2. Kate Moss.
The story goes that Kate Moss was discovered by Sarah Doukas, the founder of Storm model agency, at JFK airport in 1988, as she prepared to board a flight home to London with her father. She was 14 at the time, and a "not entirely enthusiastic" pupil of Riddlesdown High School in South London.
Born on 16 January 1974, in Addiscomb, Croydon, Moss once admitted that she thought she "might've been a bank manager". As it turned out, she was destined for far greater things including developing into one of the most beautiful women the world had ever seen. At 15, Kate was cast in her first catwalk show, playing Lolita for John Galliano. At 18, she became the Face of Calvin Klein, most famously fronting his underwear campaign with Mark Wahlberg and appearing nude for Obsession, and to this day Klein maintains that she "defines her generation". She made her first appearance in British Vogue in January 1993. Her first cover followed two months later, with Kate photographed by Corinne Day in a pink and blue Chanel bustier. As Vogue's former Fashion Features Editor Lisa Armstrong puts it, Kate soon became "the (defiantly) non-supermodel who managed to out-super them all". The darling of the fashion world, she was widely credited with spearheading the controversial "waif" look of the early Nineties and, in 1995, her fame was such that she was encouraged to release a hardback book of pictures entitled simply "Kate".
But by November 1998, her hectic lifestyle had taken its toll on the young model and Kate checked into London's Priory Clinic, suffering from exhaustion. When she emerged the following January, she announced that she had spent the last decade modelling "drunk". "For years I never thought there was anything wrong with it," she told Vogue with characteristic frankness, shortly after her rehabilitation. "We all used to get drunk at the shows. I just thought I was having a really good time, which I was. But it got too much. There was no normality. I felt like everyone was sucking me away."Since rehab and the dissolution of her eight-year contract with Calvin Klein, Kate has taken on the grander status of style icon, appearing less and less on the catwalks. In the May 2000 issue of British Vogue, she played muse to seven modern British artists, including Tracey Emin, Sarah Morris, the Chapman brothers, and Sam Taylor-Wood. She is also famously easy-going. As Mario Testino says: "Kate is great company, a truly nice person." And she is still enormously bankable. In September 2000, US magazine BusinessAge ranked her the fifth highest paid model in the world, with estimated earnings of Ј14.8 million. She has appeared in several notable documentaries about the fashion world, having made her acting debut with a spot in the comedy series French & Saunders in 1996. Kate's love life has been almost as well-documented as her career, right down to the detail of the tiny heart tattoo on her hand. She has been linked with photographer Mario Sorrenti, Spacehog guitarist Antony Langdon, Rolling Stone Ron's son Jesse Wood, and artist Jake Chapman, as well as Billy Zane, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Evan Dando of the Lemonheads. Most famously, she dated Johnny Depp for three years until 1997 (the pair were trumpeted by Vanity Fair as the couple of the decade). She is now happily settled with Dazed & Confused Editor Jefferson Hack, whom she met in London in 2000. Her close friends include Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithfull, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Jade Jagger and Matthew Williamson. Vogue, 01.2001.
3. Stella McCartney.
Stella McCartney was born in 1972, the daughter of ex-Beatle Sir Paul and Linda McCartney. She first hit the headlines herself in 1995, when she graduated from London's Central St Martins College of Art & Design. Her graduation show, attended by her super-famous parents, featured pals Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss modelling her clothes on the catwalk. Unsurprisingly, the student show became front page news around the world and the entire collection was snapped up by London boutique Tokio. McCartney launched her eponymous label the same year. Despite her newfound celebrity, she had already served a long apprenticeship in fashion. At 15, she worked with Christian Lacroix on his first couture collection and later spent several years learning her craft on Savile Row.McCartney was appointed chief designer at the French couture house Chloe in March 1997. Succeeding Karl Lagerfeld in one of the most high profile posts in the industry, McCartney's appointment was viewed by many as simply an astute publicity stunt on the part of Chloe's owners, the Vendфme group. However, her first collection for the house, shown in Paris in October 1997, quickly dispelled any doubts about her talent. Sensual and romantic, the collection teamed lacy petticoat skirts with fine tailoring and was hailed a triumph. Her delicate camisoles and Nineties updates of the Seventies trousersuit fast became the talk of the catwalk circuit. The following season, Chloe execs proved that her efforts had not only raised the house's profile, but had lifted its profits too.Following the death of her mother in April 1998, Stella stepped up her fight against the maltreatment of animals, a cause Linda had always held dear. A month later, during Fur Fashion Week, she teamed up with PeTA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) to release a video championing animal rights.In April 2000, she renewed her contract with Chloe, amid reports that she had turned down the offer of a position at rival house Gucci, because Gucci would have required her to work with leather. Exactly one year later, Gucci confirmed that they had signed McCartney up, with a view to developing her own label as a global luxury brand. The Chloe job was awarded to her righthand woman, Phoebe Philo.In August 2001, it was reported that Stella had started dating Alasdhair Willis, the 31-year-old publisher of Wallpaper magazine known to friends as Mr Gucci, for his love of designer labels. Stella's social life is legendarily star-studded. As well as being romantically linked with the likes of Lenny Kravitz in the past, her close friends include Kate Moss, Liv Tyler, and Madonna (known as Melly to Stella's Stelly), whose wedding dress she designed in 2000. Vogue, January, 2001.
4. Karl Lagerfeld
Born in Hamburg in 1938, Karl Lagerfeld emigrated to Paris at the age of 14. He was to go on to become one of the most celebrated designers this century has seen.In 1955, at the age of just 17, Lagerfeld was awarded a position at Pierre Balmain, after winning a competition sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat (the coat he had designed for the contest was later put into production by Balmain). In 1958, he left to take up a job with Jean Patou, which gave him an invaluable knowledge of couture but apparently very little pleasure. After just one year, he quit to work as a freelance designer for such fashion houses as Krizia, Charles Jourdan and Valentino. By 1964, he had grown so disillusioned with the world of haute couture that he left Paris altogether to study art in Italy.In 1967, Lagerfeld returned to fashion, joining Fendi as a design consultant. In the Seventies, however, his name was more closely associated with the house of Chloe, where he was given carte blanche to produce exquisite floaty and feminine ready-to-wear collections which claimed to rival contemporary couture. His 1972 Deco collection, which consisted of black and white prints and clever bias-cutting, brought him worldwide acclaim. He produced his last collection for Chloe - now designed by Phoebe Philo - in 1983 to move to Chanel (though he did return briefly in 1993, to replace outgoing designer Martine Sitbon).At the same time as taking on the title of director of collections and ready-to-wear at Chanel, Lagerfeld launched his own-name label, now synonymous with strong tailoring, combining easy-to-wear cardigan jackets in his favourite bright colours and softly shaped knitwear to create what he describes as "intellectual sexiness". Meanwhile his designs for the super-chic French fashion house, a fusion of pre-war Chanel and contemporary trends, carried the label to the pinnacle of high fashion in the Eighties and Nineties. Notable moments of his career at Chanel include teaming the traditional box jacket with denim mini skirts in 1991, combining club-influenced black fishnet bodystockings with the traditional Chanel camellia placed cheekily over the breasts and matching hefty lace-up boots with flowing georgette skirts and leather jackets. By 1997, Vogue had crowned him the "unparalleled interpreter of the mood of the moment".Despite moving from label to label, Lagerfeld has managed to retain a sense of his own style throughout his career. His success lies in an ability to make a bold statement and he is never afraid to try something new. He has also maintained a sense of humour throughout his designing that has produced such legendary pieces as a shower-dress, with beaded water streaming down the front; a car-dress with a radiator grille and fender, and a multitude of outstandingly eccentric hats, from armchairs to cream cakes, translating Chanel trademarks such as the quilted handbag into a range of seasonal must-haves, including the handbag earring, the handbag hat, the doll-sized shoulder bag, the quilted hip bag, the quilted Alice band and the outsize baguette bag.He also enjoys a range of outside interests, including languages (he speaks fluent German, English, French and Italian and has expressed a desire to learn Spanish), illustration, antiques and photography (he was responsible for producing Visionaire 23: The Emperor's New Clothes, a series of nude portraits, starring South African model David Miller) and describes himself as an "intelligent opportunistic" and "professional dilettante". As he told US Vogue in 1988: "What I enjoy about the job is the job." Vogue,01.2001.
5. Taking his shot
It's a sunny Halloween afternoon in Ames, Iowa, where former pro-basketball player and U.S. senator Bill Bradley is scheduled to make his fourth campaign stop of the day. The candidate's plane has arrived about ten minutes ahead of the press plane, so that by the time we disembark, Bradley has-positioned himself in front of the tiny Ames airport, his H six-foot-five-inch frame sprawled across a green plastic chair, ubiquitous grape soda on the ground beside him. His head is thrown back, his eyes are closed; the candidate is catching some rays. As we hit the tarmac, he looks up. "Welcome to Ames," he says, deadpan, giving us a wave before he closes his eyes again. Finally, after everybody else is loaded in the vans, ready for a walking tour of a couple of Ames blocks, he climbs in. "I got him up," says his "body man" Matt Henshon, "by telling him he would still be out in the sun."
"Senator Offbeat"—that's what the late Republican strategist Lee Atwater called him. Cool, seemingly laconic, Bradley's doing his own thing out there on the campaign trail, coming off as refreshingly straightforward or just a little weird, depending on whom you're talking to. Earlier that day, he'd told CBS's Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation that he "drew the line" where religion was concerned; it just wasn't something he was going to talk about. Schieffer was left to ask him simply whether or not he believed in God. "Yes." "Can you tell us any more about it than that?" "No."
Later, when he arrives at the house of a supporter, 60 people are gathered in the backyard, but first the host, a nice man named Jay, asks Bradley if he'd like some cider or a soft drink, or maybe even some beer before he addresses the crowd. Bradley looks at him. "You got any whiskey?" This is the point at which Matt steps in to reassure us all that the senator was making a joke, but Bradley's not quite finished. Standing on the man's backyard deck, he notices that part of the lawn has been roped off. "You know,-when I got here today, Jay promised me that each and every one of you would vote for me." Pause. "I'm only kidding. The only commitment Jay made today is that he would save his best grass."
Normal flesh-pressing it ain't. It is, rather, an approach that sometimes gets him labeled diffident, aloof, anti-charismatic. But it seems to be working. When Bradley threw his hat in the ring a year ago, most pundits—and supporters of Vice President Al Gore—dismissed the announcement as the insignificant and self-indulgent act of a once-oversung hero of the Democratic Party. He had, after all, waffled when he'd had better shots, in 1988 and 1992. Now he seemed to be setting himself up as the automatically unsuccessful and tedious spoiler in a race in which all the other possible contenders had had the good sense to realize they could never make it against the well-financed sitting vice president.
That, of course, was before he raised as much money as the vice president and began leading him not just in New Hampshire but in New York; before he put Gore on the defensive, prompting him to change everything from his clothes to the address of his headquarters. That was before respected political journalists like the Washington Post's David Broder began writing columns with headlines like script for an upset, and the Gore campaign team's disarray was repeatedly – almost luridly – displayed on the front page of The New York Times. His endorsements include those from Senators Bob Kerrey and Daniel-Patrick: Moynihan, Wall Street heavy hitters Lou Susman, managing director of Salomon Smith Barney, and Thomas Labrecque, retired chairman of Chase-Manhattan' Bank, and Lakers-coach and former Knicks teammate Phil Jackson. (“Why did he take the job with the Los Angeles Lakers? It was not-because he thinks the Lakers can be champions – it is because it’s apart of my Southern California strategy. Make no mistake about that."- Barry Diller gave him a fund-raiser in L.A.; fans as disparate as designer Tommy Hilfiger and investment tycoon Herbert Alien round up checks for him in New York. He is running a big-league campaign in every way—except stylistically. So the question now is, Will the style sell?