‘Our Place’ salon is what happens when two leading editorial hair stylists decide to open shop. Business partners Kelly Grant and Clive Allwright have had fate deal them an incredible hand.  Their business and salon got off the ground almost by accident. The two Brits opened ‘Our Place’ salon in June this year. “Everything just fell into place.” Says Kelly. “One night I walked past an empty salon that was for lease, in that moment I rang Clive to tell him about it. We both knew that we wanted to something new in our careers, but I never had planned to open a salon up until that point. Two days later we looked at the shop, five days after that we had the lease. Everything happened so quickly and things fell into place so perfectly. We knew that this was meant to be.”  “That’s how the name came about”, notes Clive. “Everything was happening before our eyes, it was our time, our people, Our Place.”

Clive Allwright's session styling for Tangent Magazine photographed by Jason Henley

“Even the design of the salon just happened” says Clive. “The amount of people that pitched in and helped us was overwhelming, so many people believed in us. Raising some money and raising some friends to pitch in, all happened in the space of four weeks, it was amazing.  We just felt it was time to do something that suited us and suited our lifestyle.”

Business partners Kelly Grant and Clive Allwright

Kelly and Clive met four years ago, working together in a Sydney salon.  They have always been close friends and their chemistry as work colleagues and business partners is perfectly suited to their strategy. Kelly says “To us the most important thing is coming to work and doing what we love everyday”.  Both Kelly and Clive have had huge success in their careers both working as editorial stylists. Kelly has a reputation as one of Sydney’s leading hair colorist. She has developed some methodical foiling techniques that are called ‘Our Place signature foils’ where lots of seamless foils lighten the hair, giving the most natural result possible.

Kelly Grant's session styling for a 'ZU Shoe' campaign photographed by Elvis De Fazio

Clive is the International Artistic Director for hair care company KMS,  and has been hairdressing for 25 years. Clive juggles his time between working on the salon floor, educating around Australia, and doing his editorial shoots with his agency Network.

Clive Allwright's session styling for an 'Ivy' campaign photographed by Julli Bulli

After traveling the world as an educator and session stylist Clive decided now was the perfect time to be back on the salon floor.  “This was an opportunity that just came around, we always wanted to do something small and boutique, as opposed to a high turnover, mass producing salon. The location in Potts Point suited the kind of salon we wanted to open. The great thing about Potts Point is we have now become a part of the community.”

Visit ‘Our Place’ at 1/181 Victoria Street, Potts Point 2011 or call +612 8071 4332.

Words: Hayley Mears