Sunday, February 20, 2011, stylists from Casal’s de Spa and Salon Canfield and Howland locations stepped out from behind the chair and brought their creativity outside the box. Actually, in this year’s competition, the box was the focus of the creative process.
Nine teams of three Casal’s employees were given mystery boxes, each containing supplies to create a complete look. The teams were required to use each item – black fabric, white fabric, various patterned fabric, buttons, needle and thread and a hot glue gun. From these came nine very different, hand-made styles.
The team I was on – Sarah Messaros, Jess Hill, model Hannah Messaros and myself (Kelsey Higginbotham)- were inspired by recent nautical looks. We created a modern sailor style “Nautical by Nature”. We came across some challenges and roadblocks that required us to tweak our original idea, but with teamwork we came through and designed and executed a look that made us proud.
The looks that were created by these stylists, esthiologists and office team members were truly inspiring. Working 6:00pm until 9:00pm on Saturday, and 7:00am until 1:30pm on Sunday was a tight time frame that caused anxiety, excitement, creativity and stress – all leading the creative completion.
This was my first time to compete in Casal’s annual Runway Project – definitely not my last!

-Kelsey Higginbotham