Being backstage during Paris Fashion Week is likely a bucket list item for anyone working in the fashion and beauty industry. One that Cheng Tan, owner of KODA Salon in La Jolla, has happily checked off. 

 

After she was asked to join the glamorous, decades-old event by a hairdresser she worked under during New York Fashion Week (another bucket list item), Tan canceled her birthday trip to Hawaii and crossed the pond. Even though she spent a week working on models who were walking for the likes of Louis Vuitton and Chanel, her favorite moment was getting her wristband. 

 

“I know it silly,” she laughed, now back in La Jolla, “But getting up to the show and seeing your name on the list, knowing you’re validated to be there; it’s exciting to start your day like that.”

 

Tan said Paris Fashion Week was not only on a much grander scale than New York Fashion Week but that the security was much, much stricter. 

 

“I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures backstage or tell anyone where I was going or what I was working on. They didn’t tell us the location of where we’d be working until the night before.”

 

During the week-long event, Tan would arrive to set early, around 6 a.m. to find a good spot that was near “outlets and the catering table.” She would be shown the look of her model one time and told recreate it. After four or so hours of work, she was allowed to watch the show unfold and see her finished hairstyle walk down the runaway in front of the 30,000 people Paris Fashion Week draws in, according to Fashion United.

 

Being that haircare is a male-dominated industry  — Allure recently revealed that since 2006 only 12 percent of hairstylists they used on shoots were women — Tan was also grateful for the opportunity to work not under one, but two female hairdressers. She said they were intent on hiring more female assistants to “continue the chain in the industry.” 

 

And of course, it was fun. 

 

“It was overwhelming and definitely kept me on my toes and the whole time,” she said. “You don’t get that every day.”

 

For more information about Tan and her studio, visit kodasalon.com