This Is Cobelle Creative By Louise May

Based in Toowong Village, this Brisbane Hairdressing Salon is owned by award-winning, expert colourist Kristie Kesic. Kristie has built her reputation as one of Australia’s best Colour Technicians. Her salon is recognised as the home of ‘Brisbane’s Best Hairdressers’ and ‘Brisbane’s Best Blondes.’

Cobelle Creative is home to the 2021 Australian Master Cutter of the Year and 2020 Australian Salon Stylist of the Year Elle Broadhurst, as well as the 2020 Australian Salon team of the Year.

Cobelle Creative represents a unified and talented group of individuals. Comprised of eight members, a team boasting talent and cohesion. Each member possesses unique skills and attributes that bring totality to the team.

Owner Kristie Kesic has been in business since 2016. Her first baby was 6 months old when she purchased her first business, which was an existing business under the original name. Over the years Kristie and her team had built up the business, but something didn’t feel right. Kristie decided out of respect for herself and her team, they needed to establish their own identity. So, In November 2019 COBELLE CREATIVE was born.

‘Co’ being a prefix for collaboration and ‘Belle’ meaning beautiful; Cobelle stands for ‘A beautiful collaboration’

Established as a celebration of our team; a collaboration of creative minds working towards a common goal. Observing a mutual respect, and for the role that each team member plays.

Over to You Kristie…

When I originally purchased the business in 2016, there was still 5 years left on the lease at Toowong Village. It was always the goal and the plan that as soon as that lease was up, I was going to move out of the shopping centre. I was sick of working in a space with no natural light and the strict rules a shopping tenancy lease possessed. However as much as I wanted to leave asap, anyone in a shopping centre knows how difficult and costly it would be to break a lease early, so I had to wait. It’s been a very long 5 years waiting for that day to come. I had all the ideas in my head and photos saved in my phone for a good 3 years, and then in April 2020 in the middle of a pandemic and with my second baby only 3 weeks old, I found the perfect space, and knew instantly this was where I was going to build our dream salon. This space was also only 200 metres up the road from the current location, and even thought I still had a year left on my current lease I knew I had to take this space.

THE INSPO

I had been following a lot of architecture pages on socials for years, so I had a whole folder of everything I wanted. The rebrand was the first step into introducing some of those concepts. The change of colours, our circle logo, the curved edges on our business cards, it all was done with intention knowing I was going to be building this salon. The inspo is Palm Springs X Morocco. The raw textures, soft colours, light and bright and beautifully minimalistic. Breeze blocks, arch ways, Cacti. Oh, and did I mention everything is curved. I’ve been obsessed for years! I engaged my wonderful designer Bridgette at Archinteriors and gave her everything I wanted and all my must-haves. Fishbowl arch way, breeze block and raw textures everywhere and she then pieced the build vision together. I did all the finishing’s because I already knew exactly what I wanted. Arched brass mirrors, raw side tables, the chairs had to have curves and then the basin had to have curves. I found the perfect chairs at Comfortel and then the basin was sourced from Maletti. The salon furnishing are designer pieces paired with custom made. Every little detail has been thought out, and every piece in the salon has a place for a reason.

THE BUILD

BUILDERS; Andrew Howard and the team at HWD Construction Knowing the building world and shortage of supplies, we started the process of sourcing furnishings in June 2021 and the build then started in September. The build took about 16 weeks and even though we started so far in advanced it still came down to the wire that night!

OPENING.

2 members instead of 8. It would have been so easy to just keep the doors closed a few more days until more of the team were back, but that’s not who we are. I couldn’t start our new journey like that. We opened with 2 staff and 2 clients. We cancelled our opening night with all our industry friends, and it took us 6 weeks of being opened to have all our staff back on board, but that didn’t matter because we still opened when we planned to.

THE PRODUCTS

Changing product brands was something that I had thought of over the years, but I was always afraid. When it came time to building the new salon, I wanted to partner with a brand that was going to see myself and my team grow and support us into our new journey. It was kind of a now or never moment for me. We have been so excited to partner with Schwarchkopf Professional and the support they have given us has been truly amazing. We have also partnered with Kevin Murphy retail because let’s be honest, the products are amazing, but they also match in perfectly with the aesthetics of the new salon. Along with these companies I have also been so grateful for many other companies and their team members who have stopped in to see the salon, and send their support. I felt very supported.

I am so proud of this salon and I’m also the first to admit, it’s tough! Having a new baby, building a new salon, paying 2 lots of rent, and dealing with a pandemic. The build was easy right up until the last week when I decided to change and add things. Lucky my builders were so great! But the reality is, being a business owner and building a new salon isn’t easy and it’s not meant to be. But at the end of the day, it was all 100% worth it, and it was so fun along the way. I stop now and realise I’m living my dream, in our brand-new salon. It’s the space my staff and clients have always deserved. I’ve always said our old salon was never me, was never our team, and in the end, it just felt like a space we were working out of and going through the motions each day. Now we have our beautiful salon, and it all makes sense. This salon is who we truly are. This is Cobelle Creative.