This week, we caught up with Spifster Sutton of Shervan Salon in Chicago to give us the inside scoop on an innovative approach to the nail salon experience.
The Trend: Vanity Projects is a luxury concept merging high-end nail art from the hottest nail techs around the world with video art programming. Imagine sitting in the nail salon and, rather than worrying about having you cuticles nipped too far, you’re consumed by avant-garde moving images curated by a variety of new and emerging artists. Sounds cool, right? Well, that’s just what you’ll find at this spot in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Vanity Projects is not just a nail salon, it’s a creative hub for artists of all mediums. Check out more on this interesting concept below.
EBONY: How did this idea come about?
Spifster Sutton: Vanity Projects started as an idea by art curator Rita Pinto. After taking an interest in nail art, through networking she began gathering groups of nail artists together to do pop-up salon events at MOMA PS1 and a few other places around the city. She recently got the opportunity to open up an actual nail salon, Vanity Projects. In addition to her existing salon team, Rita invites nail artists from everywhere to set up shop for a few days to service clients. Once the space opened, I was invited to go and work at Vanity Projects. I worked for two weeks with them and I look forward to going back.
EBONY: Tell us about your experience at Vanity Projects.
Spifster Sutton: It’s like an art hub. The clips shown on the various screens are shorts films featuring different styles of art. One particular shot comes to mind of a man giving someone the Heimlich maneuver. As the man is being revived, he vomits beautiful acrylic paint. She has lots of really cool things.
—Minajiah Scott
