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After a successful career with Vidal Sassoon in London, he moved to New York and, as a freelance, earned a reputation across the United States as "one of the great Sassoon crimpers'', attending to figures such as Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger and Madonna. He also worked with most of the world's leading models, photographers, make-up artists and fashion houses. Known for his flamboyant dress and snazzy hairstyles, Fugler was a larger-than-life character as well as a gifted stylist. In his younger days, in keeping with the Zeitgeist, he practised excess in almost every aspect of his life, eating, drinking (he was a reformed alcoholic), dieting and shopping on a heroic scale. In London on the first morning of the January sales, Fugler would brave the crowds at Liberty and Selfridge's, only to return during the afternoon's pandemonium to change whatever he had just bought. He was a familiar face in designer shops from London to New York and Los Angeles. In the late 1990s, after grappling with a drink problem for several years, Fugler joined Alcoholics Anonymous and dried himself out, fitting in much charity work on behalf of AA around his hairdressing commitments. Howard Edward Fugler was born on Christmas Eve 1949 and grew up at Stamford Hill, north London. Leaving Brook House comprehensive school at 15, he started work with Vidal Sassoon at his salon in Bond Street and later at the Grosvenor House hotel on Park Lane. Rapidly developing his styling skills, Fugler was still a teenager when he became Sassoon's youngest-ever stylist, with a client list that included Sassoon's then wife Beverly Adams. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Fugler spent time in New York and Beverly Hills establishing Vidal Sassoon salons in the United States before turning freelance. He later concentrated on editorial, advertising and promotional assignments, working with well-known photographers, fashion magazines and the world's leading models, from Jean Shrimpton to Kate Moss. In 1989 he styled the hair of the models on all but one of the 36 covers of American Vogue, Harper's and Cosmopolitan magazines. Despite the constraints of confidentiality agreements, Fugler liked to talk more about the people he met than about the work he did, and was an abundant but discreet source of celebrity gossip. Once, when he became testy on a job, the supermodel Naomi Campbell called him a "bitter old Louise''; rather than be offended, Fugler dined out on the fact that she had put him in his place. Another story he told against himself concerned his visit to a fashionable London restaurant where he wanted to pull some tables together for some friends. The staff demurred, pointing out that the position of the furniture was critical to the establishment's feng shui and could not be moved. An exasperated Fugler finally confronted the manager and hissed: "Do you know who I am?'' Turning to the other diners, all of whom were following this unfolding drama, the manager asked: "Does anyone know who this man is? He seems to have forgotten.'' Fugler's personal extravagance extended to his charity work (he would frequently help out at Alcoholics Anonymous in New York) and to his family and friends, to whom he regularly gave generous gifts. Howard Fugler died of heart failure in New York on August 9. He was unmarried. |
