FELLA - IN THE CHAIR

Just take a walk down the King’s Mile in Canterbury and you will witness how the array of independently owned cafes, restaurants and shops has brought a buzz to the North end of the cathedral city.

Perched between the King’s School’s grand entrance gates and the Tudor house with the wonky front door (Canterbites will know what I mean), the bouncing boutique barbers, Fella has carved out a reputation for hip haircuts and trendy tunes.

A well-dressed, nice-smelling posse of girls and boys trim locks to the beat of their chopping chief, Bobby Gordon.

And while the queues of East Kent’s chic elite patiently wait for their turn in the chair, we spoke to Bobby about sticking to his guns, alter- native art and creating the perfect atmosphere.

THE BEGINNING

Having moved down from London in late 2008, Bobby was looking for a barber shop to call his own having worked in the industry for more than a decade. Fella was bought and opened in the summer of 2009 but it wasn’t as simple as all that...

“It was being operated as a barber shop when we got it, but it was very run down. Actually, it was like my ultimate nightmare,” Bobby explains.

“It was an antique shop prior to this, and the two guys were still just cutting hair in that, basically.

“It was very dark in there and there were metal bars up at the window. You wouldn’t call it ‘inviting’.

“I remember opening up on the first day and looking out of the window and wondering what the f**k I had done, be- cause I didn’t really have the money to do it up straight away ether.
After a few months, Bobby raised the cash to have the shop refurbished and decorated to his own taste and it was finally rebranded as Fella. But some paint and new lights, a business does not make, as Bobby explains.
“The first year was tough. I had a big clientele in London, but here I was starting from scratch. I didn’t know anybody.

“I had worked in an area in London (Soho), where all my clients were wealthy, all working in media or in the city and had disposable money.

“And then I went to working in my own shop in Canterbury, charging less money for a haircut than I had in 1992 when I first started, and people were turning their noses up at it.

“I was also trying to find staff who got what I was trying to do here. It was all a big learning curve but I stuck to what I believed in.”

THE DECOR

The one thing everyone notices when they visit Fella is the design. Old cinema seating is in place for waiting customers and subway-style tiles are wall-mounted and sprayed with graffiti artwork, matching the dotted pictures of the New York’s underground.

“It’s all a conscious decision,” says Bobby. “That is my personal taste. I’ve always liked alternative art, my music, and design.

“I have always liked mid-century stuff, like furniture, and my house is the same. My parents always liked it, too, so that’s probably where Igottheeyeforit.It’snicetobeabletoshowa personal reflection in the shop.”

But, as shop-played regular Bob Marley advised us, you can’t please all the people all the time.

“Some people don’t get it. When I first opened I inherited quite a few customers as part of the package, and I lost some of them very quickly because they weren’t used to it and probably thought I was probably a bit weird for playing all this music and how I wanted it to look. But you have to stick to what you love and what you believe in.”

THE ATMOSPHERE

The music, as always, moves genre to genre as dictated by whose turn it is to play an album. The clientele is varied, but open-minded and chat is available if the customers want it, as Bobby ex- plains.

“Lots of people don’t want to speak to you, and honestly, not all hairdressers are that interested in where you are going on holiday this year,” he says.

“So if there is some nice music, and everyone gets along, it makes the customers feel more com- fortable for a start. Some guys are quite nervous as it is when getting their hair cut and they aren’t always great at communicating. So a good atmos- phere relaxes everyone.

“I have stuck to my beliefs and this is a similar environment to what I have always worked in, right from back when I was a kid and started hair- dressing at 16.

“Coming out of school in the early 90s, I en- tered this world and was surrounded by complete extraverts; gays, straights and some really wild people. I remember one summer the music was so loud you couldn’t even have a conversation. It was like being in a rave. People working there were out of their heads at times.

“I’ve always enjoyed that social side of it and I felt it was always important to create an atmos- phere in Fella.

There’s nothing worse than those places where there is no noise, it’s just silence.”