An old newspaper article sets me on the trail of a forgotten figure in history: in Paris, they had just buried the “magic” right hand of Antoine, once known as the “Emperor of Hairstylists.”

The story immediately draws me in. Who was this man whose remains were treated like a saint’s relic? I began an obsessive search to uncover who Antoine really was. Despite the gaps and contradictions surrounding him, the portrait of a legendary artist begins to take shape.

Antoine not only liberated women’s style but also helped shape one of the 20th century’s most influential queer cultural circles. Yet behind the spectacle—the costumes, the performances—he remains elusive.

My film explores the tension between image and truth, tracing the outline of a man who resists definition. Rather than solving his mystery, it embraces it, reflecting on identity, myth, and our desire to become someone else.

My name is Sebastiano d’Ayala Valva, and I am a documentary filmmaker. For several years, I have been working on a film about one of the great forgotten figures in fashion history: Antoni Cierplikowski, a true pioneer of modern hairstyling.

The film is nearly complete—this campaign will help us cover the costs of the final stretch!

The starting point

A few years ago, I came across a mysterious article from 1992 that immediately drew me in: in Paris, they had just buried… the right hand of Antoine, returned to the city by his disciple, Monsieur Alexandre, sixteen years after Antoine’s death in Poland.

Who was this man—important enough to inspire such a ritual, yet almost entirely absent from history?

A forgotten pioneer

What I discovered was a fascinating figure, nearly erased from history.

Born in Poland, Monsieur Antoine, whose real name was Antoni Cierplikowski, was a visionary hairdresser who radically transformed the image of women in the early 20th century.

In the 1920s, by inventing the garçonne cut—also known as the bob—he helped redefine femininity and actively contributed to women’s emancipation, challenging a rigid, gender-binary society in which roles were strictly defined, always to the advantage of men.

Hairdresser to the greatest icons of his time—Sarah Bernhardt, Josephine Baker, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and many others—Antoine was one of the fathers of modern hairdressing, an industry now worth billions.

And yet, his name has almost disappeared from our collective memory.

A long-term investigation

For several years, I have been traveling, researching archives, and meeting the last people who knew him. Many are no longer with us today.

Gradually, a portrait emerges of a flamboyant and elusive character who never stopped staging his own life—one that often surpassed fiction.

In particular, I discovered that Antoine founded one of the first large gay communities on Fire Island, in the United States—an essential part of his story that he deliberately erased.

WHAT REMAINS TO BE COMPLETED

How the $65,000 budget will be used

• $30,000 — Archival materials (rights & licensing)
• $15,000 — Final shoot (crew, performer, equipment)
• $20,000 — Post-production (editing, sound, color grading)