A Dare to Dream – A Beauty Exposé
Presented by Mark Pardo Salon Spa
Interview with Creative Director Franquee Flores
Article By Nichole Harwood
This Saturday June 24th, 2023 in celebration of their 50th Anniversary Mark Pardo Salonspa will be celebrating the momentous occasion by inviting the public to join them to stand with the New Mexico Dream Center as the community comes together to fight against human trafficking.
For fifty years, Mark Pardo SalonSpa has been on the cutting edge of trend and beauty in Albuquerque and through hard work, dreaming and innovation the locally founded New Mexico business has become one of the largest locally owned salon chains in New Mexico.The salon found it fitting to celebrate their anniversary by supporting a local non-profit as they stated on their website that they “have continually strived to improve; to do better; to dream.”
Being one of the leaders in the fashion industry in New Mexico the salon will be supporting the New Mexico Dream Center in style as creative heads have come together to introduce a fashion show highlighting fashion throughout the ages. Heading the fashion show is Creative Director Franquee Flores who said that from the beginning the team knew that to celebrate Mark Pardo SalonSpa’s 50th anniversary they would have to showcase fashion throughout the decades.
“We were toying with different ideas as a team for what we kind of wanted and collectively we came up with the idea that a decades theme would showcase 50 years of fashion,” Flores said. “We were very fortunate that we were able to partner with Macy’s to do our fashion designing – (in addition) we have a futuristic aspect that as a team we are building for the show.”
Flores hopes the event will sell out as Albuquerque comes together to support New Mexico Dream Center. “I feel like the cause is something that needs to be talked about,” Flores said. “People aren’t often educated on it (human trafficking) because it isn’t talked about. Through this fashion show we will be able to educate the public for those victims.” The showcased nonprofit of the show the New Mexico Dream Center works to raise awareness of what is happening in New Mexico in regards to human trafficking. The non-profit hopes that by bringing awareness to human trafficking and its victims that community members will learn how to spot the signs of trafficking, to be aware of what’s going on, and to work toward stopping it.
Flores noted that becoming educated on the issue has already helped open his eyes to the dangers of human trafficking and he hopes him and his team will be able to spread the non-profit’s message throughout the community.
“There is so much that the New Mexico Dream Center has told us that I wouldn’t have known about human trafficking unless I was educated on it and I think most of the world is the same,” he said. “New Mexico has a very high number of homeless youth and they have the highest chance of being trafficked and I feel like if people were aware it could help prevent those youths from being trafficked in the future.”
There can be no better way to celebrate the completion of a dream than by spearheading awareness for another and Mark Pardo Salonspa’s website states that it looks forward to a future where everyone is free. With an impassioned team at the helm the salon hopes to spread awareness.
“This fashion show is about more than just fashion – (and) it’s been more than just me and my vision that will help showcase this cause. It’s been a team effort,” said Flores.
