I am a freelance makeup artist so I work on different
teams. I work with the Maybelline team in New York, and I work with
the Mac Cosmetics teams in Milan and Paris. The way it sometimes
works, the designer hires the key makeup artist, the lead
person–these are people who have been in the industry for 30
years and their careers are far more developed than mine. But
I’m one of the people that will be on their team.
Fashion Week is fun, kind of like makeup boot camp. It’s the
only other time that I get to see other makeup artists, because on a
photo shoot there’s usually just me or maybe an assistant. But
when we go do shows, I get to work with my colleagues and
contemporaries, people who are kind of at the same level or even had
their own careers for years, and they all come together to rally
behind this lead person. I’m definitely traveling to London this
season. And I’m still on the fence with Milan and Paris. I have
done them all in past years.
Sometimes I make my decisions based off whether or not I have done a
designer’s show before. So if get offered to do Givenchy, and I
haven’t worked on a Givenchy show, but it conflicts with some
other show that I have done before, then I’m probably going to
choose the Givenchy, just to say that I’ve done it at least
once. It’s an interesting way to educate myself about the
fashion industry as a whole, so you can know the vibe of each of the
designers.
When I first started doing shows, most of them were at Lincoln Center.
Now you’ve got designers showing at some, you know, Navy Yard in
Brooklyn, and you’ve got someone showing down in Tribeca, or at
the Seaport or at the Piers, so now for Fashion Week all these shows
are very scattered.
My style on these shows often times doesn’t matter. It’s a very monkey
see monkey do thing. When it comes to shows, you have to be able to
replicate what that key artist does, as quickly as they do it.
Call time is about four hours prior to show time, so before everyone
arrives, there may be downtime backstage. Usually for the first
makeups we’re not in a rush. But then maybe an hour before the show,
that’s when all the cameras and all the people come backstage,
and that’s when it gets hectic. There’s less space, more
people, more people trying to interview you, people are pushing
around. That’s when it gets crazy. But I know everybody’s
got a job to do. It’s just the nature of the beast.
One thing that drives us crazy, is photographers trying to take
pictures of models backstage when they’re changing. I have definitely
gone off on photographers, and I’m like, “Put your damn
camera away, she doesn’t have a shirt on.”
I get frustrated with anybody who’s going to push
around models, because they are human beings, they need to eat, they
need to drink water, they need to go to the bathroom, give them a
chance. Especially with the experienced models, when people are you
know kind of corralling them to and fro, the point is that these girls
have been doing this for a long time, they are adults, they know
exactly what they need to do, they know exactly how much time there is
to get this job done, like, let them be. There’s a lot of
pushing and pulling.
Sometimes we all get sick at the same time. We joke, but if
you’ve done all four cities, you have the Fashion Flu. Which
means that we’ve shared cooties with each other in New York, in
London, in Milan, and in Paris, we’re just so worn down, and the
models, these poor girls I mean really, they’re working,
they’re working really long days. They look so good because
there are a bunch of professionals there to make them look as gorgeous
as they do, you know what I mean? That’s the army it takes. The
biggest misconception is that it’s all glamorous. Of course,
some of it is, but it’s it’s all just a lot of hard work,
too, and it’s a lot of running around town. You know trains,
planes and automobiles.
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