Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Often called the most influential makeup artist in the world, she is a self-taught billionaire known for avant-garde looks, radiant skin, and running a billion-
On the island
Eight records
For me, as a little girl, prancing around the living room, she's the icon. The eyes, the lashes, the gloss, the face, the voice, it was too much.
the androgyny, the bleached eyebrows, the colour, the clothes, the fearless use of gender.
the fact that she takes a track that was done by Ann Peebles, Tina Turner, spins it on its head... I just love the braveness of Missy Elliott and the beauty of her.
I was completely shook by the looks, the hair, the makeup, the clothes, the total used without caution... It's such an important moment in beauty for me.
Malcolm McLaren has always been such a huge inspiration... this song played Madame Butterfly, and it was the most magical moment.
this is the song that I played when my lipstick was launched, Matt Trance... this beautiful music from Hitchcock's Vertigo.
I remember being a young makeup artist and working on Bjork... the Chris Cunningham video and the robotic beauty and the whole skin fetish fantasy.
La Vie en roseFavourite
When I think about the strength and beauty of Grace Jones, I think of my own ancestry with pride.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:06Where do you start when you're creating a look for a fashion show?
You meet with the designers, you look at the clothing, and you know, I am really a shoe bag clothing addict. So I'm really scratching to get into the door to see all the new creations. And you talk about who is that woman of the season or that man of the season. And you're also given abstract words for the beauty. Vinyl, love, adorned princess from out of space or something, or a lip that looks as if it's made out of the stars. I mean, it's insane the briefs that you're given. So you have such a challenge to come up with actual faces that match.
Presenter asks
3:06For listeners who don't know so much about the fashion industry, can you give us some idea of the logistical requirements of working on a major fashion show?
What does it involve? I mean, we're talking 87 suitcases, sometimes 100 team members, five to six motorcycles, eight cars, four vans. The team collectively travels 30,000 miles per season. I think that's how much we travel. But I always look at this as an army and it's military precision. The show has to go on at 10am. Maybe we'll have started at 4 a.m. And, you know, I'm a little bit like a general marching around the tables, going eyebrows on, skin done, lips on. The adrenaline is.
The keepsakes
The book
Andy Warhol
me being a very visual person, I would take Andy Warhol's polaroids because Andy was the first. Instant glamour, instant fame, instant gratification. Every makeup that I've ever done, I've taken polaroids of them. Thousands and thousands and thousands of polaroids. But when I think about that, it's like that Andy Warhol Polaroid book is kind of like the genesis of what we're living in now. You know, so that's my book.
The luxury
Makeup (eye palettes and lipsticks)
I said I'd bring makeup with me, all my eye palettes and lipsticks, because I don't get time, you know, to do my own makeup the way that I'd love to do my own makeup. And so I would use the time on the island to finally worry about me in all that heat.
Presenter asks
How important are relationships in your work? When you've got a model in the chair, there's something very intimate about touching someone's face and changing the way they look.
Yes, it is really intimate. You're very close with whoever you're making up and you have so much fun and they always open up to me.
Presenter asks
14:23Growing up in Northampton in the seventies, to what extent did you experience racism?
I mean, you grow up in a community from when you're a child and then also going to church. You had a really solid base around you. I was very lucky having the mother that I had who was like, oh, look at that person, they're racist, poor things. Anyway, let's go shopping. And I think that really.
Presenter asks
19:52How did you end up on a plane to Japan with the band Soul to Soul?
Oh, it was with Karen Wheeler. It was a moment in my life where I've been trying and trying to have my own work and my own clients and... And I'd said to myself, It's time to give up, time to find a regular job And I am not lying, the phone rang. And it would have been Canwheeler's management asking me, could you do a tour to Japan? And that was it. And then I went to Japan and I was scared and I was shaking, but it was a miraculous moment in my life and an incredible trip. And that's how that began.
Presenter asks
29:06There's still a bit of a skinny and white bias in the beauty and fashion industries. Do you think that's changing in 2019?
I mean, really and truly, that was the standard of the fashion industry when I was growing up. But I I'm so happy to see the changes that I'm seeing now. You know, we have models from all different social backgrounds, different weights, body types, different religious backgrounds, shows that are over fifty percent women of color, and it just wasn't there for such a long time. And now it's just so fantastic to see. Beautiful.
“I always say I was hot housed into the industry because the process that she took me on is the process that I do every day.”
“If you can't find it, you can't buy it, make it.”
“I found my calling right then and there.”
“Makeup, you can do anything you want. That's what I believe. And you wash it off in the end. It's not permanent.”