Personal experience: How I worked as a makeup artist at Milan Fashion Week
One of the main working milestones for a makeup artist is work on fashion week. At local weeks (Moscow, Riga, Seoul and others), you can learn to work in a team, quickly glue false eyelashes and learn a lot more valuable skills. What to say about the four world weeks: there is a chance to work with star stylists, makeup artists and models that you see in the most famous glossy magazines. In general, it is no exaggeration to say that almost every makeup artist wants to work on them.
Darya Yatsenko from Vladivostok did it. She independently learned to be a makeup artist, opened a makeup studio in her city, and then set herself a goal to work at Milan Fashion Week. The girl didn’t have any connections that she could reasonably rely on in such circumstances, but she still managed to work on Fendi and Philipp Plein shows and even become the main makeup artist for Yohanix. We talked with Daria and found out how she managed to realize her plan and what she learned from her star colleagues.
Trip to Milan and casting
By nature I am a rather ambitious person, and travel helped me to understand that there is a huge world around and plenty of opportunities. Returning from the first trip, I opened my beauty studio. After the second held a large-scale event. When I got bored again at the end of last year, I decided to go to Milan and realized that the travel dates coincide with the dates of Milan Fashion Week. At first I thought about it as a joke, but then I realized that I really needed to get on it. I did not keep my plans secret, and some acquaintances expressed skepticism - very few people believed what would happen.
Getting ready for the trip began in six months. The daily schedule looked like this: in the morning, Italian lessons, and then work - clients, filming, studio affairs. When I bought a ticket, I realized that there was no way back. He was without a date in order to increase the already strong motivation. I decided for myself that I would not leave until I did something great in Milan.
The first job appeared in two weeks: we did a couple of shootings with a girl from Vladivostok (she studies in Milan as a fashion designer). The doors to Fashion Week were in no hurry to open, but then a magic story happened. In my life, women play a very important role, they appear suddenly and help me. And this time the main role was played by a resident of Milan named Tatyana. She found me in a geotag "Milan, Italy" and asked me to make her eyebrow correction. I, of course, agreed. We met, talked, and I said that I came here to work on Fashion Week, but I don’t know yet how to get there. The next day, Tanya sent me the phone number of the Beautick agency in Milan, led by hair stylist Beppe d'Elia. I wrote there, and I was invited to the casting.
"Casting in Milan for fashion week" sounds frightening, I was terribly nervous. I was late for a couple of minutes, I opened the door - and I was greeted with loud exclamations and hugs. Italy! Makeup artists had to repeat the make-up from the photo, the full set: Smokey, arrows, sculpture, highlight, bright lips, wide eyebrows. If I performed the casting myself, I would have chosen something similar for the test task, so I was absolutely ready. Our hunters Maria and Daniel very often approached and asked questions - how do you mix the tone, what are you going to put and all that. Then we chatted a bit and emotionally said goodbye. I was waiting for an answer, but I wrote them myself a couple of days before the shows. Replied: "Yes, of course, come!"
Fendi First Show
Milan Fashion Week - 2016 began with the fact that on the way to the Fendi show, I accidentally took a train to another city. I do not know what was going on in my head, I was probably too excited. I tried to go back to the station, but got lost. And standing in the middle of a city unknown to me, I understood that preparations for the show had already begun. "How can you be such a fool to be late for the Fendi show ?!" - Spun in my head until the shoulder fell off the bag with makeup. I rubbed my leg, sweating all over while I was running around the city in search of the station. But then I heard that it was Italian that I met a couple of days ago at a cosmetics store. She explained the situation to her, and she said that she would give me a lift. Oh gods, I had time almost at the time.
When I was on the backstage, everyone had already begun work. The head of the make-up team is Peter Philips (for me, only Pat McGrath is cooler). It was very valuable for me to see how Philips works. First, he gathered the whole team around him and from scratch did a make-up of one model, commenting on the process along the way - that is, it was a free Peter workshop. It struck me that neither he nor the others were in a hurry, working, rather, like artists in front of a canvas — measuredly, with an inspired face. The impression was that no one was in a hurry at all, and we were not at the backstage of the show, but at a friendly picnic. Unlike other shows, Fendi didn’t have to repeat makeup one-on-one, a bit of freedom was allowed. But each finished model must be shown to the leading make-up artist: he either says "everything is OK" or shows what to fix.
If something did not work, misunderstood, did not hear - everyone is ready to help
For the first time at Fendi, I saw how street-style bloggers work. They disembark from the cars beforehand and with a practiced walk, walk straight along the road towards the crowd of photographers (the size of the crowd depended on the rank of the blogger), and the policemen specially blocked the street. In general, the amount of celebrity around could tear down the roof, but for some reason I did not blow it down. All these people are very simple and pleasant to talk to, they do not emanate from pathos or snobbery. They are very friendly with the whole team. Probably, therefore, the thoughts "oh my god, superstar, let me touch you" did not arise in my head.
After Fendi, I got sick, so the other shows went to the temperature and in a completely crazy rhythm. For five days, in addition to Fendi, I managed to work on the shows of Philipp Plein, Uma Wang, Piccione.Piccione and Yohanix. I got up at 7-8 in the morning, had breakfast, got ready and rode to the place at the address that was dropped the day before. Then, however, I realized that the addresses could be found on the website of the fashion week.
How they work at Milan Fashion Week
When you arrive at the site, all for some time emotionally acquainted over a cup of coffee. Then comes the main makeup artist and shows today's makeup, which they worked with the stylist the day before. Then each team member chooses a model for himself - and proceeds to work. I do not know how in other fashion weeks, but in Milan I saw a lot of models from Russia, Ukraine and countries of Eastern Europe.
All makeup artists use their cosmetics, but if something is missing, you can always take it from the main makeup artist or from a neighbor. However, it is better if you are ready for anything. In the case should be not only cosmetics, but also a variety of things. Chewing gum, candy, paper tape to remove glitter without damaging the skin, petroleum jelly, eye drops, moisturizer and several make-up remover options. Having it all means that you respect the model.
The difference in the work on top shows from the shows is simpler in that the first make-up artists work sitting and there are more mirrors. Otherwise, everything is the same: organized very cool, buffet and everywhere super-friendly attitude. If something did not work out, misunderstood, did not hear - here everyone is ready to come to your aid without a hint of irritation. They will take it and fix it, no one will say: "Phew, you suck, why did you come here at all?" Time allocate two to three hours for two or three models. For me, this is a lot, I used to work quickly, so I always coped before anyone.
The main trends of the Milan shows are the most natural make-up, no sculpting, natural eyebrows, just gel, light blush and highlight. At the Piccione.Piccione show, we practically didn’t work with the tone, we only masked bruises and red spots, made a light zygomatic correction and “put” eyebrows with an extraordinary hair gel, which we took from hair stylists. Uma Wang was behind a painful look with pink and red pale eyes, Fendi and Philipp Plein did bold makeup with an emphasis on the eyes. And only Yohanix distinguished themselves and wanted a complete make-up: Smokey, brows, sculpturing, Highlight and Burgundy lips. By the way, it was very interesting to observe how different teams of stylists used to achieve the same effect “lay with a wet head, woke up and went” - everyone had his own.
How was this experience useful?
Maybe it will seem strange, but I did not take out any make-up life hacking. Is that it became bolder and on my own experience I understood how makeup interacts with the collection of the designer and the ideas of the stylist. And she pushed her perfectionism a bit: those inaccuracies that are unacceptable in commercial make-up are allowed at the shows - the main thing is to look cool on the photo (you can take it off on the phone and check it), even if it looks weird on the face. As for the rest, I did not see either a new technician or products. I do not know what it is connected with. Perhaps due to the fact that Milan Fashion Week is not as progressive as, for example, New York.
Perhaps we are used to idealize foreign professionals. I was very worried that my level would be significantly lower than that of others. But already at the casting it was clear that only Maria and Daniel themselves are cooler. The rest of the masters were either on a level with me, or they didn’t fail. On this trip, I realized that I was a good make-up artist, the main thing is to develop.
If Peter Phillips behaved like a darling, I have no right to behave otherwise
The Yohanix show has become a landmark for me. First, it began with a flash mob - the models went straight along the main square of the city, and then went down to the room, where they showed the collection to professionals. I really like these performances. And secondly, all of a sudden, I became the main makeup artist. I went to try on makeup the day before and was on the same wavelength with the stylist. A stamp with Korean roots from season to season shows a love for textured fabrics, deliberate details, gold, and hard geometry. I managed to catch this spirit and offer a suitable option. We mixed the hue of the lipstick ourselves, and I made the eyes of our models with the help of Anastasia Beverly Hills turbo shades.
This show has become a real test of my professional ethics. The makeup was quite complicated, and the level of makeup artists on my team was not high enough. The conditions of the problem were devilishly difficult to communicate with my heat and broken Italian-English. Plus, everything was terribly out of the schedule, because they got used to work slowly. Almost every model I had to correct. In the end, I started to get angry and hid it badly, now I scare myself for it: if Peter Phillips behaved like a darling, I have no right to behave otherwise. Then I apologized a hundred times to everyone, we hugged, and everything ended well, but I learned a lesson. It is for this reason that I do not consider this to be my finest hour.
Now the events of February seem like a distant dream. I traditionally plunged headlong into work, but this trip obviously changed something in me. I can not properly assess my experience, because everything was easy for me. That is, I put a lot of effort to be in Milan. But when it turned out, everything began to turn somehow by itself. Now I see how many really talented people in Vladivostok, strong makeup artists. What I, to my surprise, did not see in Milan. And I already have a new goal - to work in the team of Pat McGrath.
Photo: Shutterstock, Daria Yatsenko / Instagram