Backstage Beauty: Tanya Taylor F/W18 At NYFW

Many only get to see the glamour and poise on the runway. However, before the show, the backstage mania is very real and is a unique experience, all on its own.

On February 4th, for the Tanya Taylor show, there were almost 10 makeup artists in the room, working on models within the stressful crunch of time. Additionally, several photographers, bloggers, influencers and publicists were in the room getting a glimpse of the process that takes place before it all hits the runway.

The Knockturnal spoke with Keri Blair, who is a senior artist with Mac Cosmetics as she explained the look that was being produced at the Tanya Taylor Show.

“The look today was designed by one of my co-workers, Regan Rabanal, who is also a senior artist at MAC. And basically the key product or the focus product is pure white chromo-line, which is a long-wearing gel liner from Mac Pro. We are using a very small brush and painting it into the water line. We chose to use this product because it actually is very long wearing. Once you put it in, you don’t have to worry about applying it a hundred times. On the deeper skin girls, we are using more of a beige pencil.”

It seemed like the most important factor was the eye, and to make sure that the white/beige color was a statement. Blair went on to explain the rest of the features and said:

“The rest of the features are sort of perfected. We’re perfecting the eyebrow giving some strength to the girl and then highlighting and contouring with a cream highlighting and contouring. So we’re using mid-tone sepia, which is a cream color based by Mac and then luna-color cream is the highlight…”

“According to Regan the girls need to look a little tough but a little bit cool. There’s an iciness to it, a strength to it, but also a delicacy – which I think is really beautiful because it’s so understated with this white line just sort of  floating on the face. It’s quite beautiful and poetic.”

When many of us see the models and designs on the runway, we fail to remember that so much has gone into making this whole showcase come to life. Observing and talking to people backstage puts all of it into perspective. Everyone involved in the process, admirably pays so much attention to detail. There’s an incredible discipline to a team whose goal is to perfect the art and compliment the designs.