Do Makeup Artsits Make Their Assistants Sign Contracts?

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NEW YORK, Usa — While toying between career aspirations as a translator or professional horse rider, Gucci Westman became au pair to way journalist Anouk Ortlieb, who would take her to shows and share with her the boxes of makeup she was sent.

Drawn in by the "intriguing and romantic" world of fashion shows, Westman enrolled at Parisian makeup school Neo Christian Chauveau. Later v months there she moved to study special effects makeup in Los Angeles, after which she spent a few years assisting makeup artists on the W Declension. Meeting influential figures including filmmakers Fasten Jonze and David Lynch during that time helped her launch onto the freelance makeup creative person scene.

Westman has helped create covers for American Vogue, W, Harper'southward Bazaar, AnOther Magazine and Vanity Fair, working with renowned photographers like Annie Leibovitz, Michael Thompson and Peter Lindbergh. She has created runway looks for Proenza Schouler, Thakoon and Vera Wang and has worked on campaigns for brands like Oscar de la Renta, Missoni, Estée Lauder and Ralph Lauren.

Makeup artist and founder of Westman Atelier, Gucci Westman | Source: Courtesy Makeup creative person and founder of Westman Atelier, Gucci Westman | Source: Courtesy

Makeup artist and founder of Westman Atelier, Gucci Westman | Source: Courtesy

In 2003, Lancôme appointed Westman as their international artistic manager responsible for styling models for advertizement shoots and designing corrective colour collections for the label. From 2008, she spent seven years every bit Revlon's global artistic managing director. And then, in the spring of 2018, Westman launched her own cosmetics line Westman Atelier, stocked at Net-a-Porter, Goop and Bergdorf Goodman. At present, she shares her career advice.

What attracted you to working in beauty?

My mum didn't allow me habiliment makeup which actually compelled me to then wear as much every bit I possibly could. Every bit before long as I went to schoolhouse, I was doing all my friends' makeup on the bus.

I ended up thinking that I would study languages in school in Sweden. I idea I would potentially be a translator or ride horses professionally, and then I went to work every bit an au pair in Switzerland for a French-speaking family that had a horse I could ride. The mother was a fashion critic, who brought me to shows and she gave me boxes and boxes of makeup that had been sent to her. I thought it was so intriguing and romantic.

How did you lot launch your career as a makeup artist?

The woman I was au pairing for helped me discover a makeup school in Paris, Neo Christian Chauveau, and because it was in French, I thought if I'one thousand non good, I won't be wasting my time. It was an incredible experience and a great school. I stayed for v months, considering I got what I needed from it and I wanted to acquire how to do motion picture makeup.

I went to a makeup school in LA called Joe Blasco, which was terrible. They asked me if I would teach later two weeks. But I met a few pivotal people along the way and that was what ready me upward. There are so many talented people in the world, merely if you get a adventure to shine, you have to really do it and you can't let yourself crumble under pressure level.

What was the biggest lesson y'all learnt while starting out?

My first couple of years living in LA, I went to an agency and asked if I could aid their artists, but I never got paid because I didn't know how the process worked. I wasn't sure if the artist or bureau paid me and I didn't desire to make my relationship with the artists awkward, so I just connected working for gratis.

I had 2 roommates at the fourth dimension in this government assisted flat which cost $300 a month. There was never any food, never whatever toilet newspaper because nobody actually wanted to be responsible, but I now run across it as benign considering it gave me work experience. All I wanted was to work as hard every bit I could and gain every bit much knowledge as I could. And then one day, 1 of the artists asked me to practise the makeup on the models and ultimately, I got chosen for the job.

Don't exist static. That tin pb to excuses that you don't feel ready.

I think assisting can actually benefit you if you don't intend on spending too much time [profitable]. It shouldn't be as well many years. It's got to exist a "quick, get as much as you tin can" from that person, assist someone else, peradventure assist some fashion shows but don't be static. That tin can lead to excuses that you don't experience set up.

Are there whatsoever especially memorable experiences during those first years in LA?

That Joe Blasco school told us to buy a tackle box and a managing director's chair — that it was admittedly crucial that we had those two things. They said we should wait for work at the American Film Institute, which I did with my tackle box and director'due south chair, and I did a petty movie that was deferred payment, for which I did continuity, pilus, makeup, etc.

There are times where y'all need to trust your instincts. I slept on the flooring — that job was never going to pay me. I should have known that. But coming together people who yous could potentially work with on a bigger calibration can be hugely impactful.

I ended upwardly meeting Spike Jonze through a friend and nosotros did commercials and videos together, and then I did Being John Malkovich with him. That was an of import coming together — I was very fortunate in the people I met and the timing — but then I was in their frame of mind.

What qualities made yous stand up out while starting out?

I was ambitious and passionate, just I was very sincere. I merely wanted to practise my best and I thought of it equally such a huge opportunity. My parents taught me how of import the value of coin is, the value of your time and how yous spend it. I think that is more difficult to find in younger people today — the gratitude and sense of being fortunate to be in that location. I feel today you come across entitlement a piddling bit more.

How did y'all then make the transition to working in-house?

[Working freelance], you can't guarantee that you lot're going to go the advertising job even though you lot've done all the editorial. It doesn't work that way in mode, so you're not sure how much money you're going to make every year. Simply I didn't really intendance most a contract then. I was having so much fun and I wasn't worried about anything really.

When I got the call to meet with Lancôme, I went to London, I went to Paris and I met with many different executives. We negotiated contracts and they agreed that, if they were given 3 days' notice, they would reschedule a shoot if I got an of import editorial job. And they agreed to information technology, which was awesome.

What skills did you learn from working at a larger beauty corporation?

I learned most all dissimilar types of brands and when they go through a shift, how to exist sensitive to their requirements. You lot learn most global needs when you piece of work with global organisations, from prestige to mass, and what works differently there. The cadence has to be different when it comes to what yous want to do for a brand.

Press is likewise a huge role of it. You accept to be able to speak for yourself and clear your vision. Fifty-fifty though artists may experience shy, it's of import that you get to share your voice. At fashion shows, you lot accept to exercise 30 girls' makeup and talk calmly to journalists while thinking, "Oh God, I only have 20 minutes left and 10 girls left," while withal trying to maintain sophistication.

It'due south important to make those mistakes. Y'all take to fall to be able to improve.

At the end of the day, the girls are going to walk and it's going to be okay. It's almost the teamwork between pilus and makeup. It's important to have smashing assistants that you lot tin rely on. In that location are many pieces that you learn over the years from when yous don't take the strongest team and it's important to make those mistakes. Y'all have to autumn to be able to improve.

What are the most challenging aspects of your role today?

Working with cleaner formulations is challenging. Information technology'southward never about taking something off the shelf from one of our manufacturers, merely information technology's always a battle to push the lab to practise things that they're not as familiar with so I can create my vision without compromising.

There's more than [sustainability] awareness in the cosmetics industry but it's still non what I would desire it to be. When we started, we were hyper-focused on the conception and the operation. Now we also take to contain the sustainability piece. That'due south number one on our to-practise listing: how do we get more sustainable as quickly equally nosotros can? Merely in the cosmetics industry, nothing is really quick.

What core skills are essential for success in dazzler?

I think it's important you have some kind of emotional connection to your trade if you're a makeup creative person. It's of import, through that extension of yourself, that you experience honest. Information technology's not a part-time gig — you have to be in it 100 pct.

Be sensitive to people's needs considering you encounter all unlike types. You work with actresses one twenty-four hour period, models the next, athletes and singers. You take to wear many hats and be able to adapt to various situations — sometimes the photographer doesn't desire your opinion and sometimes they really want your stance.

In makeup, yous have to kind of be a psychologist. Y'all have to be sensitive to your surroundings, to know when to speak up and when to be quiet. That's why information technology's disquisitional to gain every bit much time in the saddle as possible. You demand to be nimble. Be conscious of your surroundings, the time yous take and how you communicate ideas.

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Source: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/workplace-talent/how-i-became-a-makeup-artist/

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