As my close friends know, I’ve been basically obsessed with Sex and the City since episode 1. I can quote every episode almost word for word. So you can imagine my surprise when while rewatching an episode called “The Real Me” yesterday (on Bravo!, or E!, or some channel that ends in an exclamation point and loves to rerun SATC) in which Carrie Bradshaw models in the New York Style Fashion show, I saw something I’d never noticed before: the late, great Kevyn Aucoin!
Kevyn Aucoin pokes his head in the mirror’s reflection and consoles Carrie while she’s stressing over her model look (you remember, the flared jacket and sequined underpants). Kevyn reassures her that he’s going to make her look fabulous, an interaction Carrie has had one too many times that day. She requires a little additional pep talk and some champagne courage from Stanford Blatch and Samantha Jones, before snapping her heel in a fierce stomp down the catwalk next to Heidi Klum. Yikes!
I know he’s not a unique choice for a makeup artist cameo, but Kevyn Aucoin is my favorite makeup artist of all time, because of simply that: he was an artist. His love of makeup was in the creative, transformational vein, and his work is absolutely compelling. Kevyn was an icon in the truest sense, and in losing him the makeup industry lost a bit of its spirit and joie de vivre.
Are you new to Kevyn Aucoin’s work? Below are a couple of his amazing transformations (go buy his books Making Faces and Face Forward now if you don’t own them, where he does makeup transformations for Christina Ricci, Liza Minelli, Tori Amos and countless other celebrities and models):
Best view i have ever seen !