Kevyn Aucoin's handywork transformed me into a 50's Italian beauty for just one night.

One evening in 1994, I went to dinner with my then boyfriend Ken, my friend from Charavari, Donald Reuter [who by that time was working for Mr. Beene], and his boyfriend, the makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin. We went to see one of the Terminator movies, grabbed pizza and went on to Kevyn’s amazing little 2-story house complete with front garden in the rear yard of a building on the edge of Soho/Little Italy. Kevyn asked if he could do my make up and I said yes, of course. Kevyn was already “famous” by pre-internet or social media standards and spent much of his working life with the likes of Naomi, Cindy, Whitney and Dolly. Though he would be remembered for his approach to individual, “natural” beauty, he was a master of transformational makeup, turning Isabella Rossalini into Baraba Streisand and Gwyneth Paltrow into James Dean among many others. I was to be a mid-century Italian bombshell a la Maria Callas. Arched eyebrows, reshaped features, full lips and a beauty mark. Dark wig in place and the transformation was complete. I was still in the white t-shirt, jeans and boots I had been wearing that evening out. We admired his handiwork, Kevyn took polaroids and then he took it all off.