The theme may have been camp, but Gaga took us to fashion church.
“I’ve been through a lot with [Gaga]” says Sarah Tanno, longtime makeup artist to the pop sensation and 2019 Met Gala co-host, tells The Post.
“For me, this was more stressful than the Super Bowl,” says Tanno, who was part of the entourage that accompanied Gaga down the pink carpet. The 20-minute performance took three weeks to perfect and rehearse, and featured four outfit changes, a slew of props and of course jaw-dropping glam.
“It took her three days to convince me to go on the carpet with her,” says Tanno, who was seen touching up the look with blush during Gaga’s third costume change, a tight hot pink gown by Brandon Maxwell.
Adv.
- Sun Winning Ind Co: Manufacture of Canvas Bag, Recycle Bad in China
- TheUniTravel.com : Find the latest travel and tourism news from around the world. Stay informed with travel news and updates
“It’s so important to her to be authentic,” says Tanno. “Being on the carpet is not my space, but she told me, ‘I don’t want a dancer to hand me my lip gloss. You did my make up so you should do it.’ ”
In the end, she says, “It was rewarding.”
Tanno says her over-the-top beauty idea was a hard sell, but “in the end she went with it.”
“There’s so many elements to styling a red carpet, I’m on a chat with the stylist and hair people weeks before, creating mood boards and sharing ideas.”
The makeup artist workshopped 20 different looks, trying 10 out on her assistant before presenting her camp-inspired look to the Oscar winner.
The final look took no foundation — “I think it’s much sexier when you can see a woman’s skin, it’s more approachable” — but a lot of tape. “I taped her face back so her eye’s wouldn’t be droopy. She wore the eyelashes for eight hours and they were heavy,” says the Marc Jacobs Beauty Ambassador on the “Joanne” singer. Tanno used the brand’s new moisturizing gel creme, which officially drops at the end of the month but is available till Wednesday in honor of the gala.
For the crystal liner, Tanno looked to balding men for tips.
“I built the liner on toupee tape and cut it out. I only use Swarovski, usually their AB crystals because they shine so well on stage.”
In addition to liner, the rest of the look (which Tanno calls “intense”) required three sets of foundation lashes. “The one on the bottom was dipped in glitter,” before the gold foil spike appliques. Mascara (Velvet Noir Major Volume by Marc Jacobs) gave it a seamless finish.
Glamming the star took an hour and a half at the Pierre Hotel, and a slew of dress handlers, “we had the wagon too!” says Tanno. But the work was well worth it to earn the excited approval of Anna Wintour, the chair of the party for twenty years running.
When asked how anyone could top the fashion show performance from Gaga, the Vogue editor reportedly screamed, “They can’t!”