NYWIFT Honors Designing Women

NYWIFT's annual Designing Women event to honoring behind the scenes artists in makeup, hair, and costumes for film and television is traditionally warm, informative, with a lot of laughs. This year, John Turturro, proclaiming himself a woman in film trapped in a man's body, presented an award to his Yale Drama School classmate, Donna Zakowski, Sam Waterston to Marianne Skiba, and Gossip Girl'sBlake Lively amidst a sea of screaming girls gave the plaque to Jennifer Johnson, whose hairstyles-up, down, or with a strand of pearls woven through-- then become a world wide trend. All are extremely talented women who work in this tough business, often having to be on the set at 4 A.M., to make the glamorous look even more so. Donna Zakowska said that for her work on the HBO miniseries John Adams, she had to find the hero in the unattractive, referring to the title role, the complex character played by Paul Giamatti. And, their job does not end with the flourish of a blush brush. So much depends upon person-to-person chemistry, preparing actors psychologically to shine. Sam Waterston quipped, “hair and makeup should be called the mental health department.” Saturday Night Live's Ana Gasteyer hosted the Q&A announcing how hard it was to prepare for this particular evening. As an actress she often takes free-bees and said she was wearing 6-year-old foundation from SNL, and now worried that her face was caking. But not everything was free. She assuring the amused crowd, her blowout cost plenty.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura