Backstage Beauty

A DYNAMIC CHAT with REGAN RABANAL, ONE OF the INDUSTRY’S MOST KNOWN NAMES, ON WHAT’S it ACTUALLY LIKE BEING BEHIND the SCENES at FASHION SHOWS

- CHELSEA TANG

‘‘I guess, things can get a little crazy for us when you have top models running late, with a full look on from the previous show. If there’s no time, they’ll have to get dressed first, then do their makeup in line-up,” Regan Rabanal says, then pauses. Through the phone, there is the sound of water splashing into a glass. The senior manager of makeup artistry at M.A.C Cosmetics takes a sip and continues, “Line-up is where everyone starts lining up right before they get sent out to the runway. It can get quite hysterical. I remember we spotted a huge bruise on this girl’s knee in lineup, and she was wearing a gown with a slit. The line was moving, we’re all on our knees trying to conceal this bruise, using portable light to correctly blend things out, and the girl was getting flustered,” he says. “But that’s like the worst of it. Was it a catastrophe? Nah.”

It’s 11am on a Monday and I felt a small tinge of guilt chatting Rabanal up on the realities of being backstage this early in the day. His many riveting stories were enough to keep this writer at the edge of her seat. I wondered if he could feel my anxiety as I listened to him narrate his experiences all the way from Hong Kong, where he’s currently based, experiences that included a makeup artist “somehow forgetting [his] perfectly clean makeup brushes” and “sometimes having only 15 minutes to put on a look”. We both shared a chuckle, and he tells me that the mood backstage is more exciting and invigorating, as fashion shows tend to come hand in hand with lots of energy from people with dynamic personalities. “We always just smile through it, concentrate, and have teamwork,” he says.