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“I like to try and make myself look like a doll. Like one of those creepy porcelain ones,” says Glasgow, Scotland–based artist Sgàire Wood. As we discuss her personal aesthetic, she pinpoints the general mood as “very camp I suppose—kind of like that scene when Drew Barrymore dresses up E.T. but like, if that was set in the Edwardian era.” Think big: Big eyes, big lips, big clothes. From Wood’s perspective, the bigger the things that surround you, the smaller and more childlike you appear. This skill for creating cosmetic looks that are both “hyperreal” and “wistfully nostalgic for the lullaby baby-powder-scented innocence of childhood” has led to collaborations with photographer Tim Walker, designer Dilara Findikoglu, and even a casual stroll down the Vetements runway.
After Wood’s rebellious streak of chill-goth makeup at an all-boys school in Northern Ireland, she studied fashion and textiles before moving into more transformative looks, discovering drag performance as a new creative outlet, and finding inspiration on the internet. “It’s really part of the queer millennial experience to find your sense of identity and belonging online,” Woods notes. Beauty ideas are often pulled from illustrations of faces, cartoons, and the features painted onto dolls. “I’m really inspired by the juxtaposition between authenticity and artifice embodied in dolls and mannequins and automatons, I think that’s a thread that runs through most of the things I’m drawn to,” says Wood. “Not only the makeup, but also the way I dress is to kind of self-infantilize,” she shares. “I think I’m uncomfortable with the sexualization of my body because to be sexual is to be gendered. The desexualized babydoll is born out of that.” Her personal soundtrack of “happy, hardcore techno remixes of Enya, Sinéad O’Connor, or Sarah McLachlan” speaks to another facet of her aesthetic, “a postmodern parody of itself.”
After pulling her red hair back to begin the cosmetic metamorphosis, a fair shade of Fenty Pro-Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation creates a base. “It’s really good for creating a super matte, almost powdery surface to build on, like you’re painting a porcelain doll,” she explains. “Also, once it sets, it kind of lasts all night.” Mapping exaggerated features onto her face means using eyeshadows like watercolors. “You can mix colors on the back of your hands, and once it dries, it has pretty good staying power, even if it’s cheap or low-quality eyeshadow,” she points out. Shaved eyebrows provide a larger canvas to rearrange and exaggerate features as needed. Lining the eyes with black liner, Woods draws a thick lower fringe of lashes that hovers over her cheekbones. Kat Von D Tattoo Eyeliner and Jeffree Star liquid lipstick in Drug Lord (which mimics the whites of the eyes) provide budge-proof detailing. Wood’s natural mouth is completely covered with more foundation before an overblown set of lips are redrawn with creases and lines. The iris of each hand-painted eye is given a starry highlight before Woods adds oversized black novelty contact lenses, and upper and lower strips of heavy faux lashes. A waist-grazing wig of fuzzy platinum waves completes the transformation.
“I think it’s gonna transition me really smoothly from day to night,” Woods says of the “shape-eliminating” ’80s-era Victorian fairytale bridesmaid dress that she altered into one of her favorite babydoll shapes and donned for the occasion. “It’s definitely my go-to silhouette because I like my shoulders. Plus, the more volume, the better! I want to look like Princess Diana at her wedding every time I’m wearing a dress.” On her way out the door, Woods pulls on a pair of watchband-embellished flats, a design that came to her in a dream. Offering up a “hoarders guide to Glasgow,” Wood’s destination is Randall’s Antiques and Vintage Centre, a decades-old market. Spinning through aisles, perching on chaise lounges and grasping at crystal baubles with a pair of rhinestone-dotted gloves, Woods looks right at home. “How we dress, how we present, the person we see when we look in the mirror and why that person is different than the person everyone else sees—these are important things that really affect our mental health and how we function as a society,” says Woods, adding: “You’re only setting yourself up for a fall if you take yourself too seriously.”
Director: Posy Dixon
Director of Photography: Henry Lockyer
Visual Director, Vogue.com: Samantha Adler
Producer, Vogue.com: Kimberly Arms
Sound: Matthew Groak
Camera PA: Ewan Gaff
Production Assistant: Nicola Henry
Driver: James Ferguson
Production: Liv Proctor, Luca
Editor: Daniel Poler
Title Design: Jason Duzansky
Animation: Rinaldi Parungao and Mango Motion Design
Archive: Damien Frost, Tristan Perez Martin, Cordova, Tiu Makkonen, Armin Morbach, TUSH magazine, and Holly Revell
With thanks: Tom Joyce, Barrowland, Andy Randall, and Randall’s