Face first: Way Bandy, cosmetics and AIDS

Abstract

This article explores the design work and life of the New York based make-up artist Way Bandy. The beauty iconography created by Bandy is an important cultural record as it was imbricated within the larger glamour tropes of the 1970s and the draped, dancing luxury of disco divahood (explored through practice-led research in this article as well). Modes of dress, display and deportment often reflect much larger societal messages and meanings, and I would include the creation and presentation of the contemporaneous face within this cultural mythmaking. Make-up and cosmetics are vital components of that potent matrix, and Way Bandy designed the beauty aesthetic that reflected the sensual glamour of the disco era: glistening lips, alluring beckoning eyes and liquid silhouettes all echoed the promises of liberatory ease and an empowered sexuality for anyone who dared. His engagement with cosmetics was far more than ‘skin deep’ though, as he also engaged with the holistic and therapeutic roots of his artform: cosmetics (a history also explored in this article). Unfortunately, as one of the first fashion celebrities whom we lost to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), his life also must stand as a tragic metonymic of his troubled times, and the theoretical explorations of Susan Sontag from AIDS as Metaphor are included as a way of analysing the application of epidemiological meanings and the consequences of those processes. Ultimately, this research seeks to reclaim the importance of the Bandy legacy as his oeuvre was marginalized after his death, as happened with so many brilliant designers and artists whose deaths from AIDS overshadowed truly amazing careers.