‘Break every rule’: Inside the beauty looks of Studio 54’s return

When make-up artist and human rights advocate Yadim Carranza heard that Valentino Beauty was planning to reopen the doors to the legendary Studio 54 for one night only, he knew it needed to be a strictly New York affair. And it was – on September 10, New York icons Ladyfag and Honey Dijon gathered alongside Studio 54 personalities Cher, Maripol and Pat Cleveland, and Valentino Beauty stars Colman Domingo and Adut Akech to pay homage to the good old days. Live music and theatrical interventions unfolded across the dance floor, with the DJ lineup including former Studio 54 resident Nicky Siano, Honey Dijon and The Dare. Walking through the marble and under the chandeliers felt like taking a journey through the mythology of the star-studded nightclub, albeit tamer. Instead of cigarette girls carrying, well, cigarettes, they were handing out candies, chocolates and bottles of fragrance from the new Valentino Beauty 2025 Rendez-Vous Ivory Collection. Instead of cocaine-filled cocktail tables, there were Reese’s chocolates. 

One thing that wasn’t at all toned down was the make-up looks that served as part of the temporary Studio 54 revival. Backstage, Carranza was working on Robert Palmer-style make-up for the cigarette girls. “There’s a little Rocky Horror in there somewhere as well,” he says. For Ladyfag, Carranza channelled “a lot of rouge” with a dark, vampy lip to go with her extravagant, fluffy purple coat and ginormous disco hair. There were sections of angels that were sparkly, shimmery and ethereal and a few punk make-up moments thrown in the mix “just for fun”. 

Before the night began, we chatted with Carranza backstage about breaking rules, using beauty as a gateway for activism, finding inspiration in resistance and what we can take forward with us today from the days of Studio 54 debauchery.

What’s your earliest beauty-related memory? 

Yadim Carranza: Being probably five and watching my mother come out of the bathroom in the pink robe that she always wore in the mornings. She’d put the towel on her head and start doing her face in front of the mirror. I would sit on the toilet and just watch her, mesmerised by the transformation process that would happen. I come from a family of Mexican women who took glamour very seriously, so I think it rubbed off on me. 

What was your journey into make-up? 

Yadim Carranza: The first time I realised it was a profession was when my mum called me over to her one day. She was watching Oprah, and Kevyn Aucoin was on the show. He was promoting one of the iconic books he did in the late 90s and early 2000s. I was completely compelled, and my mum saw how excited I got, so she bought me the book soon after. Those books became my bible. 

Do you have a beauty philosophy?

Yadim Carranza: Break every rule. Fuck it, break every rule. I really do feel that way. To me, make-up means rebellion, identity and freedom. I think those would be the closest words that describe my relationship with make-up. 

Break every rule. Fuck it, break every rule. I really do feel that way. To me, make-up means rebellion, identity and freedom

You took a break from 2018 to late 2020. Tell me about that decision and what you did during that time?

Yadim Carranza: I got sober. I was already sober during the pandemic and was in a really great community of amazing people. It was a good, safe space for me to be in at the time. I just took care of myself. I like the idea of getting back into work and into the world and bringing that kind of self-love with me. It’s a very important part of my day-to-day life.  

What else do you think you learned from being away from make-up and the industry and then coming back to it?

Yadim Carranza: I learned that I’m not my job. That I have worth and power outside of what I do or how much I produce. I learned that community, family, relationships and connection are everything. 

What are you trying to communicate through your work?

Yadim Carranza: This business of fashion, hair and make-up can be quite superficial and artificial. What interests me now more than anything is how we can use this power that we have to make deeper statements and scratch past the surface to find ways to actually shift the culture or influence social issues and causes. That’s very important to me. I’m a big human rights advocate and, as weird as it sometimes sounds, I think beauty is a gateway to exploring these deeper issues in our culture and humanity. 

How did you want to pay tribute to Studio 54 tonight?

Yadim Carranza: There was obviously a version of this night that could be very corporate, like an activation. When Valentino Beauty and I started chatting about this, what was really important to me was getting people like Lady Fag and Honey Dijon involved – actual New York kids that are throwing the best parties. I knew we needed to make this an actual New York party. That’s what I wanted to bring to this. I knew it shouldn’t be something an influencer comes to just to get their make-up done. My little touch to this was that it should be a party, and people should be going crazy because that’s what Studio 54 was, right? It was debauchery, so a way to honour is to make our own version of debauchery. 

You’ve done a lot of major looks. I’m curious, what’s the hardest one that you’ve ever had to pull off?

Yadim Carranza: One of the most stressed I’ve ever been was backstage at a Marnie show a couple of seasons ago. We had really intense brows, and we were almost out of time. I’m usually pretty calm and cool and collected, but I was kind of freaking out. My team and I came up with a great hack for hiding brows, which involves using tattoo film and putting concealer on top of that because it flattens the surface, so it looks really, really smooth. We were already doing that at the time, so what I think I learned from that day was that I needed a bigger team and more space because we were crammed in this tiny little basement with no air. 

My inspiration is my community of activists and queer people who are out on the street, not allowing what’s happening in the world right now to happen. The people who are resisting inspire me. Resistance inspires me more than anything. 

Is there anything you haven’t tried yet that you would like to?

Yadim Carranza: I would love to work closely with nonprofits. It’s something I’m in the process of doing. 

What about your current inspiration? Who are your beauty icons right now? 

Yadim Carranza: My inspiration is my community of activists and queer people who are out on the street, not allowing what’s happening in the world right now to happen. The people who are resisting inspire me. Resistance inspires me more than anything. 

What do you think we should learn from the world of Studio 54?

Yadim Carranza: What’s interesting about 54 days is what it was pre-HIV and AIDS, and so everyone was very free-loving. I’m sure there were a lot of scandalous things going on. Right now, we’re living in a time where the queer community is having a resurgence of sexual liberation, for many reasons, like because HIV and AIDS are obviously very controlled now with medication like PrEP and ART. There’s this idea of a new liberation that's happening right now, and I think we can borrow a bit of that controlled hedonism (because we still want to be healthy, safe and protect ourselves) to bring back into our lives in some way. Queer joy is also radical, and celebration is resistance. It’s also our way to protest and to say: you are not going to take away our happiness.