Gucci Westman has spent decades as a makeup artist, with a résumé spanning red carpet beauty, dozens of editorials and even a blockbuster namesake brand.
The journey to get to where she is now, as WWD’s 2026 Style Awards recipient for Red Carpet Makeup Artist of the Year, has spanned continents, collaborators and backgrounds in both painting and special effects makeup.
“There’s so much of it that people don’t necessarily know,” she said.
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Westman, who went to Switzerland at the age of 18 to become an au pair, thought she would leverage the opportunity to learn French and pursue a linguistically oriented line of work. Instead she was introduced to a whole new world.
“The woman in the family was a fashion journalist who would bring me to all the fashion shows in Paris,” Westman said. “She gave me all of her giant PR makeup boxes from Dior, Chanel, Saint Laurent. It was like someone sending me a Chanel handbag or Hermès Birkin every day. That’s how happy I was.”
Westman loved painting as a child, and her affinity for makeup developed rapidly. She attended makeup school in Paris, as well as special effects courses in Los Angeles. The latter led to Westman cracking into the editorial world.
“They brought me on this job with Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair, and I was tasked with making a puddle of blood, and I met Lori Goldstein on that job,” Westman said, referring to the famed stylist. From there, Westman went on to continue working with Leibovitz, as well as Bruce Weber, and Grace Coddington became a regular collaborator on editorials, leading to Westman’s own cameo appearance in the first “Sex and the City” movie.
“They came to New York and I went to Los Angeles,” Westman said. “I met Spike Jonze, I was working a lot with him and doing music videos and commercials. I did ‘Being John Malkovich,’ which is when I met Cameron Diaz. That was a big shift in my career.”
From there, she began to work with talent more regularly, as well as on set with the likes of Patrick Demarchelier for Vogue.
Among her greatest hits, Westman called out a cover of Harper’s Bazaar she did with Diaz. “That was with Patrick Demarchelier,” she said. “I did purple eye shadow. It was a close portrait of her, and she just looked so hot.”
One year, for the Met Gala, “I was doing Julianne Moore at her apartment on West 11th Street, and then I had to do Stella McCartney and all of her muses at The Carlyle. It was four people,” she recalled.
“I need to be my best version of myself in the sense that I prepare myself properly with everything — including the proper amount of assistants, the proper briefing. And if I’m doing more than one person, logistically, I have everything fully planned out in terms of timing, and I always pad my schedule.”
Westman’s versatility — and focus — is one of her secret weapons, as well as her attunement to her clientele. “I like to always feel that I’m understanding the assignment, and depending on who I’m working with, the objective may change. I currently work a lot with Anne Hathaway and Nicole Kidman. I always try to do something slightly different, but I never want to create some show pony for makeup. I don’t think they’re interested in that, either.”
Her time working on music videos, movies and commercials still informs her work in real life. “That gave me a sense of character development that I definitely infuse into my makeup. I love enhancing the skin, I love making women just look like a really incredible version of themselves. You can have an edge, I like to still have a little twist. When it’s appropriate, you can get your rocks off creatively.
“I always try to err on the side of just serious elegance, sophistication and chicness — not overdone, silly or off,” she continued. “I would be so mortified if the people I enlisted to take care of me for these big events looked anything but incredible.”
Westman certainly feels the pressure — “I don’t know if you’ve ever watched someone go down the red carpet and thought, ‘oh no,’ but there’s so much trust in that process,” she said — but she handles it coolly. “You want these people to utterly trust you and never feel like you’re not going to have their best interests at heart.”
In that vein, she thinks success goes beyond how makeup looks on a client or in photographs of them. “There are so many considerations. It’s not just down to the artistry. It’s teamwork, working together. If one of you is slightly struggling, then you build each other up and help each other. You’ve got to get it done — there’s no option, there’s a timeframe, you need to work together. That collaborative essence is critical.”
In terms of how she manages her nerves, “working on fashion shows for so many years helps. It was a really great learning experience for how to manage nerves and manage performance under pressure, because you have a lot of people and everything needs to be smooth. You also have to navigate doing press and interviews, and there’s a set timeframe.”
Since starting out working with talent, Westman thinks that red carpet beauty has become more commercial. “I definitely couldn’t imagine where it’s going because it moves so quickly. But it has evolved,” she said. “I love the blend of commentators, like at the Oscars [in 2024]. There’s more irony, I love that it’s so fun, it feels so much lighter. The comedic aspect for me makes it much more enjoyable to watch.”
As far as parlaying all of that expertise into her makeup brand, Westman Atelier, which she launched in 2018, she relies heavily on the products she’s created herself.
“I feel fortunate to know our products so well, so I know if I want something that’s gonna last longer, I know which products I’m going to choose. If we don’t have that specific product, then I will go to the best of the best — say, a liquid eyeliner. I’m not going to wing it with a pencil,” she said. “The outcome is the paramount piece of this, and luckily, we have a lot of things I typically use. When it comes to powder eye shadow, liquid liner or waterproof mascara, those are things I sometimes need to borrow from other brands. And that’s fine, of course. I’m an artist and I don’t always have to talk about our products.”
