An enterprising face for fashion
Bright lights, groovy music, top designers and hairstylists. Add beautiful young faces to the mix and the perfect canvas emerges to create an energy unique to New York Fashion Week, one of four major vogue events worldwide, and inspire Sébastien Tardif, BFA 96, to shine as an entrepreneurial makeup artist.
Tardif has spent 11 years perfecting his craft at Big Apple events for Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. He knew makeup artistry was his destiny by his final semester in Studio Arts. Indeed, Tardif’s career fell into place shortly after he completed his BFA.
Tardif brought his love of fashion to what he calls an “obsession with people’s faces” and completed a three-month intensive makeup course. Then he set off for Toronto where he landed his first job as a makeup artist at Holt Renfrew.
He rose through the ranks and travelled the world as a Bobbi Brown Cosmetics artist at fashion shows and top magazines. His artistry has enhanced the likes of Glenn Close, Naomi Campbell, Nelly Furtado, Jane Fonda and Debbie Harry. His work has appeared in Vogue, Marie Claire, Elle and Glamour.
As he traveled around North America working on photo shoots and shows he also built a reputation in such avant-garde fashion capitals as London and Paris, which suited him because beauty makeup — for fashion shoots and runways — is his passion.
“It was perfect,” recalls Tardif. “I had the energy and dedication it required.”
Soon Asia beckoned. It was there where Tardif discovered eastern sensibilities in skincare. “They focus first on cleaning and moisturizing to make their skin look good, because if the skin looks good, you can do anything with the face.”
Blending that ideology with skills honed in New York and his understanding of colour theory picked up at Concordia, Tardif created his own cosmetic line — Veil, light-infused cosmetics — and established his trademarked Lightfast Technology.
Tardif’s voice fills with passion when he talks about New York Fashion Week and Veil Cosmetics. Yet he’s humble. He says he appreciates the foundation Concordia gave him. “Starting with a fine arts degree from Concordia is the best thing I could have done.”
Tardif recalls how he was drawn to Concordia’s Department of Studio Arts because its professors were working artists with pieces in museums. “They were creating a relevant environment that took root in the real world,” he says.
When Tardif returned to New York Fashion Week earlier this year he launched Veil, not in a museum but on a fashion runway.
Tardif’s art form has taken root — with international recognition.
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