Cruella: Hair and makeup designer Nadia Stacey was inspired by Westwood, Dior and Galliano

A head in striking black and white. Red lips. A beauty mark. Eyes with a glint in them.

We’re talking about Cruella De Vil, of course.

To children in the ’90s, she was the nightmare who wanted to skin the poor pups in 101 Dalmatians, but in Cruella the movie, we get to meet a child named Estella, who at a young age befriended a pair of thieves and learned to survive by making mischief.

As a young woman, Estella (played by Emma Stone) knows a thing or two about fashion, and her flair for it catches the attention of Baroness von Hellman (played by Emma Thompson), a fashion designer and icon.

The movie plays out a series of events that lead to the transformation of Estella to Cruella De Vil, and part of that fantasy was very much the brainchild of the movie’s hair and makeup designer, Nadia Stacey.

Over Zoom, we asked the Academy Award winner about her inspiration behind the intricate and beautiful looks of Estella/Cruella and the Baroness, as well as why creating looks for this movie was perhaps one of the biggest challenges of her career.

Cruella is a story about transformation. How did you communicate that with hair and makeup?

Nadia Stacey (NS): Well, I think it’s about the hair and makeup following who she is as a character during that time. As she’s gaining more confidence and finding out who she is, Estella is perfecting her own looks and perfecting her own designs.

At the start, there was a real decision to make Estella’s look to be as simple as possible, while still referencing the ’70s. As she grows as a character, it’s about adding all those things that she’s been collecting into her look… so the transformation can be dramatic.

Whenever we see Cruella appear, she wants to make a splash, she wants to make a statement. That allowed me the creativity to really go for it and make sure that those moments, we could go from looking very subtle to this psychotic fashionista.

I think the transformation was kind of easy because I was allowed to be as brave as possible.

What did your mood boards look like?

NS: The mood boards were crazy. We had a huge room and the mood boards went all around the room. I mean, we had them up for so long and I just couldn’t stop adding things to them! Because the scope was so big, it didn’t feel like there was any kind of barrier on where I could go with it.

I had references from the 18th century, the ’50s to the ’70s and ’80s. And of course, high fashion. Galliano, Westwood, Dior, everything that caught my eye, even if it was just the shape of the eye or the shape of the hair. It was up on the board.

All that prep was trying to find new ways to twist things and change things, because all hair and makeup has kind of been done before in some variation. So it’s about trying to change that and twist it slightly and mess that up.

There’s a look when she has an 18th century wig but I’ve done it that it’s going off to the side, like this so it’s all messed up, and it’s black and white. And so it just messes with your your your mind a bit.

Was Emma Stone involved in the process of creating the looks?

NS: So when my team and I started on this, I kept saying that I feel like a little bit like a Estella and Cruella in that I was borrowing all these different ideas and these looks and then creating Cruella from that.

When Emma (Stone) arrived — and it’s so great because we have an existing relationship from The Favourite — I knew what’s going to work on her and I knew what she would like. She’s so up for dressing up and playing the role, and to throw the rulebook out and just go for it. I don’t think there was ever a time that she kind of pulled back on a look. It was more and more, and “let’s do it!”.

How long does it actually take for you to create a look from start to finish?

NS: Well first, there’s the prep time – and that’s weeks of breaking down each scene and figuring out the look. When we actually get the artist in the chair, the looks can take around two hours to get them ready for set.

The longest [time for] makeup was the black and white ball because the mask that Emma Stone wears is glued to her face and the jewels and feathers are individually placed.

Also there’s a scene when she arrives on a garbage truck and she has an 18th century style wig on her head and her makeup is again glued on jewel by jewel so that took a long time.

Which was your favourite part of the movie? Do you see yourself in Cruella or Estella?

NS: Oh, I just loved the moments when she arrives to something. So whether it’s on the motorbike and showing a look, or some impactful moment. I felt like they were the moments when Cruella was coming alive. She was creating herself and showing the world who she is.

For myself and Jenny (Beavan, the costume designer), those were real moments of us going “tada!” to everybody, so that was really great.

[[nid:530620]]

[On Estella vs. Cruella] I would say that I’m sort of a mix of both. I feel like the more that I’ve talked about this movie, the more I’ve realised that actually, there’s a bit of an Estella and Cruella in me in that I don’t want to follow other designs. I want to throw the rulebook away,

I want to do unexpected things. I want to do things that people might love and some people might not get for a moment. I love that. I think there’s a braveness in that and creativity in that.

I think that’s who Cruella is as well. Not everyone’s going to love her but she is who she is. And I think that’s a lot about the movie actually about kind of being who you are as well. So, yeah, I’m a bit of both!

The film is about two powerful women. What were were differences behind the looks for Estella/Cruella and the Baroness?

NS: There were so many. I had lots of pictures of Debbie Harry from Blondie from the 1970s that was very much my kind of thoughts for Estella. The hair is kind of simple, but there’s a kind of a slight punkiness to it, but still a kind of beauty and fashion to it.

I found lots of inspiration from [drag makeup] because I love the idea that drag artists spend time creating their look and persona.

I also had David Bowie on the wall. [The transformation of] David Bowie into Ziggy Stardust… that makeup was so out there at the time and so incredible. It’s so iconic now that I wanted to be along those lines.

Was Cruella the most difficult movie you worked on?

NS: Cruella was the most difficult but I say that in the sense [of] the scope of it. It was the most amazing experience. And you know, I worry that I’ve reached the peak of creativity because what do you do after that? Am I ever allowed to be that creative again?

It was also difficult in that Cruella is such an iconic character. There’s so many Disney fans that love Cruella, so to come in and change it is slightly worrying because I hope people understand and they love what we’ve done. I think the fact that its origin allows us the freedom to do that.

[[nid:522026]]

But that, yeah, it was just so huge in scope.

And I kind of set myself up because every time you see her, she’s got a different look. And so every time was a bigger challenge and a bigger challenge and a bigger challenge.

And every time we had one of those impactful moments, and people go, “wow, she looks incredible”, then I think: oh, we’ve got another one coming next week. What do I do for this one?

And just the speed of changing these looks! For every time you see her, we had a set amount of wigs, and then we had to change those wigs and add pieces and bangs on… It was very creative but amazing!

Is there another origin story you're hoping to work on?

I think all of these Disney characters with origin stories or you know, a sequel - I think would be really interesting to work on. Because the characters are so strong, it would be great to work on the development of who they are.

But I think Cruella is special in the sense for me, particularly there is a huge fashion element to it that allows such scope for hair and makeup, so I feel like I've been absolutely spoiled [by working with] this character.

Cruella launches in Singapore on May 27, 2021.

This article was first published in The Singapore Women's Weekly.