MAKE-UP, HAIR, DANCE, PHOTOGRAPHY, & MODELING: Steps by Jeannette Williams on her path to becoming the creative enigma she’s always wanted to be.

TALENT + PHOTOS BY Jeannette Williams ★ WORDS BY Kika Naranjo

Lots of people call themselves multidisciplinary arts, all-encompassing arts, but not everyone has the portfolio to back it as Jean does. Entrusted with the hair and makeup of icons such as the Clermont Twins, JT, and Dreamdoll; her face on the occasional Brandon Blackwood campaign the list only goes on and grows further by the week with Jean. All this to get her creative visions just right. Now tapped into photography, Jean now has her feet in everyone’s place on set. Nonetheless, she took some time to let me know how going with the flow was her way out of the box and let me know what mental switches happen behind and in front of cameras.

KIKA: Today, I have the pleasure of being here with Jean. How are you feeling?

JEANNETTE: I’m good, I’m excited to talk and get the interview going. 

So, I know you label yourself as a multiple-disciplinary artist. I bet your weeks are crazy. What has your last week been like?

My last week has been a little bit less crazy than normal. I mostly did a few, fun personal projects this week. I helped one of my friends with one of her vintage collections. I just got back from being in Miami for work with a client. 

Nice, how was Miami?

It was great, it was my first time there. I was working with a client doing some creative direction, hair, and makeup. I love Miami, I had never been there before.

That’s cool, I’m glad you had a nice time. So, you’re doing creative curation, hair, makeup, and digital photography – am I missing anything?

Yeah, that’s mostly it. A lot of the things I do are for creative necessity. I feel like sometimes with projects I do I have to do everything. Overall as a creative, I’m trying to step away from too many labels or being known for too many things. I’m working towards being a creative enigma within itself. My end goal is to do something with all of those things mixed. 

Wow, yeah. I like the term you used, creative enigma. [laughs] What’s your [star]-sign?

I am a Pisces. I’m a February Pisces. I’m pretty antisocial but I also have so many thoughts in my head so I find myself saying things a lot.

Yeah definitely. So can you describe each of your arts to me?

VISUALS DIRECTED BY MOWALOLA

Yeah, for sure. I think creative direction can mean a lot. For me, it’s having a creative eye and being able to facilitate an idea to curate a creative vision, if that makes sense. Doing whatever it may be to facilitate a creative vision, along with a group of people of course. Spearheading a vision for something creative overall. Makeup for me started with going to school for dance – ballet, jazz, hip hop. Makeup was always there. I did dance for 16 years, I graduated in 2021 with a BFA in Dance. I started dancing when I was 3. I’ve always been very particular about dance, my makeup, and others’ makeup, especially when it comes to dance and being on stage. I love makeup and will always love it myself. I’m good at it and have practiced enough at it, it helps me bring my vision to life but I don’t aspire to be a makeup artist in the end. Hair is sort of the same thing for me. I honed in on everything I knew about my hair, especially from going to the beauty shop with my family at a young age. I’m a bit obsessive and a perfectionist at things, I don’t like to execute if I can’t make it at the best capacity. And then for digital photography, I recently stepped into this. I moved to New York about 2 years ago after living in Chicago for my whole life. I tried living in LA after COVID but didn’t like it. I quickly realized living in New York was expensive, so I had to figure out how to make it work. I started doing makeup tests with mutual, friends. I had bought a basic digital camera to do this off of Amazon when starting. It was fun and everyone was so down. It got to the point where so many people liked the look that the camera produced and I ended up overusing the camera. I just needed to capture my vision somehow. I bought a new camera, like a classic digital camera and started shooting with that. I fell in the niche of that digicam aesthetic that everyone’s all about now. I am kind of hoping to phase out of this era, have been trying some photography classes and want to get into using a more professional camera as well as knowing more cameras. I shoot a lot of women, women of color, Black women – that’s just my preference. That’s who inspires me most and the opportunity to be able to shoot these women, timeless women, is so fulfilling. It’s one of the best things about picking up a camera. Those are some things I’m really happy about. I have the utmost respect for photography and photography.

Yeah, I hear you. For someone who grew up not liking what they look like, a good photographer will change your whole perspective. You haven’t stopped moving since you moved the past 3 years, I know makeup was your first introduction into the industry. I can tell that photography is what you’re enjoying the most right now though. No one ever talks about the editing though.

Yeah no editing is the worst. I try to do as much as I can, building and shooting things to scale to minimize the amount of editing in post. I feel like I lose my creative eye when I am editing. I try not to do it too much now. At most, I try to do a light retouch or just fix the lighting. Editing is not real life.

Yeah, that’s cool though. It shows how much work you are putting into your photos. How is the process of being ready for the camera different from still photos? Like from a filming aspect?

Yeah, I like filming more, to be honest. A lot of the time I try to do more videoing of my work than just stills. Being from a place of dance and movement, video and film is more what I am about. I feel like it adds life back to something. I like being able to capture movement on a camera. It’s cool seeing all of the elements come together through just a still photo. It either makes you feel something or it doesn’t, you don’t know as much about what went on behind the scenes. However, I do love both so much.

Yeah, that’s cool. That is great insight. Moving from your actual work, how did you get started and what launched your platform do you think?

I would say I’ve been online and had a following on Instagram for a while. I think Instagram and Twitter were the two big social media that I had been pretty active on. I would say over the past 9 years I’ve been able to accumulate a lot of mutuals and people with similar mindsets. I think in 2020 I was posting my first creative type visuals online. In Chicago, it was kind of a smaller creative community. I was a part of some small underground music communities too, where I met cool people. A lot of it came organically, from doing projects with my friends, my nail tech, and my jeweler. I tried to just create whatever I could with whoever was around me and gained a following from that. I think what I put out there was unique and different and was what resonated with people the most. 

Yeah, I hear you. I agree. That’s cool. I feel like a lot of your work is like a modern feel of the femme fatale aesthetic. What is one staple you have in your work that you make sure to put out there with what you’re creating?

That’s a great question. It’s kind of hard to answer. I don’t usually see my work the way other people do. I feel as crazy as it sounds, I hope that my creative genius shines through anything you see from me. Whether you’re not sure about it, I just hope it evokes some sort of genius about me, something that is often associated with me. I hope it’s recognizable to me. It’s satisfying to know that it is and could be. I love that I am cultivating some sort of creative signature. I feel like I don’t even really know what that is.

Yeah, definitely. I hope that the longer you do this you start to see what that signature is. Being from Chicago, what was something that influenced you from each place you have lived in?

I feel like I was born in the perfect time - the early 2000s - when I had DVDs, VCRs, cassette tapes, the first iPod, and a Razor phone. I feel like my childhood was the last of the normal childhoods. The further I step away from this the more grateful I am for it. I have such fond memories of that. I was kind of alt-emo as a teenager, especially being in the underground music scene. I’ve been fortunate to take a lot of art and culture from Chicago. I learned that LA was not for me at all. The energy wasn’t great for the type of people I was interacting with, it was very shady. There were a lot of weird vibes from people, especially on sets. It was like a big red flag. I had a good time, but I just didn’t love the community there. I’d go back and work there but I won’t stay there. It’s too bad because I love the landscape there but it’s not enough. New York taught me how to hustle, happily hustle. New York demands you to work, not because you have too but because everyone else is. It keeps me motivated knowing I’m in a city where people are always moving. I’ve gotten a lot of creative inspiration from being here too. Everything is so real when you come to New York. You can be a part of everything here if you put yourself out there. 

Yeah definitely, I totally agree. I wanted to touch on being up front in your work. I know you’ve modeled, is it a bit of a mental switch working on models vs having full creative freedom?

Yeah, there’s been a switch. Modeling is so not serious in Chicago but it was worth a try, so I did. I wasn’t always passionate about modeling, but it’s similar to dancing I’ve noticed. I was signed with a pretty big agency in New York but I found with modeling in New York that I didn’t enjoy the level of rigidness it brought. I didn’t like how the modeling world puts Black women in a box. It was so hard for me to work and be a canvas for people or things I didn’t believe in. You're constantly the vessel for someone else’s vision, and I didn’t always enjoy that. It wasn’t worth it and I wanted to be the one with complete creative control. I realized that that is what I needed to be doing. I would still model to this day, but I am more excited to do my own thing now. 

Yeah definitely, I see. That leads me to my next question, I know you’ve worked with Telfar and Brandon Blackwood, what was that like?

Yeah, I have worked with Brandon Blackwood. I’ve only indirectly worked with Telfar. But I’ve worked with Brandon Blackwood two times. I did a campaign and one was in Office Magazine. Brandon Blackwood himself is a genius. He’s always selling out, I feel like. 

So, speaking of brands, what’s a brand that would be like a “pinch me” moment to work with? In any aspect of your art?

I’d love to work with Fenty, anything with Rihanna. Puma, A$AP’s brand, anything Fenty, anything Rihanna needs. I’d also love to work with some of the big fashion houses like Margiela, and Louis Vuitton. Those would all be “pinch me” moments.

Yeah, that’s cool. So, let’s do a rapid-fire round, some deep, some not. Is your community as fruitful as one would think?

I would say it’s not as fruitful as it could be. I’ve worked in fashion, on movie sets, commercial fashion, runway shows, worked backstage, with individual artists, music videos, and reality show stars and I feel like overall I don’t feel like it’s been 100% fruitful. A lot of people don’t know me or my creative process and it’s reflected sometimes in how I’ve been treated. They want me to prove myself first before I can get the fruit which can be challenging. I’ve navigated it well and have figured out how to best get what I want out of something.

Yeah, I see. I see. What’s a skincare project you can’t skip out on?

Hmm, toner. First, wash your face. That goes a long way. Everywhere is dirty, so the more you can do that the better. A cleanse, tone, and moisturize – sunscreen everyday, that is where it’s at.

Yeah, okay, copy. [laughs] I’m taking notes. Are tacos better in LA or New York?

Oh, LA. They’re way better, and cheaper in LA. LA’s got it. LA also has a good agua fresca.

[laughs] Yeah definitely. Thank you for your honesty. So I know we’ve talked about casting, do you have any advice for others going through this? 

I feel like as far as castings go, you have to as a model realize you can only be you and the rest is up to everybody else. As a dancer, it’s comforting to have had the stage performance and it’s helped with castings and modeling. You don’t get to move or speak at a casting, the mindset of a model can get you so far. It’s not always a personal thing if you don’t get a casting. You have to be able to give up control in those situations, it has nothing to do with you. You can only do your best. 

Okay, yeah that's great advice. Okay, what is something exciting that’s coming up for you? Your next big thing?

PHOTO BY Izzy Monzon

Yeah, I’ve been trying to transition into magazines and print. Maybe a possible cover story with Galore Magazine. I’m excited to officially get into that world. Print to me is the best, the closest thing to something tangible, especially in the fashion industry. It’s like my Carrie Bradshaw dream, laughs. I’m also looking forward to traveling to Europe, especially for Fashion Week like Milan and Paris. 

Yeah, that’s great. That’s exciting. Well, thank you for your time. I’ve enjoyed speaking to you. I’m grateful for all that you shared with me and I wish you the best.

Definitely, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you for thinking of me.