Makeup enters the world of fashion

BY KIYANNA NOEL Arts & Culture/Managing Editor

Kiyanna’s Kulture is a biweekly column that highlights different kinds of fashion.

Fashion has taken its form in many different aspects of life. It can be used to describe or identify a time period or even showcase where someone got their inspiration. Senior at SUNY Plattsburgh Sydney Dennerlein got her inspiration early in life from alternative icons like singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne and Draculaura from the TV show “Monster High.”

“We grew up in the 2000s inspired fashion and I was very much into the goth alternative punk. I loved Avril Lavigne. I worshiped Avril Lavigne. Avril Lavigne throwing a random tire around her neck saved lives. I love that unpolished kind of messiness to the 2000s. We grew up with all these cartoons like Raven from ‘Teen Titans’ and Gwen from ‘Total Drama Island’, Sam from ‘Danny Phantom.’ All these goth girl characters, I adored them. I wanted to be them.”

But growing up in a suburban area in Long Island didn’t make it easy to express this side of herself.

The lack of freedom to express herself truly affected how Dennerlein was seen and how this style didn’t represent her.

“When you’re seven years old and your mom’s like, ‘No. What are you doing? You can’t look like that,’ it internalizes with you and that stuck with me... All throughout my high school life ,I was just this pretty much plain. The most exciting thing I would wear is a flannel or a really long cardigan,” Dennerlein said.

The digital media and TV production major and marketing minor student soon developed her own sense of makeup as alternative. By experimenting with her makeup, Dennerlein soon discovered the art of drag.

“During the pandemic, I started watching ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ and that’s kind of where my makeup influence came from. My makeup is kind of like the star of the look.”

While Dennerlein’s makeup is now a bold statement, it wasn’t always this way. With her previous looks being simple black eyeliner and nude colors, Dennerlein’s makeup has gone in a new direction.