Prim N Poppin Recreates Vintage Beauty Advertisements With Inclusive Spin
Rob LeDonne, provided by
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When photographer Julia Comita and makeup artist Brenna Drury first connected about collaborating, the two bonded over a common inspiration stemming from vintage advertisements. But they also recognized one major flaw. “We both immediately noticed how white and cis everything was,” Comita tells
Variety. “They were very one-sided and not reflective of the world we live in, so it just sort of seemed like the obvious thing to do was work on something around that.”
The result is Prim ’N Poppin’, a project that re-creates retro beauty ads with a more inclusive spin. Drawing on Comita’s photographic eye (she’s captured shots for Saks Fifth Avenue, CoverGirl and Bobbi Brown) and Drury’s talent for makeup (her résumé includes campaigns for Peloton and clients like “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness), the duo’s goal is to shake up preconcei
From the popularity of Farrah Fawcett hair on TikTok to the disco revival of 2020’s top hits, the ’70s are primed for a comeback. But thanks to New York photographer Julia Comita and makeup artist Brenna Drury, they’re going to look more like the world we see today.
Comita and Drury are the minds behind a new photo series, Prim-n-Poppin’, which reimagines iconic beauty advertisements from the ’70s and ’80s to be far more inclusive. There’s no doubt these vintage ads are visually stunning (both Revlon and Shiseido recently put out campaigns inspired by old ads), but they celebrated such a narrow standard of beauty thin, white, able-bodied, cis, and straight.