When you're a celebrity hairstylist, working with a new client—especially one who's smack-dab in the spotlight—can be nerve-racking. Case in point: Mara Roszak, hair guru to Emma Stone and Mila Kunis, only met Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery a few days before she was set to style her locks for the Golden Globes. “It can be a lot of pressure because these are really big moments for the women,” Roszak says. “And the pictures from these events are used for years to come,” If you recall, Dockery's white and gold Alexandre Vauthier dress and wavy bob at the Globes landed her on most every Best Dressed list in the following weeks. Phew. Last night, the glam squad had to make magic again, prepping Dockery for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, an event less exciting to us laypeople, perhaps, but a highly regarded one amongst Hollywood heavyweights. Here, Roszak gives us the play-by-play of creating Dockery's '90s-inspired look.

'For me, the process always starts with the dress. Telling a story is really important, and it’s important to me that the whole look comes together and tells one story rather than the hair being one, the makeup being its own story, and then the dress being a completely different thing… You can always tell when that happens. With Michelle, her stylist [Micaela Erlanger] saw the vintage Ralph Rucci dress about a week before the awards. I think she kind of knew then it was special and was going to be awesome, but you don’t really know until the fitting period when Michelle has it on, which was just a few days ago. The dress is from the '90s, Micaela said; it’s kind of a recent vintage piece. As opposed to the more classic look we did for the Globes, we wanted to do something different for the SAGs—make a statement, but still sultry, and a little bit more edgy. I would say it's that kind of cool, '90s vibe.

Michelle already had this new bob haircut that’s kind of '90s— ugh, I think that '90s bob is so awesome! So, I pulled images of other chops of a similar shape [photo 5], and pictures of Winona, other models and actresses from that era, and brought those to discuss with her, and then we, as a group, came up with a slightly sleeker, more structured feel.

When I got to the hotel suite where we were prepping, the first thing I did was part her hair. I wanted the part to be really, really clean—super straight—because the dress has really straight lines. It’s always good to part the hair when it’s wet because when you try to do it after it's dry, it doesn’t stay. Then, I blew it dry off her face, on the side that we knew we were going to tuck back behind her ear. On the opposite side, I pin-curled the hair to give it some volume and texture and movement, let that set for a couple of minutes, sprayed it lightly with Moroccan Oil Hairspray, which is a light-hold hairspray. Then I went back in and used a couple of hot rollers, and replaced the pin curls with those. Then, I let it all out and added a few bobby pins to make sure the hair would stay tucked under on one side. On the other side, I added a little bit of texture with more hairspray—I just spray it on the palm of my hand and scrunch the hair—and used the tiniest bit of gel on my finger, just running it over the top layer of hair to smooth down any flyaways. Michelle has amazing hair; it really does what you want it to do, so I'm lucky in that department.

In terms of the makeup, it was all Chanel products. Jordan [Bree Long], the makeup artist, used a dark shadow and a sort of dabbed-on wine lip. On her eyes, it was a deep green from the Lilium 32 Les 4 Ombres Quad and a matte black from the Ombres Contraste Duo in 10 Gris-Subtil. The lipstick was Rouge Allure Velvet in 41 L'Exquise, smudged on, like a tint . We didn't want anything too overly dreamy. The dress was all about having structure, but not too hard, and modern, for sure,”

Images courtesy of Mara Roszak. Michelle's dress is vintage Chado Ralph Rucci; bag and jewelry by Bulgari. Mara's inspiration photo [4] is actually a picture of model Jazzmine Berger, shot by Garance Doré in 2010.