In honor of receiving the lovechild of MAC and Nasty Gal (three matte lipsticks and a red red polish—available December 4th), ITG tasked friends Staz Lindes, Georgia Pratt, Naomi Shimada, and Teresa Oman with the celebration. Lipstick was applied, aliens met their maker, dim sum was consumed. Lipstick was reapplied. And thus, a very special edition of Top Shelf After Dark: The Whole Crew. Isn’t getting ready to go out so much better with friends?
Georgia: We’ve only been in this apartment in Bushwick since July. This is our normal crew—Naomi’s been over here from Williamsburg every night, Staz and I live here, Teresa’s down the street. It’s good to be close because transit here is a bit iffy.
Staz: Sometimes we’ll force ourselves to go out, but usually we hang around our house.
Georgia: It’s really nice having the kitchen space because we like to have dinner parties. I’ll cook, or someone will cook. If we know someone who's playing a show we might go watch them play after we eat. Staz is a musician, so her brother and the rest of the band came and stayed with us recently. They’d go out and we’d all go with them and watch their show. But we usually make time to eat at the beginning of the night, or the end…or both. [Laughs]
Naomi: A typical night usually ends in food, that’s one thing for sure. I had a bagel last night at 2 in the morning. All my girls were like, 'Oh we’re going to have another drink,' and I could tell that was the tipping point in terms of our sobriety, and I thinking, 'I could do that… or I could go get a bagel and eat it in bed!' [Laughs] I was like 'Gotta go to the bathroom, be right back!' and I just left. That egg cheese was callin' my name. And I know all the dim sum.
Georgia: She’s an expert.
Naomi: I feel like New York is one of those cities where I don’t stick to one routine. Every night is something different and random. There’s a bar or a pub for every occasion, every mood.
Teresa: If we can get our hands on a car, we’ll drive somewhere like Eagle Rock, New Jersey. Done that a couple times now. It’s a really small town on the outside of the city and they’ve got unlimited bowling for four dollars and a really good pizza spot.
Staz: A lot of places here you have to drink to enjoy yourself, and it ends up being really expensive and not that much fun—and then you’re sick the next day. So we’ll dress up just to go bowling or do things like that. I love Chelsea Piers. You can golf and bring your own beer—and it’s open 'til midnight. I go to gigs and stuff when bands I like come to town, but besides that I’m not too into the club scene or getting wasted. I can’t stand the idea of getting somewhere to stand in a line, or having to deal with rude people and listen to music I don’t like and forcing small talk. I tried to do that for a while, but then realized it’s not for everyone.
Naomi: We’re all friends because we accept ourselves for how we know we are.
Georgia: I feel like when you’re made up all the time you become a bit detached from that.
Naomi: Yeah, for me at least, heels and makeup can easily be attached to work so I had to learn to re-own it for myself, because I genuinely enjoy dressing up. Especially for me and Georgia, our industry is super commercial and the style is so muted that dressing up to go out is the only way for us to express ourselves.
Teresa: Staz and I were just saying the other day that there aren’t that many shoots any more where we’re really wearing fun makeup and dressing up. It’s all very…
Staz: Bland. It’s so safe! It’s why I feel lucky to have real stylish roommates and friends around me. We all dress each other and do each other’s makeup and borrow each other’s clothes. I rotate my makeup around, but the one look I’ve always done is a simple red lip and a winged eye. Sometimes I’ll wear crazy colors on my lip or I’ll do a cool earring with super simple makeup. Divine is a huge inspiration to me.
Georgia: Staz will be asking me if she should buy something, and she’ll be like 'Would Divine wear this?' [Laughs]
Staz: Sometimes I plan my outfit based on who I think would approve of it, like, 'Would John Waters book me in this? Would Kurt Cobain wanna make out with me?'
Georgia: I hate being uncomfortable, so I always got to have comfy shoes for going out—you never know how long you’ll be gone for. For ages I thought every part of my look had to be just right, I was concerned that I had to do things so particularly and be such a perfectionist, and now that I’ve relaxed into myself and have a bit more fun, I realize my 'look' doesn’t have to be so serious. It’s much more awesome, cooler even, to wear wild makeup. Anyway, I’m a big fan of the sneaker.
Teresa: I plan my going out look depending on how many wines I’ve had at that point. So, for instance, my Vegas looks were really crazy. A onesie is always good. I like to keep my makeup sort of on the lighter side; I’ll just wear concealer and mascara with some glitter. I’ll put Lucas Papaw on my cheek and put glitter over it so it acts like glue.
Naomi: My one thing is to always wear something danceable. A dancing uniform—nothing too short, something you can squat down in without everyone looking at your butt. 'Dropping' clothes—clothes you can do drops in.
—as told to ITG
Staz Lindes in MAC X Nasty Gal Lipstick in Stunner , Georgia Pratt in Gunner , Naomi Shimada in Runner , and Teresa Oman in Studio Nail Lacquer in Flaming Rose , all available December 4th, 2014 at MAC stores and online. Photographed by Tom Newton and each other.
