As Sukeban hosts its world championship in New York, we went backstage to see the extremely over-the-top beauty looks.
Broken doll heads litter tables, extra-long, thick pink and blue braids are strewn across chairs dragging to the floor, nails from your wildest dreams are everywhere, and somehow, some way there is a never-ending excess of Lisa Frank rainbow-coded stick-on crystals. Make no mistake: there is nowhere else quite like the backstage of Sukeban girl wrestling. The independent women’s professional wrestling league now has 20 members, and preparing each one of them for matches is more involved than any typical runway show, pageant or debutante ball. The wrestlers of Sukeban spend almost an entire day getting their totally transformational nails, wigs and makeup applied; and the masters behind the craft spend weeks creating these artful, maximalist eccentric looks.
Sukeban’s rival gangs are split into five different groups, each with their own aesthetic: Harajuku Stars, Dangerous Liaisons, Vandals, Cherry Bomb Girls and Tokyo Toys. Nail artist Mei Kawajiri made 400 nails for the event, creating individual designs and backups for each character. Seri Bear, who wears a chunky bear headpiece and carries around a teddy bear, was given kawaii-fueled glitter nails in yellow and cobalt blue, with a square-shaped crystal cabochon on each one. Lady Antoinette’s nails were rococo pearlescent blue, covered in a smattering of pearls and shell motifs. Smack in the Box received atomic pink and red designs, hand-painted with stars and sculpted with fake miniature water droplets. And for Ichigo Sayaka, reigning world champion? Realistic strawberry painted tips.
“For the toy soldier, I had to make it look realistic,” Kawajiri told us. Enter: red and white striped shapes with three-dimensional gold hardware buttons. “For Delirious Dolly, I made roses that looked a little cracked. For my favorite character, Atomic Banshee, I usually make it more crazier, but I wanted to do cuter tonight.” Think: miniature hyper rounded nails with ball-shaped silver studs, black lace, crystals and hand-painted crosses on a baby pink background.
Undeniably, one of the best parts of Sukeban’s New York world championship was when the hair went beyond wigs and became weapons! One wrester whipped out her cotton candy hued braid and started using it to slap her opponent. Another one pulled a kusari fundo (dangerous-looking weighted chain) out of her up-do. Hair artist Dennis Lanni sewed found objects, including colorful yarn, fabric roses and broken dolls sourced from his own personal collection, into all the hair pieces. “I break for broken dolls,” he told us, of the dolls he rescued from off the side of the road for the occasion. Each hairstyle, was of course, totally one-of-a-kind for each player, and took a minimum of one hour to create. “It is hair, but it’s a little bit of a mix of feng shui, carpentry, hairdressing, sewing, all that stuff,” Lanni told us. “It’s a little bit like a Swiss Army knife.”
Makeup artists from Pat McGrath’s team applied a slew of dramatic gems, rosy blush, skinny-painted brows and geometric-shaded wonders that would make David Bowie jealous during his Ziggy Stardust era. The makeup was akin to the most elevated combination of runway and drag; the closest thing to what generations who were raised on Pat McGrath for Dior’s John Galliano shows dream of. Eyelashes were pink, waterlines were transformed and cheekbones were sculpted sky-high. Performer Molly Santana was given a harlequin doll-like treatment too.
“I don’t see it as doing hair. I see it more as character building,” Lanni added. “To me, I think escapism in this world is one of the best things that we have going for us — with the dolphins dying and the wars and rape and pillaging and poverty and stardom. There’s so much stuff going on that could really bring you down. So living in this world is kind of nice because it’s just fantasy.”
That’s really the beauty of Sukeban; it’s pure reverie through the girl gaze.
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