Rachel Singer, 33, a stylist from Manhattan, says she usually spends up to five hours creating her “look” for a night of clubbing. She often goes as “Lolita” but sometimes she’ll let her art imitate life, says the Lady Gaga look-alike. “I recently had a medical procedure, and as soon as I healed I wore a nurse outfit with a sad clown face,” she says. Tonight she’s called in the heavies: her friends, hairstylist Adam Maclay and makeup artist Lysette Drumgold, to professionally style her. Maclay and Drumgold arrive around ten – this is their third session of the night. They came straight to Singer’s Lower East Side apartment from the East Village, where they styled two other friends. “This is what we do on Sunday nights,” says Maclay. “Everyone else is resting and we are running around like maniacs.”
Singer has settled on a debauched Marie Antoinette look for the evening. Her friend, designer Maleen Dalan created an antique lace headpiece for her that clocks in a two feet plus, and has lent her a delicate camisole in baby blue, pink, and cream with a structured waistband. Papusza Couture lent her a lace gypsy skirt that nearly swallows the tiny five foot two woman whole. “When I leave here tonight, I’m going to be over seven feet tall,” she promises.