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PHOTOGRAPHED BY GEORDY PEARSON.

10 Artists Breaking All The Rules

Who's more daring: The woman who re-imagines stripping as social commentary or the one who overhauls the artistic style that made her famous? In truth, that's the wrong question to ask. Both are incredible. They represent just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the tremendous pool of talent making waves in the art world.

And, in our book, there's nothing bolder — or more beautiful — than a woman who does what she wants and makes no apologies for it. Which is precisely what we're celebrating here today. With some help from the tastemakers at Revlon, we're paying tribute to a few of the gutsiest artists out there in the latest installment of "Beauty Nation: The New Provocateurs."

These 10 inventive women will challenge everything you think you know about "creative types." Whether they’re using their hands, a camera, or even their naked bodies to tell a story, these artists are creating works that challenge how we see the world. So, if trailblazers and envelope-pushers are your thing, keep reading. You might find your definition of beauty upended.

Corvette LeFace

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For most of us, the idea of stripping down to our skivvies in public is the definition of terrifying. Hence the meaning behind the phrase, "feeling naked," right? But, with a little confidence, courage, and a hell of a provocative attitude, one woman has revealed — quite literally — that baring it all can be enlightening for you and your spectators. Meet Corvette LeFace, a bombshell beauty who makes getting undressed a form of creative and intellectual expression.

After training as a ballet dancer and a stint in theater school, LeFace discovered the world of burlesque — and she's never looked back. Now, she's one of the industry's most well-known performers, and her satirical, gender-bending routines take the act to a more elevated, thought-provoking level. If her audience doesn’t get too caught up in her bold sex appeal, they just might learn a little something.

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BN_Feature3_Vertical_CorvettePHOTOGRAPHED BY GEORDY PEARSON.
Burlesque isn’t just stripping
"Burlesque has to be the perfect combination of tease, sex appeal, humor, and social commentary. It’s not enough to just be a beautiful girl seductively stripping out of a gorgeous dress; there needs to be a story behind it. Burlesque came out of vaudeville, which used humor and sexy, dirty jokes, but was also a way for people to comment on what was going on in the world. I love pop culture, so a lot of my acts are based off characters I know and love, like a tribute act to Barbra Streisand or Jesus Quintana in The Big Lebowski or Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones. I think it’s interesting and sexy to play a male character, because I personally feel incredibly powerful onstage, almost in a masculine way. Why does that sense of power automatically have to be associated with masculinity? With burlesque, it’s the perfect opportunity to really play with the preconceptions we have about gender."

What makes me feel glamorous
"I get onstage and look like this perfect, glamorous thing, but nobody knows I hauled my fucking suitcase on the G train, transferred two times, and had to get ready in a tiny bathroom with five other girls and one cracked mirror in the dark. The glamour for me is showing up to the gig, looking like a million bucks, and pretending that I came out of a limo when I didn’t. Offstage, I love wearing a really strong lipstick with no other makeup and sunglasses. I also really love wearing super sexy lingerie under jeans and a T-shirt. Maybe someone will end up seeing the lingerie, maybe they won’t."

How I get in touch with my femininity
"It’s in the details. What’s so cool about burlesque is that you can take off a glove in the same seductive manner that you can take off your bra, and it can be equally, if not more, sexy. You treat that glove like it’s the most precious thing in the world. That guy, or whoever it is in the audience, if he’s going to get that turned on by you taking five minutes to take a glove off, what’s going to happen when you take the other one off — or take your dress off? It also connects to power, and feeling like you have the audience in the palm of your hand."

GetTheLook_CorvetteLeFace

Vintage Bra; 
Rampage Matching Suit; Alice & Olivia Red Strappy Shoes; 
Vintage Belt.

Makeup by Ashleigh Ciucci; hair by Bethany Brill; styled by Laura Pritchard.
Ms. Fitz
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