Lil Beau Rae

I first met Beau Tiger Rae when we shared a couch in Nevs Models offices waiting to attend separate meetings with Carolyn, our mutual friend from the agency.

Instantly captivated by Beau's unique, innate sense of style and charming personality, we soon struck up a conversation. That talk soon turned to our respective disciplines with Beau explaining that he is a digital artist who creates artwork which explores the light and the dark. Using the Instagram handle @lilbeaurae to showcase his work, his feed is a visual delight, a feast of stunning imagery that is both fiercely fabulous and edgily experimental.

Excited to speak to him further and to share his story with the Swift readership, we agreed to meet in his local The Sun Tavern deep in London's East End on Bethnal Green Road. Strolling into this famous, once infamous, East End institution on a sunny Sunday evening, Beau was welcomed with genuine warmth and affection by all those present.

We chatted over the most delicious cocktails about the influences and inspirations that have shaped Beau’s creative journey, the multiple disciplines that he's embraced with aplomb, and his aspirations for the future.

All images courtesy of Beau Tiger Rae

For people who don't know you how would you describe what you do and the various disciplines that you cover?

I’d describe myself as a digital artist that creates artwork that draws on inspirations from the light and the dark and I create my own world that I would like to inhabit.

Your work sees the surreal meet fashion meet performance art. Where do you find your inspiration?

I guess I find my inspiration all around me, I'm inspired by the people all around me and anything that I post or make to go online is a version of myself or something that I feel within. I look to find that through other people or through characters in films or TV.

Are there any genres of TV or film that particularly inspire you?

I love dark fantasy films and one of my favourite directors is Guillermo del Toro and the world he creates with those weird and wonderful characters and obviously Tim Burton when I was growing up. He was a huge inspiration and I remember when I was going to see those films as a kid I'd have to come home and sit down and draw straight away and almost create my own world including a whole fashion line of clothes. TV and films have definitely been a huge inspiration.

What would you say is your favourite Tim Burton film and favourite character?

I think my favourite character from a Tim Burton film would be "The Other Mother" and my favourite Tim Burton film, which I love, is "Big Fish" for the story.

Where does your passion for art originally come from, what were your childhood and later influences?

I think a lot of my inspiration came from going to exhibitions with my nan and being exposed to artwork at a very young age. She would take us to the theatre, to a lot of exhibitions and also through my mum who also exposed me to a lot of theatre. I was never a kid who would go out and kick a football or play with a bat and ball. I remember my mum set up a football club when I was younger to try and get me into football, but she would find me off looking for ladybirds.  She got a football coach to come down and teach me and my friends where we lived in London at the time, but it wasn't for me, and I was off looking for those ladybirds. So, she started a drama club which I was definitely more involved with and loved more.

What kind of exhibitions and theatre were you exposed to?

A whole variety really, one that my Nan took me  most years to see "The Snowman " and also "The Nutcracker" As well as the family exposing me to these I always chose to expose myself to them as I had a natural interest whereas  I wasn't interested in a lot of the stuff that others were interested in at school.

I had very unusual interests compared to the other kids. When I was younger, I was nearly an osteoarcheologist which is to do with forensics and for years I collected human skulls, medical skulls and had a real fascination with bones and the story that they could tell. That would also inspire my art and when I was 14/15 years old, I was making tiaras out of bones, so it all just comes together from different angles.

Some of that inspiration seems to come from medieval knights and the Elizabethan era. What is it about those periods in history that fascinates you?

I think it was the extravagant clothes and I wish people would just dress like that nowadays. I think if I saw someone walking down the street dressed like Queen Elizabeth, I'd be gob smacked. I'd need to know who they were. I sometimes do it myself and wear medieval chest plates out although people don't come up to me and ask who are you (Beau laughs).

I just love it, I'm not a minimalist, I just love anything that is extravagant or overly detailed.  I think that the Royals in the medieval era knew how to do that the best. It's a very big fascination of mine and obviously I’m not a Royalist but I do find the way in which they dressed even at the Coronation where people were wearing something that looked like a seven-foot curtain fascinating. It’s just the extravagance of it all.

I love the prosthetics work you do, and you've also done high end beauty makeup for brands like Burberry. What gear change is involved in moving from the dark prosthetics to that more mainstream editorial makeup?

I guess that with any skill that anybody has in the industry or in any setting you've got to be able to polish it to meet the industry standard and if you have the raw talent, it's almost a case of knocking it back instead of polishing it. I've got my ideas but if I'm doing makeup for the likes of Burberry or Valentino it's going to be more minimal. It’s going more beauty and instead of something where I'm creating every vein or vessel of someone's face, it’s bringing it back two steps and saying let's get this person looking fabulous.

Do you have a preference between that editorial beauty makeup and your work with prosthetics?

I've stepped away from makeup quite a lot now and am more focusing on styling and going in that direction but when I'm working on a project like the one, I've just done with Nevs I have to bring my brain back down to earth and be like I'm not going to have the person in the biggest, dark gothic clothes.

I have to find out what works best for them. It's about finding a balance as well. Being able to work right across the spectrum is so important. If you're an artist who wants to be in the arts, you've got to be able to know not only how to take criticism but to also fit and polish your work into so many different roles to have a creative job. It's never always going to be a passion project unless you've got people coming to you and of course that's the goal.

Youve worked with magazines such as TMRW and Vanity Fair and you mentioned working with Red Valentino, the Valentino offshoot brand. How did that come about? 

I think the good thing about the work I've had is that it's come through friends and people I've been to Uni with and people who've got to know my work or how I work and then coming to me. For Red Valentino the photographer came to me and offered me this project. He asked me if I wanted to be involved in the makeup and I said yes but I also want to be involved in coming up with the idea. It became a collaboration between me, and the photographer and I did the hair, makeup and the direction.

You have moved into styling and are making that your priority. As a stylist whose style do you most admire?

There are so many people but the fictional character Cruella De Ville, the Glenn Close version. I feel like I would like to be perceived like her, of course hopefully not as mean. Those crazy shoulder pads and in one of the scenes when she thinks about the dalmatians, and her hair pops out. Cruella De Ville from the fictional world but in real life a lot of my fashion inspiration comes from women and not from men. I think that sadly men's fashion has become quite drab.

As someone who uses their platform to advocate for queerness and LGBTQIA rights how far do you think we’ve come in your lifetime and how far do you think we need to go?

I don't think anything that I've done in my life comes anywhere close to what people before me in previous generations have done and I feel that I'm so lucky to have been born when I am. When I look at the history of the people who came before me, they have laid the foundations to enable me to be who I am. I think there is definitely a way to go but I think, as well, I feel lucky more than anything. I know that there is still a struggle and hopefully by putting my stuff out there and people engaging with my queerness it helps to break more walls down.

You mentioned earlier that you've recently been working with Nevs Models, are you able to tell us what that project involved?

I was Creative Director for a shoot for one of their talents and we’re at the post-editing stage. It was really fun to have a big say on what we did on the day and how we shot it. I felt it was really important to create a nice environment on the set. I hope we can create a whole new industry where young people are happy working with each other and there's no scariness for anyone that's new.

What do you think the key attributes are to engender that collaborative, positive, friendly atmosphere on set?

I think if there's new people as there were on the Nevs shoot, it can be really scary if you're new to the industry sometimes because of the characters you meet along the way. I think for me it's just being open and making everybody comfortable and knowing that we're all on the same page working towards creating something beautiful at the end.

In terms of all the creative disciplines you cover - Creative Director, MUA, hair, prosthetics, model, set designer, stylist, wig maker, the list is endless, which is your favourite and if you had to do one only what would it be?

I feel I've lived a thousand different lives. I think that now I’m definitely focused on styling and creative direction. I think they go hand in hand and at the minute I'm really happy exploring the relationship between both and which are running in parallel.

Finally, as we reach the middle of 2023 what are your goals and aspirations for the rest of the year?

Hollywood darling (Beau laughs) My actual aspiration would be to follow one of the mantras a friend told me which is to generate wealth through my passions and be able to be in the arts full time. I've got a few exciting styling jobs in the pipeline, and I suppose my goal is to be happy which may sound really cringe but ultimately to be happy and be kind to people.

With Beau diversifying into the world of celebrity styling, 2023 is only the start of a career that is destined for an upward trajectory. It's the latest addition to a cv which demonstrates his mastery of multiple disciplines, a polymathic sensibility which allows him to move seamlessly across the creative genres and produce work of artistic excellence whichever remit he's presented with.

Here at Swift, we are convinced that Beau is a change maker and taste arbiter for the 2020s and beyond, someone who will shape our collective creative futures. Beau's elevation to our consciousness is all the more welcome as he is undoubtedly one of the kindest and most genuine individuals we have met in the industry.

Huge thanks to Beau for taking the time to speak to Swift and to the wonderful Carolyn and Shaun @nevsmodels for bringing us together and helping to facilitate our interview.

You can connect and follow Beau here https://www.instagram.com/lilbeaurae/?hl=en

You can also follow Nevs Models here https://www.instagram.com/nevsmodels/?hl=en