...and her brand, Beauty by Rosh, becomes the first Australian makeup brand to sponsor main-schedule shows as makeup partner at Milan Fashion Week

Ten years ago, Rosh Kumarasinghe left Sri Lanka, where she grew up, for Thailand. Two years later, she moved again, this time to Australia. This weekend, she stood backstage at Milan Fashion Week as a Makeup Director, the first South Asian to hold that role on the official schedule.

The distinction runs deeper than a single title. Rosh is also the first South Asian-born entrepreneur to sponsor main-schedule shows at Milan Fashion Week as makeup partner, and her brand, Beauty by Rosh, is the first Australian makeup brand to do so, working alongside designers Marco Rambaldi and Casa Preti. Based on publicly available information, no South Asian has held either position before.

To understand what that means, look at who usually stands in that seat. Only around 50 in-person runway shows make the official calendar each season, and the Makeup Director's chair has long belonged to a small circle of veterans. Pat McGrath, Lynsey Alexander, Lucia Pieroni and Diane Kendal have each led beauty for Milan's major houses over the years, and this season Sam Visser created the look at Gucci. Around them sit the global beauty houses, such as MAC Cosmetics and Pat McGrath Labs, that have traditionally backed Milan's shows. Holding both roles at once, Makeup Director and sponsor, has been the preserve of established, Eurocentric individuals and brands. Rosh walked in as both.

The odds never favored a newcomer. Milan's houses tend to return to the same artists season after season, and Rosh arrived a decade after leaving Sri Lanka, with eight years in Australia behind her and a brand only six years old. Beauty by Rosh is independent, vegan, cruelty-free and made in Australia, created for diverse skin tones, including brown skin. Before the brand came the teaching: her Masterclass World Series has shown more than 1,000 women how to do their own makeup.

Marco Rambaldi, based in Bologna, is a label built on inclusion, upcycling and Italian craftsmanship. It is best known for crochet pieces stitched from antique doilies, a signature heart motif, and casts that welcome people of every age, background and identity. Rambaldi has been part of Milan Fashion Week for around 12 years, since first showing there in February 2014 as winner of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana's Next Generation competition.

Casa Preti is a genderless label founded in Palermo in 2017 by creative director Mattia Piazza. It is known for essential, clerical lines and quiet tailoring, and for collaborations with artists including Vanessa Beecroft and Claire Fontaine.

Backstage, the job is a race against the clock. A Makeup Director turns a designer's vision into a single look, tests it on models in the days before the show, then leads anywhere from 10 to more than 40 artists so that every model walks out consistent, while hair, styling and wardrobe fight for the same few minutes. Rosh built those teams herself, bringing in her own makeup artists, recruited by portfolio, and directing them at Marco Rambaldi on 26 September and Casa Preti on 27 September. Beauty by Rosh supplied the products and the backstage photography and video.

Taking Beauty by Rosh global has always been her vision, and it began earlier this year in London, where she became the first South Asian entrepreneur to have a brand sponsor a show at London Fashion Week. With Milan added, Rosh now holds that distinction at both fashion weeks, paving the way for a younger generation to follow in her footsteps. Her message to them is simple.

"I grew up in Sri Lanka, and I moved to Australia only when I was 30 years old. Milan is one of the biggest fashion weeks in the world and probably one of the hardest rooms in beauty to enter, and it’s an absolute honour to be welcomed in. I am proud to be the first, and I want to celebrate that in the hope of encouraging others to follow in the footsteps and tell every little girl that their dreams are never too big and it’s never too late to achieve your dreams." — Rosh Kumarasinghe, Founder and Makeup Director, Beauty by Rosh