How I Live: Santigold

From designing socks to collecting coffins, Santigold tells us how she does so much.

January 08, 2015

Santigold stays busy. Beyond making music, she's designed and renovated her New York City apartment, created two capsule collections with socks brand Stance, and dreamed up a makeup line for Smashbox. Plus, she just had a kid. When asked how she was able to spread herself creatively across so many different mediums, Santi told FADER, "My whole aesthetic style is just mix and match. It just applies to everything I do, where it's taking old and new, bright and classic, or wild and preppy, and pulling it all together." Her style and eclectic vibes have always intrigued us, so we hit up the multi-talented lady to catch a glimpse of how she lives.

SKIN

I really care about my skin. I always do nice cleansers, the nice moisturizers, and hydrate—drinking water is a huge part of any beauty routine. I love Éminence. I use the moisturizing Lemon Cleanser and sometimes the creams, too. Their stuff smells amazing and I love that it's organic. They have this Blueberry Soy Night Recovery Cream that I use during the day, because I hate for my skin to be dried out. I just got this Kate Somerville scrub that has cinnamon in it so the blood rushes to your face and it gets all hot. Also it doesn't have any nuts, which I'm allergic to. Rosebud Salve is my other staple. You can use it as lip balm, you can use it as a hand cream in the winter when your hands are so cracked and dry. When I get on a plane, I mix in a tiny drop of eucalyptus oil and put it inside my nostrils. It protects you from germs and keeps your throat moist. If I feel like I'm getting a dry throat or scratchy at home, I'll do it.

MAKEUP

I'm feeling like a may have too much make-up. #WhenIsEnoughEnough
A photo posted by @santivision on

I don't wear anything daily, but if I really want to be special I tend to do smoky eye stuff: black, dark blue, or sometimes just a shimmery blue that pops. I just did a makeup line for Smashbox, and I put a really bright blue in there. I love eye makeup: liner, shadow, mascara. My new thing is shimmery hot pink shadow on my eyes, which looks really interesting because my skin is darkish brown. I've picked up some tricks from makeup artists, but I really think if you're an artistic person it's just an extension of it. If I can paint the walls of my house and do the edges with no tape, then I can do eye makeup. It's all hand control. And if you don't have a steady hand, you can go for a smudged look.

SOCKS

I'm just big on anything that looks cool and unexpected that you can wear on your body or put into your house. Anything quirky and exciting and fun, anything that looks like a toy. I wanted to make socks that are as exciting to me as little toys. I just did my second collection with Stance. I called it the "High Points in History" collection, and I just thought of different moments in fashion history that I love. My favorite is the Big Daddy Kane sock, which that takes me back to the '88 era of high top fades and gold jewelry. These guys had amazing outfits, and I wanted to translate that aesthetic and play with texture. I like wearing socks with a rolled up black pant and a nice pair of thick platform heels. If you want to show your socks, you've just got to find a creative way to do it. I like to wear my all black Vans with socks and rolled-up sweats. As far as shoes, I'm definitely a comfort type of person, though I do love them.

SHOPPING

I think some of the most exciting pieces I own are vintage. I have this old pink Chanel coat that's this beautiful, unique pink that I think will be awesome forever. When you shop vintage you can create looks that don't exist yet, whereas when you're shopping in the stores you're getting stuff that somebody else already figured out for you. Even the really high-end fashion ends up being pretty trendy. The idea is to mix and match and create your own style within that process. I dress the same way I make music which is a collage style: picking elements that don't go together and putting them together in a special way that is something that only I would come up with. I'm also really into comfort pieces. I love sweats and I love comfortable designers, like Alexander Wang and Christopher Kane. Stuff where you can wear really regular stuff, but by the shape or the cut you can tell somebody put a lot of thought into it.

HOME

I just renovated my own house and I did a lot of the design myself. I spend a lot of time on 1stdibs. My house is vintage mixed with modern mixed with cheap ass pieces that we find on the road on tour. Something that you got for like ten dollars can be the ultimate finishing piece for a room. My bedroom has this vintage 1700s wallpaper and a Ghanaian painting of a monkey that I got for cheap with a bed from the '50s. I just like mix and match. Sometimes I go too far. This is going to sound really freaky, but I bought these Ghanaian child coffins. They've never been used but they're these amazing art pieces. I have these two Mercedes-Benz coffins and then I have this one shaped like a boat, and they're just amazing. They're like six or eight feet long, and you can probably open them up and fit in them if you want. They're really cool, but I don't know what to do with them.

From The Collection:

How I Live
How I Live: Santigold