BUDS DIGEST 012 / FEATURE
HEAD OVER
HEELS:
GROWING TOGETHER IN STYLE
A collaborative conversation and photoshoot
with ANDREW DAHLING,
ANGEL EMMANUEL and BRIAN VU
—
Photographed by BRIAN VU
Makeup by ANDREW DAHLING
Styling by ANGEL EMMANUEL
Wig styling by PAUL KEO
Andrew Dahling photographed by Brian Vu. Styling by Angel Emmanuel. Wig styling by Paul Keo.
Three rising creative visionaries—makeup artist ANDREW DAHLING, stylist ANGEL EMMANUEL and photographer BRIAN VU—unite for a collaborative photoshoot and special conversation about their careers and friendship.
As DAHLING navigated the New York City club scene through to a meteoric rise as CHAPPELL ROAN’s makeup artist, EMMANUEL gained notoriety for singular styling with JULIO TORRES and VU developed his own unique visual style and makeup brand BRIAN BEAUTY, the three met and developed a genuine friendship; occasionally collaborating with and inspiring each other along the way.
Read on below as they discuss DAHLING's whirlwind year, the joys and trials of working within the fashion industry, the queer drive behind what they do, and their mutual admiration for each others’ eye-popping, explorative work.
ANGEL EMMANUEL: I love your glasses.
ANDREW DAHLING: Thanks. They're hiding my bags. I still have your bra and your skirt, Angel.
EMMANUEL: Oh, yes. I'll need that eventually.
DAHLING: Like a year later.
EMMANUEL: Yeah. Are you still in Harlem?
DAHLING: Uh huh.
EMMANUEL: Okay, perfect. We'll find some time for this summer, I'm sure.
BRIAN VU: I was in Harlem and I photographed Merlot, this pop girl. Fun. And I met someone named Tommy that knows you, Andrew.
DAHLING: Tommy, yeah. Was he doing the makeup? Yeah, yeah. I love Tommy. He's helped me on a lot of the Chappell [Roan] gigs. He was with me for the Statue of Liberty one. That was the first one we did.
EMMANUEL: Oh, so good. I feel like that's kind of a good starting point for this. Tell us about that. Was that the first time you started working together?
DAHLING: Yeah, that was the first time.
VU: How did she find out about your work?
DAHLING: It was actually her stylist, Genesis [Webb]. We were on set together in LA a couple months before. And I was doing Adam Lambert's makeup. And it was like creative stuff. It was really cool. So she saw that and then we were just like kiki-ing, having a good time. And then she was like, “I just started working with Chappell Roan. Would you ever be interested?" I'm like, of course. I had just kind of gotten into her at that point too, and was obsessed. Then cut to like a month later, being asked if I can do body paint. They told me what they were doing, and I was like, “Oh my god, please, this is like a dream gig.” So she found me and then Genesis introduced us.
EMMANUEL: That's amazing. I feel like this year's been huge for the both of you.
“Not like it’s like a whole judgmental thing... but it’s just scary when you have the whole world watching ”
DAHLING: This year, so much has happened to the point where this year feels like ten years. It's not even a year ago and it feels like ten years ago. Time is so warped. I don't know if it's like that for everyone, but it does feel like a lot has happened since then.
But yeah, that was the biggest honor to be a part of it, obviously, because it was such a moment in pop culture, too, and such a moment for her career. Coachella had just happened and she was really breaking out. And then that was, I feel like, the final blow. So to be a part of that, I still get chills thinking about it.
EMMANUEL: I feel like her makeup really put her on the map, in addition to her talent—like the work that you've done on her, I feel like has really cemented her as a pop star. You're really enhancing the image that she already has. You and Genesis together. Is it fun for you? Like, are you having a great time?
DAHLING: I mean, fun, yes. It's a lot of things. Mostly positive. Some, not… I wouldn't say negative, but just sort of gut-wrenching. I feel like a lot of people that work with celebrities share the same sentiment where it's like it's so fun and amazing but at the same time it's so high stakes and such a stressful environment sometimes. And a lot of times not a lot of preparation either. You just have to make things up on the fly, but you know so many people are going to be watching and looking and excited to see what you're doing. Not like it's like a whole judgmental thing, but it's just scary when you have the whole world watching and you're like, okay, I have to come up with this. It's a really insane experience in the best way. but yeah, I don't know.
VU: Also, sometimes like the day-of, right?
DAHLING: Oh yeah. Paris Fashion Week, there was no prep for any of it. The only thing I knew was what she was attending. I didn't know what the outfit was, what she was wearing. I think there was a mood board for one look and the rest was just sort of like, “What should we do?” Wow. And you don't really have a lot of time either. You're doing makeup while her hair is being whipped around. So, it gets really gut wrenching sometimes.
EMMANUEL: Working with celebrities, like you said, it's so fun, but it can be so scary sometimes because not only are you trying to make the talent happy, you're also trying to make their publicists happy and their agents and other clients who are tied in and brands and whatnot. Do you ever feel like that's gotten in the way of some of your work? Where you've had to tailor some things to make someone else happy?
DAHLING: Not because other people made me feel that way, but just personally, my experience—cause I'm such a recovering people pleaser. So I'm constantly hyper conscious of what other people are thinking in my head. Everyone on their team is amazing. They're the nicest, most genuine, kind-hearted people. So it's never them. It's always just been me in my head. That part of the journey has been probably the hardest. It's having to let go of what you think everyone else wants and trusting yourself to know that you have the eye, you have the creative ability to come up with the right thing. I've had to learn along the way to trust myself and calm down and come to a place of center and block all of that out and tap in to just be here and be in my body, centered, so that I can actually have fun doing it, rather than being so stressed out. Because as soon as you stop having fun, that's when everything goes to shit.
EMMANUEL: It's true. As artists, we sort of forget to trust ourselves and trust our own process, because we get in our head so often that we don't really realize until the finished product, like, “Oh wait, I knew what I was doing this whole time.”
Do you have any horror stories from this past year, not necessarily with Chappell, just being in the industry? Because you're so busy with touring—I'm sure you're touring a lot with Chappell, but you're also doing your own thing.
DAHLING: My horror stories are like, the lash is wonky. The lip liner. Nobody's ever been a super diva. I mean, of course, backstage Fashion Week is the most cunty environment I've ever been in. And the egos are so intense and so strong in the fashion industry.. the backstage fashion week moments are really the only times that I've ever been like, “Oh my God, get me out of here. This energy is disgusting.” But other than that, it's always just been me. I'm creating my own horse. What about you?
EMMANUEL: With styling, we're always so dependent on a lot of other people to get our jobs done. We're constantly pulling from other designers or brands or publicists. So it's like, you know, I can send out a hundred emails and maybe get five confirmed looks. Or they'll be like, “Wey, we've confirmed this look for you. We'll follow up later with details.” And then later comes around and I'm like, “Where's the look?” It's supposed to be coming from France or China. And they're like, “Oh, we just shipped it overnight. Hopefully it'll get there tomorrow.” I'm like, we've talked about this for like a couple of weeks now. What do you mean? You just shipped it out tonight to go across the world and be at set by like 10 AM.
DAHLING: Gurl.
EMMANUEL: There's that, but also, I haven't really had much of this happen, but it happened in the past where something will go missing. I've flipped up my apartment upside down. I've checked the set multiple times. I've texted everyone involved, and just a piece is missing. And that's kind of one of the things that's most stressful because no one else is gonna get blamed for that. Even if it wasn't my fault that it's missing, it's still my fault that it's missing. So there goes my reputation or whatever. Sometimes I'll have to pay. But like I said, it hasn't luckily happened too often, only like a couple of times, but I feel like that is one of the biggest things that's freaked me out.
DAHLING: It's so scary. Especially if they're super expensive pieces, too.
“I just go into things without having any expectations, that’s a better way for me to enjoy making art and collaborating with people. If I get too wrapped up in my own head and personal about certain things, I don’t think the project will be successful ”
EMMANUEL: Yeah. Another horror story of mine would be I did this one shoot and the magazine reached out to me last minute to style something. I was like, “Yeah, no problem. Just let me have the LOR [Letter of Recommendation] so I can pull things from brands.” And they're like, “Don't worry about that. We'll handle everything. Just tell us what you want and we'll do all the emails.” And I'm like, great, that's easy.
But it was almost too easy. They were in a different time zone communicating with brands in another time zone. And I'm just here in the middle waiting for everyone to get back to me and see what's confirmed. I did this shoot where I only had one look confirmed and it was like a major talent.
I got to set, and mind you, the shoot was in Connecticut and I'm coming from New York. And this other brand confirms looks to me and they're like, “Yeah, we're ready for you to pick up.” Well, I'm in another state. Can you send somebody? They're like, no. I show up and the talent is freaking out because she was told a different call time than I was. She was there ready, hair and makeup. And her manager, as soon as I walk in the doors, was in my face screaming at me. “Where have you been? Take off the clothes now. She's ready. She’s antsy..”
I did the shoot and she had the one look and she looked amazing. But during the shoot, I was like, this is probably the last time I'm going to style. Like, I can't deal with this pressure anymore because I keep having to rely on other people. And without them on their A-game, it all comes back to me and I look bad. Like, I can't handle this anymore.
But I'm still here. So, you know, I didn't let it get to me. Afterwards, like when the footage came out, I was like, “Oh, she looks fine.” It doesn't matter. No one else is gonna know that we didn't get that many looks. Like at the end of the day, the final product, she looked amazing.
VU: The way I was holding my breath the whole time… I can't really pinpoint any specific stories besides times where I've been wronged in the past by collaborators or photo editors, I guess, promising me something and then not delivering. I just feel like a lot of people in the industry can be very wishy-washy, and they like to string people along a lot of the time, and they don't really know what they want. I guess, for me, I just have realized that if I just go into things without having any expectations, that's a better way for me to enjoy making art and collaborating with people. If I get too wrapped up in my own head and personal about certain things, I don't think the project will be successful or it will be memorable for me. Nowadays I'm just more intentional about who I work with.
EMMANUEL: How did we all get started in our industry? Andrew, you want to go first?
DAHLING: I was working at Dillard's, the beauty counter in northern Kentucky. I was doing my friend's makeup and I loved makeup. I went to school for musical theater and dropped out, hated it. I knew I wanted to do something creative but makeup was always sort of like the first thing I would go to. There's so much I'm interested in, but that was the easiest thing to get into because there was a job in the industry — I could go work at a beauty counter. I could go work at Sephora. It just kind of made sense. Sort of like the entry level thing. And then it just kept going. I started doing weddings and stuff. And then once I moved to New York, I was always obsessed with avant-garde, high fashion. The club kids, really kooky, crazy makeup. So once I got here, I was like, I was just gunning for it. I just wanted to work in the fashion industry. I wanted to be on set. These big photo shoots for magazine covers and behind fashion week, you know, being a part of those teams. And I just went from there. I worked at Mac for a while. And then I met Kabuki, who is really iconic. I mean, the master, like, iconic doesn't even do him justice. So I started working with him, and was his first assistant for like two or three years. So he kind of got my foot in the door a little bit on that side of things. And then I met Suzanne [Bartsch], started doing Suzanne's makeup and then it just kind of kept going.
EMMANUEL: How did you meet Suzanne?
DAHLING: I met her when I first moved here. I went to this Bartschland Follies show that she used to do, it was incredible. I wish they would bring it back. I went up to her and I was so nervous. But I was like, I have to go up and talk to her, I can't leave without at least saying hi because she was my queen. So, I went up to talk to her, and she had definitely had a few glasses of champagne, and she's like “Oh my god you're coming to the Love Ball. Here I'll give you my number, call me.” So I walked away thinking I have this like, “Oh my god, I'm such a huge fan moment” and I ended up walking away with her phone number. And then one of her producers introduced me to her again because she said that she was looking for another makeup artist. And then I think it was like a week later I was doing her makeup. And that was three years ago now.
EMMANUEL: Wow. Were you doing your club kid looks then as well? Did you start doing your own makeup while you were still in Kentucky or did you move here and finally get involved and were like, I'm doing it?
DAHLING: Yeah. I had started all that. I started doing weirder, more avant-garde makeup on myself in Kentucky, but it was like… It was like the 2016 version. So it was like a cut crease, you know, a bold lip. It wasn't anything like anything close to what I'm doing now. Like, not at all.
Then I got here and I think the city brought something out of me. I was able to tap into the collective consciousness, the creative genius circulating through the air here. I don't know what it was, but I just had this thought, I should just cover my whole face. Like what am I? You know, let's create. The whole face is a canvas, just paint the whole thing some weird, wacky pattern. I did that once and I was like, “Oh my god, this is so cool.” And then I just kept going with it. So I really started here for sure. I knew I wanted to be that when I was living in Kentucky, but I hadn't reached it, I wasn't able to tap in or something.
EMMANUEL: I love that. When you get in your club kid looks, are you still Andrew or do you feel like you're putting on like a veil like you're somebody else?
DAHLING: I'm still very much me, but it's like a heightened version of me. I just come fully alive. I don't have a persona. I don't have an alter-ego really. Right after COVID, I was doing drag for a second and it just didn't really feel right with me. I loved performing and getting dressed up, but I felt like becoming a different person. It wasn't like my thing.
EMMANUEL: I feel like New York sort of has that effect on everyone where we finally get to realize who we are and we finally get to become sort of like that vision that we had when we were younger. That almost seemed impossible, but like now that we're here and doing our thing, we finally get to be that.
VU: I mean, we’re surrounded by so many like-minded artists who go all the way, who express their creativity in ways that many people are afraid to. And I find that like so inspiring about this city that I don't really see in other places that I've been to.
“It’s having to let go of what you think everyone else wants and trusting yourself to know that you have the eye, you have the creative ability to come up with the right thing. ”
EMMANUEL: Where are you from, Brian?
VU: I'm from California. Orange County.
EMMANUEL: When did you move to New York?
VU: I moved to New York in 2012, right after school. I studied graphic design. But my first passion was always photography. And right when I moved here, I picked up a camera and started shooting again. At the very beginning, my work was really bad, just very inspired by other photographers who I looked up to at the time, just not as good as them, obviously. But over time, you develop your own style, you pick and pull from what you see and what inspires you. And it also comes from within, I suppose. In 2017 to 2018 was when I found this new kind of way of photographing queer people. And for me, photography was always a way to meet people because I was so shy and quiet until I started taking pictures of people and collaborating with them. It really opened up everything for me being a photographer. I got to meet a lot of people who inspired me and who are pillars in the queer community, you know. Andrew being one of them. I think I found Andrew's work through our mutual friend Sterling and I had never seen anything like it. You're an example of someone who really inspires me to create images and go all the way.
EMMANUEL: I love those photos that you two did together last year, where it was just the head. Brian and I also did a shoot together last year. I was obsessed with both of your styles and was like we have to come together and make it happen.
VU: In a way, it's very cool how all three of our styles, on top of Paul [Keo, wig stylist] being there too… All four of us, all of our styles mesh really well together. We're not afraid of color. We're not afraid of psychedelic influences. I really feel like we're just tapped into this very specific type of artistry.
EMMANUEL: Totally. I feel like it really does show whenever you can just trust yourself, but also trust others to do what they do. Our photos really show all of our best—it was so fun. It was so punk. It was so downtown. It was so queer. You know, it was all the things that we are.
VU: Yeah, unapologetically out in New York City doing it, you know? People all coming by, watching, asking questions. I love the moment with the man at the food truck or the food stand making Andrew and I do a TikTok or something.
DAHLING: Oh, that's right. Yeah, we did an ad for him. I forgot. Yeah. I wonder if that’s floating around somewhere, honestly. I need to find that.
VU: Even a kid came up to you at that school. Those are just moments that you don't get in a studio, you know? I really love that about the shoot.
“As artists, we sort of forget to trust ourselves and trust our own process, because we get in our head so often that we don’t really realize until the finished product, like, ‘Oh wait, I knew what I was doing this whole time.’”
DAHLING: Like you were saying Angel… how you dream of being this person doing these things in New York, and then you get there and it just becomes kind of normal sometimes. It really is so helpful for me, when I'm so wrapped up in my head, to remember that now we are the people that are inspiring the younger version of ourselves. I love that we get to influence and impact people like that because that's the meaning of life. It's what we're here for.
EMMANUEL: I feel like sometimes it's hard to accept that we are sort of the vision for other people because, as artists, we're always trying to better ourselves that we don't really give ourselves the time to stop and appreciate where we are and how we've gotten here and the success that we've been able to achieve. It was such a great moment when that little kid just came up to us and wanted to take photos and was just seeing us do our thing.
EMMANUEL: How would you say cannabis plays into your work? Do you work better when you smoke?
DAHLING: No, oh my god. I can't, I was a pothead for like five years and then one day it just turned on me. I can eat edibles, and I'll be fine on an edible, but I can't really smoke. I like shrooms. Weed makes me crazy. I don't know, like, brings up all the demons. What about you all?
VU: I love it.
EMMANUEL: I love it.
DAHLING: I’m so jealous. If I smoked on set, I would probably be wheeled away in a wheelchair. Like panic attack.
EMMANUEL: Who are your favorite musicians besides the ones that you work with?
DAHLING: Oh my god, I mean, of course Gaga, always Gaga. Teena Marie, I love Teena Marie. Connie Francis, if I'm feeling dramatic. Like an old style Italian diva. I love anything Pet Shop Boys, The Cure. I love Duran Duran and New Order. I do love Tears for Fears. I mean, the whole genre. It's like, so the vibe. I don't know what it is about that era that just transports you to that world. And the 80s, it's so synonymous with what I want to create visually and aesthetically—the drama of it, the theatrics, all of it from that era. I feel like it is in my blood. So when I listen to that music, it gets me high a little bit.
EMMANUEL: I feel like a lot of what you mentioned, the 80s and whatnot, it's a lot of glam hair metal rock. Kiss, for example, which I see as a lot of influence in your work. All those rockers back then had huge hair, the chunkiest of platforms with the highest of heels, skin tight clothing. They all dressed in unison, like full of print and pattern. And I feel like that really shows through your work.
DAHLING: Yes. That's where I want to be when I grow up.
