Until you are deeply invested within the magnificence world, you may not acknowledge Andrew Dahling‘s title at first look. However only one have a look at his work would have you ever, your technologically stunted mother and father, and even your radio-loving grandmother gasping in recognition. No, you could not know his title proper now, however you noticed his handiwork littering journal covers, award-show pink carpets, and each fashionable social media platform over the previous yr on the canvas that’s Chappell Roan.
Born Andrew Karrick, Dahling got here up in rural Kentucky, and “visions of grandeur” took up extra psychological actual property than his mother and father would have appreciated. The glittering grit of modern metropolis life known as to him from miles away. His free time was spent watching ’90s VHS tapes of the New York Metropolis club-kid scene on YouTube, sketching vogue designs onto fashions with stamped-on mugs, and practising make-up in secret. Dahling appeared predetermined for greatness, and he allowed the self-described “psychedelic present” of creativity to hold him by way of his first six years in New York Metropolis earlier than remodeling the Grammy Award–successful artist right into a blunt-smoking Statue of Liberty for her headline-making efficiency on the 2024 Governors Ball. It was their first collaboration, may we add.
There’s an air of quiet confidence across the spellbinding make-up artist after we meet throughout a video name. A model looms at his window for stitching initiatives, and archival journal covers and bespoke vogue sketches paper the partitions—a reminder of the tip objective, the mountain to summit subsequent. “I’ve at all times felt like I am some form of vessel. I am alleged to be doing one thing necessary,” he tells Who What Put on. “My life has at all times felt prefer it belongs to that.”
Forward, take a peek contained in the thoughts of the artist serving to craft the make-up appears of the trade’s favourite Midwest princess, see the merchandise that modified his artistry for good, and study in regards to the goals left to manifest for this enthralling expertise.
Your clientele and the artwork you create collectively are so celebrated, however I wish to flip the lens again on you. Are you able to inform me a bit about your self—your childhood, your loved ones, the place you are from?
I grew up in a very small city in Kentucky. Not a lot occurring there. We had been the primary neighborhood on this lengthy highway. It was simply [a] very quintessential, all-American childhood, you recognize—round a variety of household, cookouts, tremendous near my grandparents. It was very candy, but it surely stopped serving me.
It did not actually nurture my creativity in any means, and no one in my household had ever met any individual like me earlier than. They did not know what to do with me. I used to be the black sheep, so I felt a little bit indignant, and [I] simply had a tough time with the teenage/early grownup years. I did not see anybody round me that I used to be like, “Oh, I wish to be like them.”
So then Tumblr and social media and the web and Gaga—I simply had all these little awakenings everywhere in the Web of all these subcultures and those who had been on the market, largely in New York or London or Berlin or one thing. I used to be like, “God, I simply wish to be like them. I wish to be them. I need their life.”
I simply rebelled. I slowly began portray my fingernails and filling in my brows. One time in highschool, my mates discovered a forehead pencil underneath my pillow, they usually had been like, “What is that this? You fill in your brows?”
My mother and father did not get it. Each time I wished to put on one thing cool to a household celebration, they’d be like, “Are you able to simply not?” So I used to be at all times the issue. I used to be at all times the one “making an attempt to make an announcement,” however actually, I used to be simply current.
(Picture credit score: Who What Put on)
Make-up was at all times one thing that I beloved. Once I was a child, I might draw girls on a regular basis, and they’d have stamped mugs on, big lips. They had been simply glamour.
I [had gone] to school for musical theater. Hated it. Simply didn’t belong in that crowd. I actually sang Woman Gaga songs as my audition for Into the Woods. I simply didn’t belong in musical theater, however I beloved to be flamboyant and carry out. I beloved the entire world of glamour, the garments, the make-up, the hair, every part. So then I received into make-up as a result of it was the best factor to get into on the time. … You go to a magnificence counter and promote make-up to outdated white girls. In order that was form of enjoyable.
After which I hated it. I used to be like, “I gotta get out of right here,” so I saved a bunch of cash—as a lot as I wanted to outlive a month in New York—moved right here in 2018, after which it form of spiraled.
My first job moreover Buca di Beppo in Instances Sq. was on the MAC counter. I met a bunch of individuals there, and it simply stored manifesting totally different connections. Now, right here I’m.
How did you go from under-pillow forehead pencils to the work you do now? Earlier than working professionally, did you train your self?
I believe the codes simply existed already. I do not wish to get too esoteric, however DNA packages, previous lives… There’s one thing to that that I actually consider in.
I am unsure if I can outline it as one factor. I believe simply a variety of apply, however not an insane quantity. I wasn’t in a studio for years portray, so I believe it was simply at all times there. I drew loads as a child. My punishment as a child was my artwork provides being taken away from me.
I used to work for [makeup artist] Kabuki. … He’s, like, the god. Earlier than Kabuki, there wasn’t actually a make-up artist in my life. No one actually taught me do it. I did not go to artwork faculty. I simply discovered my very own little means of doing issues.
(Picture credit score: Who What Put on)
Which merchandise and methods ended up altering the sport for you?
Danessa Myricks Colorfix is simply unbelievable. And brushes, bitch. You want good brushes. A great brush will make your make-up look so a lot better. It is insane.
Additionally, I at all times say to sketch issues out first with a forehead pencil, after which I am going step-by-step [from] mild to darkish. It is the factor I at all times do to have the ability to create such an intricate design on my face with out going completely cross-eyed and getting misplaced.
Danessa Myricks Magnificence
Colorfix Multi-Use Liquid Pigment
Omnia Brush
Professional Deluxe Mixing Make-up Brush Set
Dependancy Tokyo
Eyeshadow Brush D 02
Eigshow magnificence
Professional Precision Gel Eyeliner Brush
You had been impressed by the club-kid scene rising up. How did you get into it in New York Metropolis?
One of many first issues I did once I moved right here was get Susanne Bartsch‘s cellphone quantity, which was loopy to me on the time. My good friend [that] I had labored with launched me to her, so I began doing her make-up.
I used to be too afraid to ask, however all I wished once I moved right here was to be a Susanne Bartsch woman. I keep in mind going as much as them at events and embarrassing myself as a result of I knew a lot about these individuals. It was like a faith to me. So she appears at me, and she or he’s like, “Do you wish to host?” And I used to be like, “Sure!”
The place do you discover inspiration? It feels refreshingly distinctive—very you.
One of many issues that I’m very enthusiastic about is being unique. I do not love displaying as much as units or doing jobs the place you’re solely there to execute any individual else’s work on the temper board.
I, after all, consumed as a lot media as I probably may. I might simply reside on YouTube and Tumblr wanting up movies of individuals with VHSes within the ’90s that will exit to the golf equipment in New York. [I watched] all of the documentaries I may discover on Leigh Bowery and that entire scene in London. Vivienne Westwood and David Bowie… You realize, that world.
I’ve this form of regalia, psychedelic present that runs by way of my mind once I create issues. I design garments loads on my sketch pad. I really feel like I am at all times designing for a homosexual prince on some alien superior world.
I began working with [Kabuki] by way of Richie Wealthy, who I met by way of any individual I met on the MAC counter. He was one of many OG well-known membership children in New York. So all of those individuals come by way of me, however I do not wish to be simply one other make-up artist that executes tendencies and references from the previous. I really like the thought of aesthetics and choosing from and residing in worlds from the previous, however I actually simply wish to create a brand new world that does not exist already.
You’ve got had an explosive yr. What would you establish because the turning level in your profession up to now?
Essentially the most drastic expertise—like a quantum-leap kind of expertise—was positively Gov Ball. To see that many individuals simply screaming, shouting, hooting and hollering, singing alongside, waving the pink bandanas, I used to be like, “Oh my God.” Crucial factor to me is at all times influence, particularly after every part I’ve skilled.
I do not actually assume I care about these worldly titles, and to see that many individuals affected by her and all collectively celebrating this message that she stands for, who she is, her creativity, and the spirit of who Chappell Roan is after which to be a part of making this actually main second occur, I simply sobbed. I used to be like, “That is all I ever wished.”
Like fuck, who cares in regards to the numbers and the statistics and what individuals assume and blah, blah, blah? That second—being onstage and searching and seeing everybody else—that was it.
(Picture credit score: Marleen Moise/Getty Pictures)
Should you needed to decide, what are your favourite appears you have carried out on your self and another person?
The one pinned on the high of my Instagram is my favourite. It is probably the most consultant of the completely ridiculous model that I am going after. It does not make any sense. It appears alien, prefer it may very well be some form of bizarre deity.
On any individual else… I imply, I am simply gonna say the Statue of Liberty solely for the truth that it was so main.
Talking of Chappell, how did you find yourself on her coveted workforce?
This was truly loopy. I used to be doing my regular Glamsquad [job], strolling across the streets of New York, and I get a message from Adam Lambert on Instagram. He is like, “Hey, love your work. I’ve this picture shoot. Are you able to come do my make-up in L.A.?” And I used to be like, “Sure, I am there.”
I get there, and I study that certainly one of my highschool mates, Hunter Clem—he is a stylist for Gaga—is styling the shoot. Hunter had labored with Genesis [Webb] for some time, so she was there as Hunter’s assistant.
This entire time, I had already identified who she was and that she had labored with Chappell. I used to be form of taking part in it cool—like, “I am not gonna ask… Ya know, if it is talked about…” Towards the tip, she requested if I might ever wish to do Chappell’s make-up.
She was like, “How good is your white base?” I used to be like, “I am knowledgeable clown. I do white bases in my sleep. That’s not an issue.”
(Picture credit score: Who What Put on)
You could have some severe manifestation powers. Are you a kind of individuals who simply knew this may occur for you?
Sure, I believe so. I’ve identified for a very long time that my relationship with the world is exclusive in the best way that I see these individuals on the very high—you recognize, the most important pop stars and the most important vogue designers—and I felt like I may perceive them in a means that was larger than their music or artwork or how well-known they had been.
I’ve at all times felt like I am some form of vessel. I am alleged to be doing one thing necessary. And my life has at all times felt prefer it belongs to that.
(Picture credit score: Who What Put on)
Should you may return and inform your youthful self one thing, what would it not be?
I might say to watch out about which patterns and recurring numbing or dissociative tendencies you select to bask in as a result of the ache, the emotion, the craziness that goes on inside your head is a few form of… I do not know—I am seeing a liquid being alchemized into gold.
It is not one thing to run away from; the darkness is not one thing to be petrified of. You are not improper. You are not, like, secretly evil. If I had been capable of alchemize a number of the darkness sooner, I might have been capable of come into extra of my energy, however I used to be so self-conscious and performed so small.
(Picture credit score: Who What Put on)
I’ve a sense you are simply getting began. What’s a future objective you may’t wait to examine off?
I really like being a make-up artist, however I’ve at all times beloved vogue simply as a lot. I’ve sketchbooks which can be filled with designs. I have been making an attempt to stitch extra and do club-kid appears, but it surely’s proving to be relatively difficult.
So vogue could be it for you?
I believe it is going to be. I simply wish to mix every part. I’ve visions of grandeur that simply transcend and mix every part: efficiency, music, vogue, make-up, and hair… so many concepts. I am simply ready for the model of actuality the place I’ve the sources to drag one thing like that off.
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