Omar Apollo made a stunning appearance on the 97th Academy Awards red carpet, pairing a draped veil with rosy blush and black eyeliner. The singer worked with Brandon Tan, stylist and fashion director for Cosmopolitan and Seventeen magazine, for the occasion.
While there was no specific inspiration for the design, both agreed that they wanted to incorporate something unexpected into the men’s red carpet look.
“It occurred to me that I couldn’t think of a unique example of a man wearing a birdcage veil, so that inspired me to create something here,” Tan tells Vogue. “The Valentino look came up during a fitting on Friday afternoon. As soon as he put it on, I ran across the room to get the birdcage veil. I was instantly hooked.”
For the look, hair and makeup artist Anna Bernabe wanted to blend “masculine and feminine elements.” For the hair, Bernabe told Vogue, she used a heavy-textured hairspray and a strong-hold hairspray to create sharp, defined lines within the hair.
For the makeup, she used different shades of blush to create a rosy look, then added some depth to his cheekbones and lined his eyes with black liner.
To achieve that natural, worn-in effect, she told him to do one thing with his eyes: “Squeeze them tight.” This is a great trick for anyone who likes their eyeliner to move forward.