“Drag queens kind of raised me,” muses stylist Briana Andalore, as her friend and hair stylist coifs her black and blonde extensions into the perfect ponytail, "in the sense that they were who I looked up to." She’s wearing a Jean Paul Gaultier newspaper print robe and Pleaser platforms, which she has, of course, tweaked slightly to her aesthetic liking. If you don’t know Andalore’s name, you know her work. She’s the force behind Julia Fox’s headline-making sartorial charades. The New York native has cultivated a sense of style that has, by proxy, grabbed the world’s attention and reflects her downtown upbringing.
It wasn’t just drag queens that shaped her outward expression, but the whole of Greenwich Village in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. This historically-steeped geographic location valued individuality, in all its forms, but particularly after hours. Andalore grew up smack in the middle of it, just off Washington Square Park, near Bleecker Street. “Nightlife was a big part of my DNA,” she explains, “just being around queer people—that makes up a big part of my identity.” She started school on Christopher Street, home to the gay bar and historic landmark, The Stonewall Inn. The icons of both the era and the area instilled in her a reverence for the flamboyant.
Naturally, Andalore tried on different identities for size at a very young age. She describes her middle school experience in Gramercy Park as a much less friendly-to-the-unique space. There, she attempted to assimilate into mainstream culture. It didn’t work. “Within weeks I became a goth,” she reflects matter-of-factly, “because that's who I really was, I feel.” The hair, makeup, and nails turned black as the influence of Sublime, 9 Inch Nails, and Deftones journeyed from her boombox into her closet. This all happened by age 12.
Over the next few years, she tempered that bitterness with a little sugar. “I was like a candy raver, goth girl because I liked pink, Care Bears, UFO pants, and black makeup.” At this teenage inflection point, the stylist’s creative energy began to attract others vibrating at the same frequency. She met Fox and their other close friend Richie Shazam around 15, with whom she now sits front row at international fashion weeks. They bonded over creating the wildest looks to garner access to nightclubs like Room Service and Elbow Room. “Everybody got dressed up, and it was glamorous, and it was fab,” she recounts. “Yes, I was underage, and yes, I shouldn't have been going to these places, but I was very persistent.”
Andalore credits her large personality (and its manifestation in her clothing) for her admittance to said spaces. She built her sense of style on the experience of testing the limits of fashion. The budding collector and her friends pieced together treasures from stores on Broadway and Astor Place (it should come as no surprise that Andalore still likes to shop at S&M stores). “I was this force you couldn't reckon with—I mean, you can tell that my style is a little eccentric.” This reverence for DIY glamour persists. The day we visited, Andalore had slept very little the night prior. She was up all night putting together one of the creations (with the help of designer A’kai Littlejohn)—a black strapless dress adorned with exaggerated plastic bows.
At 22, Andalore and Fox expanded upon their process of crafting extravagant looks and launched their own clothing line, Franziska Fox. “It was everything I always wanted to be,” she says. “I always wanted to be a designer. I always wanted to work in fashion.” From dressing up Barbie dolls to outfitting herself for a night at Hiro Ballroom, fashion was always the only option. Today, her approach to styling isn’t that far off from what she’s always done. “I'm kind of a sourcer,” she explains. “That's the best way to describe my skills.” They need a factory to produce? She finds it. They need an obscure look from an in-demand collection? She tracks it down. “I’m a problem-solver, so it was a natural progression to go into styling.” Her friendship and collaboration with Fox merely elevated her work to a global platform. “I think the world finally saw what I could offer with Julia because I was able to do whatever I wanted to do, which was anything and everything.”
“Getting dressed is a different experience today,” she continues. “My way of dressing is less personal than it used to be. I’m more [focused] on expressing my style on other people.” The self-described “Gaultier girl” is not always turning a look (her “anti-fashion” grocery store ensemble is sneakers, leggings, and an oversized T-shirt), but that shock value is still her sartorial raison d’être. “It's about electricity. Even if we're not going anywhere, sometimes I put on those looks because the world should see them,” she says.
Whether she’s dripping in Diesel at fashion week or running to the grocery store in a t-shirt and leggings, one thing remains constant: a pair of cat-eye glasses atop her nose. “I just can't see,” she counters when I ask about the motive behind this signature piece. “What else was I going to do?” She tried contacts but they weren’t for her. “It just became another accessory that I, unfortunately, have to pay for.” The utilitarian need spawned a fanciful assemblage of eccentric eyewear, all with similar cat-eye shapes. “I'm a collector, a sourcer of things.” And as we’ve all seen, the sourceress wields her power for the good of fashionable free spirits everywhere. Shop her closet here.
"I became friends with Julia when I was like 15 or 16. But Julia moved into my mom's apartment when we were, I don't know, 16. Obviously, we were going to some of the same places, but my style has always been individual in the sense that I was always just pushing the limits."
"I love pop culture, but I'm more rebellious and alternative."
"My first pair of glasses—well, I was like two because that’s when they knew I couldn’t see. But there was this place on 8th Street between 6th Avenue and MacDougal that was called like Eyes On the World or something. That's where I bought my first designer pair of sunglasses that I can remember."
"I'm kind of a sourcer. That's the best way to describe my skills, I guess. Like, 'Okay, we need a factory to do this?' Let's find a factory to do this. 'Okay, we need this obscure piece from this country, but can we replicate it?' It's a problem-solver [energy]. So it was a natural progression to go into styling. I think the world finally saw what I could offer with Julia because I was able to do whatever I wanted to do, which was anything and everything."
"This dress is a woven leather fabric that we dyed and draped along the body. It was really important for us to keep the raw natural edge. And yeah, it’s amazing."
"As I said, drag queens kind of raised me. In the sense of that they were who I looked up to. Those were the parties that I was going to. Everybody dressed up to go to those places. And yes, I was underage, and yes, I shouldn't have been going to these places, but I was very persistent. And I had a very large personality, so I would kind of just go to the front of the line—and I would always be wearing outfits. And Julia [Fox] and Richie [Shazam] and [my friend] Kara, they would be with me, but I was this force you couldn't reckon with. We would always get in because it was like, 'okay, we're going to wear platforms or we're going to wear our hair like this or our makeup like that.' Everything was glamorous and extravagant."
"I'm very lucky. [My friends are like] family, but we're collaborators. There's someone that's a director. There's someone that's a videographer. There's someone that's a producer, photographer. All of us grew up to be very creative somehow, and we all ended up pursuing what we love to do. And we got so lucky. Well, we're all hard workers, and I think that's what makes the group so strong. And that's why we've been able to be friends for so long, because we all work at the same pace and at the same level, and nobody does half-measures here. Like if we have to work until 5:00 in the morning, we'll all sit there together, and that's what we're doing. It's great to have people that want the same thing. And I think we had similar upbringings to some extent. I think that's what driven us to be so particular and hardworking."
"[Near] Bleecker Street is a neighborhood of creativity. I grew up right off of Washington Square Park, and I feel like that's the ultimate place where kids and people come to experience self-expression. Even in the '60s and '70s and '80s, that neighborhood had so much history when it comes to all kinds of music. So that energy and DNA is kind of just on the streets and in the walls."
"I'm a collector of things or a sourcer of things. So what I find important is to connect to different people and get those items [they desire] and present them for the specific moment. I don't really like to share too much in advance because it ruins the spark of the moment. So is it collaborative when we're trying things on? Yes, of course, but it's about having the right things in the room so she can connect with those things."
"Getting dressed is a different experience today. My way of dressing is less personal than it used to be. I’m more [focused] on expressing my style on other people.”
"I always wanted to be a designer. I always wanted to work in fashion. I remember being seven and [dressing up] my Barbie dolls. There used to be a software program where you could make your own clothes for Barbies. I don't know if you remember that.You could print your Barbie clothes on fabric paper and cut them out and I was obsessed. So it was only a natural progression that I wanted to work in fashion."
"My favorite color is pink."
"I like to collect things and hoard things. I'm really a Gaultier girl. I collect Gaultier. I'm also a knickknack kind of gal. I love a knickknack, and I love a T.J. Maxx."
"I mean, you can tell that my style is a little eccentric."
"Design and styling are evolving. So it's important to implement my vibe when I can, but at the same time, it's also important to listen to your client, and it's important to be able to do it all. If I'm doing a commercial job and the assignment is to get white T-shirts, my job is to get white t-shirts, but get the best white T-shirts. I want to do the best job I can, whether it be something extravagant or something [small]."
"Nightlife is a big part of who I am, I guess, just because I grew up around it."
"[My style] is about electricity. Even if we're not going anywhere, sometimes I'm just putting on those looks because the world should see them. That's really the vibe. It's like, 'Oh my God, this dress is so amazing or, this bag is the coolest thing I've ever seen. The whole world needs to see this because it is insane."
"I even love looking at people walking down the street. I saw some woman wearing this amazing wig one time, and I was just like, 'Oh my God.' And I thought about her, and I thought about who she was. You kind of dream about the people that are around you. I try to remember almost everything. I remember this person from like five years ago in this club, visually. I take these snapshots, and I go back to them visually in my mind. I'm always concepting."
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