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"L'Uomo Vogue" Photoshoot

Kabuki Starshine, makeup artist, Paper Mag (July 13, 2017)

Paper Mag: How did it come about that you worked with Michael Jackson?

Kabuki Starshine: That was a big mystery. I didn't realize how it came about. I thought maybe because I'd worked with Macaulay, but no. Actually, Bruce Weber, whom I'd never worked with before, thought of me for that project. It was for L'Uomo Vogue, and it was the first shoot Michael had done in 10 years. They asked me to come back and do the cover of Ebony with him too. Those were his last photo shoots. He was really lovely. I can relive it all in my mind because I was so full of adrenaline when it was going on. I had to talk to him on the phone before I met him. I was at a cash machine and the phone rang and it was his people clearing the line to make sure it was me. He was gonna call me in seven minutes, so I ran home, not wanting to be on the street with sirens and street noise. I got so nervous, I had to breathe into a ziploc bag. I was hyperventilating. But he sounded so scared himself that I instantly calmed down. I sort of felt for him. And when I met him in person, he had dark glasses on so you couldn't see his eyes. He seemed very shy, but when we started to work together, I guess he got my energy, and he was so sweet, quite considerate of me and my working process.