Base camp. Thursday, 9:30 a.m.
Humberto Leon slinks around set wearing a faded T-shirt that says “Daddy” in bubble letters. He got it at some gay bar a while ago, and it works on multiple levels, he jokes. He is an actual father of 10-year-old twin girls.
And he is also the kind of surrogate father figure of this set, of Katseye as a whole. Leon, with his Martine Rose loafers and True Religion Jeans, seems to be constantly scanning the room, walking around with his arms crossing his chest and his head slightly cocked. He snakes around the row of chairs where the girls are getting their hair and makeup done and makes slight adjustments.
He is in the middle of encouraging Daniela Avanzini, a Cuban American member of Katseye, to embrace her naturally curly hair, while ensuring that her makeup brings out the golden undertones of her skin. “We’ve just been playing around because they all get bored of [their hairstyles], but this is my go-to for you,” Leon tells her in a shepherding tone. “He is literally, like, mother, I don’t know how to say it otherwise,” Lara Raj, the 18-year-old singer of Katseye who is from L.
A. and New York tells me of her and her bandmates’ relationship with Leon. Katseye is a global girl group powered by K-Pop entertainment giant Hybe and Geffen, born out of a YouTube competition show called “The Debut: Dream Academy,” which is the subject of a new Netflix documentary , out Aug.
21. The show brought 20 young women from around the worl.