Unlike her “Next Gen NYC” co-stars who gained fame through their famous Bravo parents, Emira D’Spain built her own following by sharing makeup tutorials and humor from her home in New York City.
The 29-year-old beauty influencer, who was born in Dubai and raised in Dallas, has called Manhattan home ever since attending college at New York University. She has since traded up apartments across the Big Apple as she’s moved up in her career.
While ascending from intern to beauty director at Paper Magazine, D’Spain provided double coverage of the beauty industry by also posting about it on her personal social media accounts. The popular TikToker soon amassed so many followers, she quit her media gig to create content and model full time.
That professional pivot led to a pioneering moment in fashion history in 2022, when D’Spain became the first Black transgender woman to model for Victoria’s Secret.
In 2025, Bravo applauded her for being the network’s first full-time transgender cast member when she appeared on the debut season of “Next Gen NYC” alongside Gia Giudice, daughter of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Teresa Giudice; Ariana Biermann, daughter of former “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Kim Zolciak; Riley Burruss, daughter of former “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Kandi Burruss; and Brooks Marks, son of “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Meredith Marks.
Though D’Spain insists she knew the majority of the dozen total cast members organically “before the show” ever started filming, she reveals to Realtor.com® in the latest Celebrity Sanctuary that she had no idea her inclusion in the series would once again make her a trailblazer.
“It’s so interesting because I don’t really think about it,” she admits. “I kind of knew [with Victoria’s Secret], but with Bravo, I really didn’t know, and then all the press started coming out around it, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is game-changing, not just for me, but for other people, too, down the line.”
“Next Gen NYC” star Emira D’Spain’s first brush with celebrity came from sharing her special blend of humor and technique in make-up tutorials she creates at home in Manhattan.Emira D’SpainD’Spain became Bravo’s first full-time transgender cast member when she joined the hit reality TV series alongside cast members whose parents are well-known personalities on the network.Bravo Media
With such a strong foundation of fans supporting her, D’Spain decided to offer an even more unfiltered look at her life on Season 2 of “Next Gen NYC,” which premiered in June, than what she had previously put out on reality TV or online.
“I told production I want to show more of my life and we did—and I think people really loved it.”
In this edition of Celebrity Sanctuary, D’Spain applies a similar unconcealed approach to presenting her home—a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, approximately 2,100-square-foot apartment she’s been renting since September last year and shares with “no one else but Cinnamon,” her cat.
The “modern contemporary” unit inside “an older building” is where D’Spain gets gussied up—and winds down—most often, within the walls of her glam room. Here, she highlights the recent cosmetic upgrades she made to the sanctuary space.
The “modern contemporary” unit inside “an older building” is where D’Spain gets gussied up—and winds down.Emira D’SpainD’Spain moved to this apartment because she “needed more space” and “wanted to be more in the heart of lower Manhattan.”Emira D’SpainThe beauty influencer describes her apartment’s interior aesthetic as “pink, relaxing, and cozy.”Emira D’SpainD’Spain tells Realtor.com she loves her apartment and “spent a lot of time making it exactly how I like.”Emira D’SpainThe New York City-based professional organizing firm, Function + Form, helped D’Spain organize her home.Emira D’Spain
I’ll give you my little New York City apartment rundown history: My first apartment was actually in my dorm at NYU. Alumni Hall.
Then I moved to [the Financial District]. I lived in a really glam, high-rise building, but in a tiny shoebox apartment because I was, like, “What’s the cheapest one I can do?” I was still in college [and] I was there for a year.
Then I moved to the Lower East Side. I [wanted] to have a nice apartment, but I [wanted] to live closer to school, have it be more more lively, and save a little bit of money because I was still in college and I didn’t have that much to work with.
That apartment was spooky boots down. She was not the vibe. I had a little mouse that got in there. Her name was Miss Minnie. I hated it so much. They took my stove out halfway through my lease. It was awful—very New York living experience.
Then I moved in with my best friend and we lived together during COVID in another glam high-rise building, and then I moved to the Financial District and I was there for a couple years before I moved here.
I wanted to leave my old apartment because I needed more space and I wanted to be more in the heart of lower Manhattan. Before, I was living in the Financial District, and now I’m more central, kind of West Village, SoHo, Greenwich Village area. It’s very much more buzzy. I can walk outside and go get a glass of wine with my friends.
I love this space so much. I spent a lot of time making it exactly how I like.
We transformed it. It’s so beautifully done. My mom came here and helped me with a lot of it, and I had the most amazing organizers, Function + Form, co-founded by Hannah Ellingson and Amber Vasquez. They’re incredible. If you live in New York, you’ve got to have them do your apartment. They organized everything.
D’Spain considers her glam room to be her personal sanctuary.Emira D’SpainFor D’Spain, sanctuary is “a place that you can go to escape from the world and be with your thoughts and be with your vibe.”Emira D’SpainThe glam room’s “main makeup station wall has drawers for everything: foundation, powders, hair products, perfumes.”Emira D’SpainAmong D’Spain’s organized make-up drawers is one filled with products she puts into “goodie bags” for visiting friends and family members.Emira D’SpainThe glam desk also houses lighting equipment D’Spain uses while filming her popular beauty content.Emira D’Spain
The general aesthetic of this apartment is pink, relaxing, and cozy.
Sanctuary, to me, is a place that you can go to escape from the world and be with your thoughts and be with your vibe.
For me, that’s my glam room. I spend a lot of time in there, but sometimes whenever I just feel like escaping everything, I won’t film any beauty content. I will literally just sit in there and do my makeup for fun and listen to music. I did that this morning. It was my favorite part of my day.
In the glam room, it’s very organized. My main makeup station wall has drawers for everything: foundation, powders, hair products, perfumes. I have friends and family drawers for whenever I have friends over that want to take a little goodie bag to go.
My glam desk has this beautiful, giant mirror that’s very powerful and a lot of my lighting equipment. I have rolls of seamless backdrop paper that I’ll use, not in the glam room, but sometimes we’ll do photo shoots out in the living room.
The glam room is definitely double the size of the previous glam room. My old glam room was very small, and I used to have to put my PR boxes in my bathtub of my guest bathroom and close the curtains so no one could see it.
It’s very minimal with the furniture and the style. Obviously, there’s so much product. … I wanted to try to keep [the room] as minimal as possible. There’s nothing that crazy furniture-wise in there. I’m pretty sure all the organization stuff is from Ikea.
Function + Form did all of the organization, and we worked together on what my daily uses of certain things were.
They also organized it so that there’s a little back closet, and it has all of the little things that I would need on the day-to-day for filming, whether it’s an outfit or a quick hair touch-up thing, so it’s my quick to-go section.
The minimalistic furniture and organizational features are mostly “from Ikea” and extend to a back closet that serves as a “quick to-go section” during film shoots.Emira D’SpainD’Spain has personalized the space by designating a shelf for her trophies and favorite items she’s collected from brand campaigns.Emira D’SpainA “custom Emira Barbie that has a little Birkin” is among the collection of sentimental items on display in the glam room.Emira D’SpainThough D’Spain has photos from various modeling campaigns “scattered throughout” the apartment, she plans to add a “wall of fame, hall of fame” inside the glam room.Emira D’Spain
I definitely have made the space my own with some iconic things [from] my career. I have a section with all my trophies, some of my favorite things that I’ve done with brands, like my Kosas campaign is in there. Truly Beauty sent me a custom Emira Barbie that has a little Birkin, and so that’s in there. It’s really cute. A bunch of sentimental things are in there.
I want to add above one of the desks a bunch of photos of all of my magazine covers and campaigns. I have some pictures of some campaigns that I’ve done scattered throughout my apartment, but I want a section in the glam room that’s kind of my wall of fame, hall of fame—it needs a fun name.
I’m actually here quite a bit. I do travel a lot for work, but if I’m not here, someone is. My sister will always be here checking on Cinnamon. I have friends that will come over and stay over. My boyfriend will come over and stay over, and I love hosting people. That’s one of my favorite things in the world, whether I’m here or not.
I try my best to separate my work life and my personal life, and sometimes when I’m overwhelmed, I will literally just close the glam room door.
I use makeup as an escape, even though it is partially my job. It feels like I’m in girl world. I’m shut off from the world. I can be in there and have all the time to myself, and everyone knows not to disturb me when I’m glamming. So it’s very peaceful.
The glam room is the most wow-ing factor of my apartment. I love it. It’s what I would imagine my brain looks like: organized and very glam, and it has everything that it needs.
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