I’m Emily:
Creative Tornado,
Master Artisan
& Rule-Breaker.
I don’t do boxes, and I don't do ordinary.
If you looked at my track record,
you’d see a life fuelled by an insatiable need
to create, perform, and conquer new mediums.
I have that beautiful, hyper-focused ADHD brain
- a trait passed down from my mother, I believe,
and one I now see blooming in my son.
It means I look at literally everything and think:
"I could do that myself." And then I take forever
doing the thing because I'm always doing
too many things at once. IYKYK.
My journey has been a wild, colourful ride
of fearless, creative reinvention:
The Stage, Act I:
Growing up, I was a an all singing, all dancing, over-dramatic, confident-on-stage,
yet often painfully-shy-in-real-life girl.
I was auditioning at Pineapple Studios and
recording at Sony-owned studios in Piccadilly Circus when I should have been at school.
The Pivot:
At age 17, I was suddenly deafened.
I switched my creative outlet from music to art, which had always been another passion of mine.
During a job interview around this time,
I was explicitly told I would be "a liability"
whilst being turned down for a minor temping role.
I knew at that moment I would never work for someone else, I would carve my own path.
The Spark:
For my final university degree show,
I designed my very first wallpaper - Call Girls.
And the spark was lit.
The Stage, Act II:
After uni, I found my way back to the spotlight
as a burlesque dancer and retro pin-up model.
Back then, the wallpaper industry was an endless sea of boring florals. Surrounded by the sparkle of late-night cabaret, I started designing saucy, retro wallpapers based on the themes I loved, thinking, surely these will make someone else smile too.
The Empire:
They did. The wallpapers exploded,
the burlesque made way for the business,
and Dupenny was officially born in 2009.
Today, I am profoundly deaf, navigate the world with cochlear implants, and run a thriving
visual empire with global manufacturing
and major licensing credits to my name.
It turns out my "liability"
was my greatest asset, after all.
Vintage Style, Not Vintage Values
My artisan wallcoverings and designs stem from a deep, lived love of 1920s–1960s old-school Hollywood glamour, mid-century Americana, cheeky cabaret, and the golden days of red lipstick and fully-fashioned seamed stockings.
For me, vintage isn’t a passing trend -
it’s a way of life that influences my art,
my wardrobe, and my entire worldview.
The Current Circus
After 20 years in Brighton, I am currently renovating a 1950s bungalow in the hip seaside town of St Leonards-on-Sea. My beautifully chaotic daily life is a full-hearted juggling act: running my business, home-schooling my three and four-year-old children, and caring for my elderly dad who lives alone with dementia.
Keeping me sane through the madness is
my supportive hubby Jarvis, 2 Siamese cats (Jack & Reenie), and Sssnakey - my pet snake of 30 yrs!
The Expert Multi-Crafter
(As Seen on TV)
As an interdisciplinary artist I am a creator
who refuses to be restricted by a single medium.
From fashion and interior shoots to film/TV
and behind-the-scenes work,
I am a self-taught multi-crafter who learns almost everything from late night YouTube sessions
and picking the brains of fellow industry experts.
I love any excuse to buy new tools
and obsess over a fresh skill
If you want proof that I can turn my hand to absolutely anything under pressure, you might have spotted me as one of the Makers on the
TV series Saved and Remade Workshop.
Much like The Repair Shop but with a creative twist, my job was to take old prized possessions and transform them into entirely new high-end items, proving my mastery across mediums
as the show's "Expert Multi-Crafter".
Right now, I am taking this exact "DIY or Die" energy to my socials, documenting how
I am renovating our 1950s bungalow
into a mid-century dream!
👉 Follow the Chaos on Instagram
Go Big, Go Bold, or Go Home:
What’s Next?
Seventeen years into this journey,
the warm-up is officially over.
I am pivoting away from the small-scale to
focus strictly on high-ticket, exclusive artistic commissions, luxury products, and high-end commercial hospitality collaborations.
Brief me with your wildest, biggest, most unapologetic concepts. I have the manufacturing expertise, the licensing background, and the raw creative audacity to deliver them flawlessly.
The kind of magic I want to make next:
- A custom, deliciously decadent wallpaper
for a luxury kinky sex dungeon.
- A maximalist, bespoke woven carpet for an exclusive private members gentlemen's club.
- A retro-glamour product collaboration with
pioneering women who inspire me - it is my
ultimate dream to co-create with icons like
Dita Von Teese, Dolly Parton, RuPaul, and
other fiercely independent trailblazers.
- A retro-glamour product collaboration with pioneering women who inspire me - it is my ultimate dream to co-create with icons like
Dita Von Teese, Dolly Parton, and other
bold, strong-female creatives.
- Immersive interior design concepts for boutique hotels, upscale cocktail bars, and shockingly
sexy and shameful private residences.
🎬 Media, TV & Representation 🎬
Having loved my time on screen, I am actively looking to expand my television and media work.
If you are a production company looking for
a dynamic, multidisciplinary expert maker
and retro-stylist with pink hair and a
slightly un-hinged sense of humour,
or a talent agent looking to represent
a profoundly deaf creative powerhouse,
you've come to the right place!
