CHOLA SPICE

Photography: Luísa Cativo

Styling: I Love ME (Ana Rito & Bárbara Santos)

Model: Jackie G

Make-up & Hair: Xana Lopes

Special Thanks to Mariana Malafaya, Vitor Bastos, Correia Family and Joana Ferreira

This editorial is not exactly a story in itself, rather than it is the closing chapter of one…

The proto-idea for this photoshoot came from the saying “she’d even look good in a trash bag”; influenced by the characteristic taste of the Gucci Goth and Teen Witch, it evolved into a mix of goth, 90’s Grunge meets Gwen Stefani, Spice Girls, streetwear and trash bags, and was then called “Dumpster Spice”.

Vitor Bastos, the designer behind the brand V!TOR, showed me some videos from a Dominican musician called Maluca. Her particular style with strong latin roots and music (hence the term chola) had a big visual impact on me, coupled with the key element that brought everything together: Jackie. She is like the rejected Spice Girl with too much attitude for the pop music industry. At only 23 years old, Rio-born Jackie is the captivating PR of the very well-known club Plano B, in Porto.

With all these references and Jackie’s exotism and punk-influenced looks, we created this character – that could easily be in a 90’s cartoon show – and we placed it in the decaying suburbs of a small town in Portugal called Oliveira de Azeméis where I used to live.

After gathering so much from so many different places, I ended up where I started.

Personally, this editorial also represents a sort of visual manifesto against the new, to-be approved internet policies regarding piracy, copyrights and access to information, conditioning free-speech online and pretty much obstructing the great creative flow that the internet allowed our generation to experience.

Without it, we would have never come in contact with all these different sources of inspiration; it’s a very important and practical creative tool for many.

By Luisa Cativo