Sita Abellan is proving there’s life after working with Rihanna. The model may have amassed her quarter of a million Instagram followers thanks in part to a scene stealing turn as a hench women in the singer’s controversial “Bitch Better Have My Money” video, but the Sita Abellan story does not end there: a successful modeling career beginning back in Spain and supplemented today by a fine line in widely coveted, Jeremy Scott-approved DJing.
In fact, those quarter million Instagram followers may have been partly enticed by that much double-tapped #behindthescenes selfie, but what they really stuck around for was the 23-year-old’s “techno princess” aesthetic: one that reached fruition this weekend with a capsule collection for Polish label Misbhv’s 00s club kid inspired NYFW show.
A sexed-up take on Japanese biker garb, the presentation saw a blue haired Abellan in a silk kimono, surrounded by roses, rhinestone shorts bedazzled with the word Pain. “When I was in my hometown, I had a lot of ideas that I couldn’t express,” she told us ahead of the presentation. “Pain for me is not always something bad, you know? It has two faces of a coin.” Read about them both below.
Why was now the right time to debut a collection?
I feel like I always wanted to do it but, after my trip to Japan, I got really inspired. I’m friends with the Misbhv guys and we talked about it and thought there was something there.
What was it you liked about Japan?
I found it really interesting, first of all, how different their culture is and the vision they have of life in general. I went to to Tokyo because I was working there and I got really inspired by the subcultures and people in the street and how crazy the city is. I’m from a little town in the south of Spain so for me going there it was like, ‘oh, my god, this is completely different from where I’m from.’ The fact that people go out on the street and no one looks at you or judges you for how you dress was, for me, really impactful.
Is design something you’ve always been interested in?
Yeah. I don’t know if I’m alone in that, but I’ve always been interested in fashion since I was a kid. I mean, for me, when I try to draw something it takes a long time, so it was easier to do styling. But since I was a super little I used to dress myself and my mom let me do what I wanted in that way.
What was the thinking behind the title of the collection, Pain?
I had a hard time when I was in Japan because it was really stressful. I went there as a model, I was doing castings every day, working everyday, waking up at 5AM, stuff like that. And I think that period was really important for me. I feel like it made me adult. Out there alone in a completely different culture, not everyone speaking English, feeling really alone. I was happy to be there, but at the same time it was tough. So for me, I found that “pain” was the perfect word. But pain for me is not always something bad, you know? It has two faces of a coin. I was in Japan, it was beautiful, I met a lot of beautiful people, it was great. But, at the same time, I was having a hard time. So “pain” makes sense for that.
What did you want the clothes to say?
I have five pieces that I designed. One is a kimono that is the most important piece of the collection. It’s a silk kimono and it’s like a motorcycle gang thing that I invented in my head. And the rest of the pieces are one top and one pair of shorts that are really sexy. I want the girls that wear it to be really sexy, because with the shorts, you’re showing your legs and a bit of your ass and, with the top, your back, which I think is really sexy. Doing these pieces, I wanted the girls to feel sexy and to be cool at the same time.
You do so many different things. What would you like to focus more on in the future?
I’m doing so much stuff. Sometimes I ask myself, should I focus on one thing? And right now, it doesn’t work for me to just do one thing. I think, right now, everything I do is complimentary. Fashion goes with music and music goes with fashion. So I want to keep doing that. I don’t know where I’m going to finish, to be honest.
Credits
Text Matthew Whitehouse