NIKE black Indy bra and Air Force 1 High x ALYX sneakers; LEMAIRE jacket and trousers;
GENTLE MONSTER sunglasses.
On a sunny spring day in Calabasas, California, Rosalía Vila Tobella was posing in the middle of an arid field in a black Lemair jacket and trousers, sports bra, high-yanked mesh knickers, and black Air Force 1s, bending so far backwards at the waist that she looked like all 5'5 inches of her might snap in half. All day she had held her body still for the camera, a series of serpentine curves dipping and arching and working all of the angles. But above, her hands were always in motion: fingers twirling her hair, snapping along to a Playboy Carti song, pulling at her bottom lip, her lapel, her waistband, up, up, up as she dipped back and down. And then the most exciting new talent in music fell down, catching herself with one hand and angling her face to the camera with a sultry pout. Photographer Case Bird announced that she had the shot, and Rosalía bounded up with an easy grin to high five and look at the results. "I love these," she said, surveying the screen. "I look strong."
NIKE black Indy bra and Air Force 1 High x ALYX sneakers; LEMAIRE jacket and trousers;
EROS sheer high-waisted underwear.
Strength is important when you're talking about Rosalía. You don't get to where she is—the first (and to date, the only) artist to have been nominated for the Best New Artist at both the Grammy Awards and Latin Grammy Awards, with billions of Youtube views and around 30 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter—without it. Add to that a brand new partnership with Nike celebrating her love of music, and dance, and her belief in the way that the two can bring people together, just like she's done for listeners around the globe.
Rosalía is hard to box in, or define, or dismiss, and her confidence is undeniable: irresistible to a generation reared on the genre-blending possibilities of social media and the internet. She's a trained cantaora who idolizes both Camarón de la Isla and Lil' Kim; a dancer whose performances combine hip hop and flamenco, with hallucinatory visuals and elaborate acrylic manicures. At 27, she is that previously-believed-impossible thing: an artist who has managed to seemingly erase boundaries between Latin music and the mainstream U.S. market, making Spanish language pop songs essential listening for, well, just about everyone.
MARINE SERRE glitter top;
BALENCIAGA sweatpants.
Her audience feels like it was magically created just for her, a petite figure with an enormous range, bold personal style, and musical influences that reach forwards and backwards in time and tempo. When she first heard flamenco, as a teenager hanging out with friends in a Barcelona parking lot with the car doors open and the speakers blasting, she knew that it was an art form that would be a part of her life forever. These days she collaborates with rappers and reggaetoneros and pop stars alike, but she always sounds like Rosalía.
Working with Nike made sense, Rosalía says: the brand had been supporting her in Barcelona even before her 2018 breakout album El Mal Querer. The partnership is expansive, and sort of amorphous in a way that works for a genre-smashing star: using Nike's platform and Rosalía's creative vision, they aim to bring a community together through the joy of movement. As Nike loves to say, "If you have a body, you're an athlete."
HED MAYNER beige button-down shirt; ACNE jeans;
NIKE underwear; CARTIER bracelet.
Rosalía puts it this way: “When you say athlete what naturally comes to mind is someone about to run the 100 meters, but I think that this concept of sport is becoming wider. I see it in the upcoming generations. It feels less about the competition and a bit more about how you approach it: the self-care, and the group gathering.” Rosalía pushes herself to be the best performer that she can be, inspired by icons of the stage: Carmen Amaya (“her way of dancing looked so beautiful because it seemed like she was fighting with herself”), Mick Jagger, Pina Bausch.
“Dancing, alongside music, is a human expression that knows no boundaries,” she says. “It can be fun, it can be deep, it can be goofy, it can be pretty, stylized, grounded, animalistic, spiritual. It can be aggressive, vulnerable, round, geometric, expansivo, or to yourself...” She could be talking about any of her own performances. It’s an art that brings people together—anybody can dance—but it also sets her apart. “Dance is a strong creative element in my projects,” she says, “and dance is also like all the other sports: a place to learn to fail. I think it’s really important to learn to fail, and there’s a specific and beautiful type of humbleness that you learn when you put yourself at the service of repeating a movement, once and again, until excellence.”
CHANEL jacket, earrings, and tiny waist bag; NIKE bra, and long shorts.
THE HG 20
Rosalía opens up in our quintessential HommeGirls questionnaire.
1. Your style in 3 words
“BARCELONINA BOSS BITCH.”
2. Your motto
“I love a Spanish saying 'que sea lo que Dios quiera'.”
3. Hommegirl heroine
“NINA SIMONE”
4. Day or night
“I love when the night ends and the day starts.”
5. Last thing you read
“Widow Basquiat”
6. Favorite season
“La primavera”
7. Idea of fun
“Spending time with my friends.”
8. Decade of choice
“This one.”
9. Favorite T-shirt
“PLAIN SIMPLE WHITE TEE.”
10. Who do you call the most?
“My sister Pili, all the time, I burn her phone basically every day, every minute.”
11. Your scent
“Sometimes coconut.”
12. Friends can usually find you...
“In the studio.”
13. Favorite meal
“My grandma’s 'arroz negro'.”
14. What gets you through the day?
“Music. I listen to music when I prepare breakfast, when I take a shower, when I drive…”
15. You love...
“DORITOS”
16. Who inspires you?
“La Paquera de Jerez”
17. A place you would like to travel to
“Kyoto”
18. Sneaker of choice
“AF1”
19. You like to dance to...
“Mr. Fingers’ Ammnesia Album.”
20.Your theme song right now
“Camarón de la Isla’s 'Tiritando de Frío'.”
NIKE white Indy bra and underwear;
BURBERRY jacket; HED MAYNER jeans.