Bella Troia is a genderqueer drag performer based in Berlin. She is known for her vibrant and dynamic presence in the city’s drag scene.
Of Peruvian heritage, she embraces her cultural roots and infuses them into her performances. She often describes herself as a ‘Peruvian doll’ and a ‘martial arts monster of Berlin’. Fashion and upcycling play a constant role as part of her artistic style, always wearing rather avant-garde and streetwear styles.
Bella your visuals are incredibly striking and full of life. Can you share the story behind your transformation into Bella Troia and what inspires your unique style?
I think my journey started ever since I was a kid. I was constantly attracted to the more artistic, crazy, and out-of-the-ordinary things. Growing up in Peru, a catholic and close-minded country, I think I was always inspired by my surroundings, focused more on folkloric arts and mythology. Eventually, I became a teenager, and the fashion world became my new obsession.
While I may or may not have skipped school to go to fashion week events and somewhat networked into a couple of short internships with local designers, such as VNRO. New inspirations for what art could be entered the chat lol. Designers such as Annaiss Yucra- Lima Fashion Week 2018-2021 were to me heavy hitters.
I learned that in a society like that, I would never be able to fully exploit my artistic potential. That’s why I moved to Europe, where I discovered I could not only use fashion as a form of artistic expression but also as a medium to create what Bella is now.
I also realized that by creating an alter ego, I could transform the insecurities I constantly projected. In essence, this persona enhances those insecurities and turns them into something beautiful.
It took a while to figure it out. It was stressful at times, but at some point, I was able to narrow down after asking myself: who inspires me? Who do I want to be? There‘s no art that doesn’t take any reference from previous incredible influences. Today I credit artists such as Thierry Mugler, Vivienne Westwood, Hungry, Purrja, Arca, Santana Sexmachine, etc. Who inspires me to push myself?
I’m lucky to have met and been close to at least the Berlin local ones.
Your look combines bold energy with moments of vulnerability, particularly evident in your makeup and costumes. How do you go about conceptualizing and creating your outfits and overall aesthetic for your performances?
Honestly, lots of times inspiration comes from the most random places. I believe that Drag is a never-ending and self-improving process, and I love to sit down, look at cool references I like, and play around. Sometimes I even go back to when I started 5 years ago and look at things that were great concepts but mid-executed, and try to redo them. For my outfits, I think it‘s always been a thing for me to not just look like the average concept of a drag queen. Probably cliché, but I like to challenge myself to do things to extremes, big and campy. I believe one is only as good as the people they surround themselves with, and my community and close friends are incredible artists who influence the way I do things.
There‘s also an inner child-like way for me to do things. If I did a Bram Stoker’s Dracula‘s Lucy Westenra-inspired look, it‘s not just because the character is cool. It‘s because while growing up, I was enamored by the idea of this beautiful woman becoming such a scary but opulent and beautiful vampire. And it even felt wrong to feel that. If I did an alien-looking monster look, it‘s again because when growing up, aliens, monsters, and obscure creatures were somehow my escape from reality in a trauma-filled environment.
So, I guess that‘s how I am vulnerable yet strong through my aesthetics. I plan performances often based on things I loved as a kid. I grew up with parents who loved 80s rock and metal, and now I often perform those things; it just feels right.
Your Instagram feed feels like a curated journey into your artistic soul. How do you use social media to connect with your audience? And what do you hope they take away from your posts?
I have a rocky relationship with social media. Nowadays, I try to put out content that is transparent and shows who I am as an artist and my personality. I try to balance it with hot and good content, especially when I‘ve worked for weeks to sew and create a fashion look. Those need to have high-quality content, or I will go crazy, haha.
Yes, I am unhinged sometimes. Yes, I can get messy or comedic, and I can also put out the best of my work there. In a world where everyone is constantly attempting to curate their social media to perfection, I do things for the fun. Because I know my audience is there because of who I am, and not only my aesthetics. And I hope more people start doing that as well!
Not long ago, I had a somewhat viral reel that drove thousands of conservatives to attack me. Everyone who knew came to me to ask if I was ok, meanwhile I was laughing my ass off answering the comments and honestly, trolling them. That‘s just who Bella is, she has control of things and honestly she‘s probably a Dom *wink* *wink*
No, but it‘s important to say that as a normie, muggle, human (Alex and not Bella), I am somewhat of a different person than what you see on a mic corseted up wearing 20cm heels, and a lot of my personality traits are actually the opposite of Bella‘s. So, who you see on socials is not who you would meet on the street while browsing through that box of free stuff your neighbor left on the street.
As trends in performance and fashion continue to evolve, what are your aspirations for the future of your art? How do you aim to influence or challenge conventional beauty standards and cultural narratives?
As I mentioned, I’m constantly excited because I believe every time I do something new with my art. I gain a skill, I learn something from it, and my art gets better. I look forward to becoming more conceptual with bigger projects, more avant-garde, and Punk Rock things. More camp and more monster drag for me, please.
I think Bella will always go against beauty standards, even if they are often changing. Today, I challenge the standard in drag like many others by not always and only doing drag like they would see on their TV (probably laptop in this economy).
I am worried, though, for the world‘s political developments. Culture can be and is basically everything, and the decisions the world‘s leaders make, as well as our right-wing voters make, whether we like it or not, are influencing what the culture in our future is yet to be. So I want my art to get bigger and better, to be seen more by the conservatives and mainstream media. I believe forcing them to know we are not afraid and we are still here is critical for the fight to save what we have. If society tries manages to erase us queers, its culture will be the proof of it.
Today, I myself find myself constantly blocked by several companies when trying to find sponsorships and collaborations for events I organize. They don’t want to associate with us anymore because they don‘t need to Pinkwash themselves any longer. Even the fashion industry, which is honestly ran by queer people, is closing doors to queer artists that might be seen as „problematic“ such as drag artists.
So it‘s rough, but I‘m a tough bitch so I will wrestle.
FOLLOW BELLA TROIA
IG: bellafromberlin
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