This Artist Is Showing the World Another Way of Celebrating Your Quinceañera — And Now We Wish We Were 15 Again

Based out of Los Angeles, Zairah, a.k.a “La Madrina of Pari Rap,” has joined forces with designer Fuchsia Lin and creative agency Wieden+Kennedy to help fight the machismo, homophobia, and some of the dated ideas about dress code and genre around the beloved Quinceañera tradition.

How? Through fashion and beauty, of course. 

While big tulle gowns might have been the norm for decades, the artist wants to disrupt this canon with her “Quienseañera” suit, ​​a pink and gold two-piece hot pink pant suit that can and should be worn to celebrate any and everyone.

Doing a little bit of wordplay she turned Quinceañera to Quienseañera, pretty much saying that quien sea can wear it and be whatever they want to be. 

With the help of Fuchsia Lin, Zairah used as inspiration some of the memories and influences that have impacted her aesthetically throughout her life, such as her time in Mexico and bullfighting suits. Yeah. “There are a lot of bullfighters in my family and I’ve always found their suits so beautiful,” she said. “Also this concept to me feels like we’re fighting the bull of our society.” 

And fighting in style. The artist wanted to make sure the piece was embellished with a lot of gold details and bright colors to “show off the brightness of our Latin community.” The flowers on the sleeves, for example, were inspired by her childhood summers in Mexico where she learned to craft decorations with bright-colored paper flowers. 

“This is also a way of getting back to that time and being like ‘I get to wear whatever I want now.’” We feel you sister. 

But ultimately, her goal is to tackle exclusion in the Latin community above all. “Right now we have such a big voice as Latin artists and it’s important for us to represent inclusion and changing the ways our communities think,” she said. “I think we’re still behind on a lot of the ways our traditions are and I’m on a mission to change that.”