By Chinazam Ikechi-Uko.
They never had a pretty girl from Jo’burg, see me now and that’s what they prefer.
Truer words had never been spoken when Tyla sang these words in her latest single, Jump. This is a sentiment that the fashion industry shares because every fashion capital seems to have caught the Tyla bug.
The South African wunderkind got her big break with her viral track Water in July of 2023. The song’s appeal can be traced to a TikTok of Tyla dancing to it. The TikTok video dominoed into a trend on the Internet where everyone attempted yet no one ever replicated the dance as well as she did.
For many, the music came second and to this day, they struggle to acknowledge Tyla as a singer and believe Water was her first and only song until 2024. Before Water, Tyla was singing, touring, and engaging a lesser-known interest of hers– fashion.
TYLA’S HISTORY WITH FASHION.
“I am not going to jinx it but I feel like I am going to get it right. ‘Cause my mother makes jewellery.” Tyla said to Cosmopolitan while playing a game of Expensive Taste on their YouTube Channel. She expressed that several jewellery pieces she has worn were made by her mother. While trying to guess which pearl necklace, from the two Cosmopolitan had given her, was more expensive. “My mother makes all those cool necklaces [I wear], the rosary necklaces, those are my favourite.” Tyla’s love for fashion came from her mother. For posterity’s sake, one should note that for all her explanations, she failed the pearl necklace test. She mistook a $48 one for a $590.
TYLA’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL FASHION SHOW.
The first recorded evidence of Tyla’s brush with fashion was at the SS23 Dolce & Gabbana show in March (2023). Despite having no hit songs or any presence in mainstream media, Tyla was seated front row next to household names like Kim Kardashian and J Balvin.
She wore an archival vintage metallic 90s piece by the brand. In addition, she equally performed her deep cut track Been Thinking at the Dolce & Gabbana after-party. For an unknown artiste, this is a large feat and without nuance, it would fuel the “Tyla is an industry plant” allegations. However, she was in the right place at the right time.
Dolce and Gabbana do not have the best reputation in the modern industry with established Gen Z critics like HauteLeMode refusing to discuss them. The brand fell out of the Asian market’s favour in 2018.
Dolce & Gabbana faced a huge scandal in China in 2018. Their marketing campaign featuring a Chinese model awkwardly using chopsticks with Italian food was seen as racist and disrespectful. The situation escalated when a co-founder (Stefano Gabbana) insulted China in private messages, leading to a massive boycott that hurt the brand’s reputation. Since then, the Chinese have stood on business with Hong Kong singer, Karen Mok, forced to apologise for wearing D & G in a music video in 2021.
It also did not look good on the brand when ½ of the brand, Stefano Gabbana, took to Instagram to call Selena Gomez ugly. (Gabbana insists he was hacked for the first offence, as for the second, well, he was unbothered).
So, D&G can not book an established fashion girl who is not interested in money. But getting an unknown fashion girl with potential who is trying to establish herself is easy. Bonus point she is from a continent you are yet to piss off… well the exploitation tales write themselves.
BECOMING AN IT GIRL.
With the backing of a strategy team, not even D&G could predict the rise of Tyla by the summer of 2023. Water catapulted her to editorial girl stardom. Tyla was in magazine spreads for Office Magazine and Notion magazine wearing IT Girl-associated brands like Poster Girl.
At the cusp of dropping Water, Tyla covered S magazine, a Friday magazine found inside Sowetan (South African newspaper). By the end of 2023, Tyla covered several South African magazines including Glamour.
Tyla’s love for deconstructed garments made the fashion industry pay attention to her. While the general public tagged it as retro and 90s which is not entirely wrong. Deconstruction (or deconstructivism) is a fashion phenomenon of the 1980s and 1990s. It involves using unfinished, recycled, and grunge looks to challenge traditional clothing structures (Think ripped seams, raw edges).
“My friend told me that every time he sees Tyla, she always looks like she just ran out of a jungle after fighting a bear. Her clothes always look ripped off and distressed. Once you see it, you can not unsee it.” A University Of Ibadan student once tried to explain Tyla’s outfits.
While everyone has a different name for it, the consensus was clear, Tyla has an obvious style. From her love for brands like Tit4Tats to her skilful poses, Tyla had the ingredients for the perfect fashion girl.
THE IT GIRL.
The Tyla bug became truly global in 2024. Also known as the year when she dropped an album, won a Grammy (Best African Music Performance for Water), and made her Met Gala debut wearing a sand dress by Balmain.
Tyla’s latest fashion stint is her cover for Dazed (and Confused) magazine. Past cover stars of Dazed include Rihanna, Lupita Nyong’o, Lana Del Rey, Tems, Timothée Chalamet, Jungkook, Rosalia and Burna Boy.
The obsession with this cover is its portrayal of Tyla in a different light. She is in a black pixie cut and appears brash. This is a complete 360 for a woman who does not cuss in her songs. The sensation of this cover has made the most intriguing part of it fly under people’s radar.
The Dazed cover marks Tyla’s sixth magazine cover in four months. Her Preme magazine cover was for March, NYT Style magazine for April, Cosmopolitan magazine for May, Numéro Netherlands for May, Women’s Health SA for May and June, and Dazed for June.
Tyla has pulled supermodel numbers in 4 months and she is still a few years into her career as an entertainer. Tyla had reached for fashion crumbs to highlight another passion of hers, and now the industry is paying her to her. Fashion has a new muse and– for what feels like the first time– it is an African.
