#BlackAltBae: Roxy Vail

It is with the utmost pride and pleasure that I present this interview with the legendary alternative model, Roxy Vail. I am eternally grateful for her patience, as I had to steal moments just to get these questions out. After many, many weeks, we officially completed this interview today.

 

I am a HUGE fan of yours. How long have you been an alternative model? How did you get started?

I've been an alternative model since 2012 and got my first professional publication feature in 2014. I got started by first practicing modeling with my twin sibling, London, back in the MySpace days and they would always take my photos and tell me what looks good. We did a lot of "Sitemodeling" back in the early days of early social media before I started getting real modeling work.

 

What drew you to the alt aesthetic?

 

Honestly, there was a lot more witchy, spooky or all-around whimsical media at the time when I was coming of age in the early 2000s. Even the "normie" protagonists had fun vibrant clothes with lots of textures. Living in a time before everything turned tan and beige was truly a gift and helped me find my personal style and showed me how to have range.

Is this something you fell into or was there some sort of a plan?

It was kinda both. I never thought in a million years that I'd be a model because not only was I always considered the ugliest kid in class every year at any school I went to, I was always made fun of for how I dressed and for not being trendy enough and for always dressing so weird. I thought it would be better after graduation but the workforce was exactly the same. It really wasn't until I started posting my outfits online and people saying I was stylish and should model, when I finally considered it. I thought I was too short but I found out that I was only too short for runway and that I could be a pictorial model and also not have to have a "clean girl" style. I found out about the wonderful world of tattooed models from places like Vampirefreaks back when it was a social media site and they had models for their storefront, and also from seeing early photos of SuicideGirls online from back when they were super goth. So I decided that I was gonna go for it and try to carve a space for myself however I could.

In addition to modeling, I've seen you perform as a backup dancer. Do you ever sing or play instruments?

I don't play any instruments and I'm attempting at making music with my friend, but I don't have much natural aptitude for making music so I hope I get better over time.

Your photo shoots are impeccable. From clothing to setting to lighting to overall image quality. How much influence do you have over the design?

I have almost complete creative control over my photo shoots. Most times I hit up the photographer and  tell them where I want to shoot and what I'm shooting, how I want it shot, and I just show up and do my thing and it works. There are times where it's more collaborative when the photographers have a specific idea that they want to shoot with me and they send me a mood board or ideas and I do my interpretation of their idea with my outfit  and then we make magic when we're both brainstorming ideas on the spot while shooting.

 

Honestly, I love how creative the photographers I work with now, let me be. Before, I used to only be shot by photographers who were a lot more bossy and wanted me to cater to their fantasies and vision and it didn't usually align with what I was into, so I'm happy now that I get so much hands-on control over my image.

 

What's been your favorite shoot so far and who's been your favorite collaboration?

My favorite shoot is so hard to pick. I think if I had to choose, it'd be a tie between a spooky sexy shoot I did in 2022 with fake blood on a set that looked like a satanic altar and I was covered in blood, a metallic body paint shoot I did in 2021, and on the more recent end, my favorite shoots are both ones I did in April. One where I got to shoot with a real chainsaw and one where I got to be in the cemetery and dressed as my own plague doctor character that I created for myself named, Dr. Plague.

 

As for photo shoots my favorite collabs would have to be with my best friend, Dwella (@cow_ghoul), when I met my internet model friend, Ashley (@morenitawhy) when I went to California & when I recently got to meet my buddy Dahlia (@dahlia.moonstruck) and dressed like witches/vampires, but my favorite content collab was in 2020 when me and a bunch of my Black Alt model friends did a "Pass The Brush" TikTok that featured Scarlxrd songs in it.

 

I remember that 2020 "Pass the Brush" challenge! You girls are legend! How long did it take to make that video?

 

2020 feels like forever ago. If I remember correctly, we made the group chat and my friend Cocoa (@cocoadevampyr) did a lot of the orchestrating and editing, and we had a month to film our clips and send them to her. That's pretty much how that came to be.

Anybody you haven't collaborated with yet but would like to?

Yes. There are so many people I want to collab with. If money wasn't a factor, I'd travel to model with Vlad Von Kitsch, Sharron Ehman (@toxicvision), & Marley Bloodrose. I hope I can collab with more people who inspire me, but those 3 are so amazing.

Are you signed to any agencies?
 

Oh god. Ew. Absolutely not. If I was, I'd be forced to be malnourished just to be marketable. Plus I'd  have to spend my entire career trying to look like a teenager while convincing people that I'm forever 24. I like that since I've always been an Indie model, I've been allowed to age PEACEFULLY into my 30s, to eat, to live, and to do whatever I want with my body and appearance without having to get approval on whether or not I can cut or dye my hair or get tattoos. Honestly, I'm gonna be DIY 'til I die.

Alternative modeling has always struck me as something really, really hard to break into. What challenges have you faced?

It is extremely hard to get into and even harder to build any kind of name for yourself especially as a Black model. There are more of us now than there were when I first got started, but we still make up less than 5% of the alternative modeling community, especially if you're a Black American. Magazines, brands, and other opportunities tend to shun Black Americans and on the rare chance that they do hire Black models, they're Black models from the United Kingdom and other European countries because they're "exotic" to them. I've had to push my way into this space and fight to stay here. It took so long to even get a modicum of respect from my peers and in professional spaces, and for the longest time, people would mix me up with any random Black woman with a septum ring, and would act like I was nothing when I worked alongside them.

 

There have been shoots where I've had my whole day wasted only to be told they don't want another Black model or that I'm too dark and they want a biracial Black model, or they would Photoshop my skin so light that I would be unrecognizable. There were brands that told me that I don't meet their qualifications to model for them and then immediately hiring White models with 1/4 of my credentials, portfolio and follower count, so I had to eventually stand up for myself and keep on creating and shoving myself in their faces until they had no choice but to start respecting both me and my creative vision when on set, or when I'm working with them. It also helped that I started only shooting with indie photographers who care more about the art instead of trying to go mainstream and being safe, commercial and most of all, white-washed.

 

I remember trolls coming to your various platforms and leaving comments that diminished your work. Has that lessened with time or do they stay coming?

 

It has lessened over the recent years. I think from 2012-2019 the reaction to my photos and my very existence pissed so many people off. They'd get so violent, hostile, would doxx me and all kinds of things simply because I had the nerve to put myself out there, say what I want and do what I want.  Also so many people would legit wanna cut my throat open because I posted a picture in a bra and panties or, God forbid, did a nude or implied nude photo shoot back in the day. Existing on the internet was wild, but I never backed down, hid, or privated my accounts. I stood firm because I wasn't going anywhere. They would've had to drag me out of the alt scene by my ankles if they wanted to get rid of me.

 

What advice do you have for anyone trying to start?

It's a lot better to practice by getting a decent camera and having your friends photograph you for your portfolio, rather than dealing with with creepy photographers who just want to get off to a goth person in front of them. Stand firm in your boundaries. If you don't want to shoot nudes, don't let that photographer talk you into it. If you do shoot nudes, don't let that photographer touch you. Don't even let them adjust your hair or bra strap or anything. Tell them that you can fix it yourself. Lastly, don't accept brand collabs from people who expect you to pay them upfront. Same with modeling gigs or agencies. No one is supposed to be asking you for money upfront. Also check the email addresses when these fake brand pages email you. They will use big name brands to fool you, but large brands don't have a Gmail account. It would look like "__@brandname.com" not "brandname@gmail.com".

What is your advice for the younger members of the Black alt community?

 

Don't water down your style and interests out of fear of the Black community isolating you and calling you whitewashed but also, don't water down your style and music taste for white goths, because you fear them calling you "ghetto". Because there's no acceptable or palatable amount of Black in their eyes, so don't center their gaze or their approval while navigating the scene.

 

Don't worry about whether or not white people think you're a poser - they do. And? Who cares? Most of them are posers themselves who stand for nothing and have no identity outside of trying to be different, so their opinions really don't matter. Wear your hair however you want, don't be afraid to wear your natural skin tone with your goth makeup instead of painting your skin with white paint, wear that bright hair color with your dark skin. Don't be afraid to fully commit and look weird. I promise you, it'll be okay.

What are your thoughts on the community overall?

 

As a community, our style, music and personal flair that we add to alternative music and fashion can't be replicated. I think the community is so much better now, because back in the day in the 2000s and early 2010s, the Black alt community as we know it today, wasn't really its own thing yet. It was in the beginning stages but a lot of the scene was about assimilation and using tutorials made by non-black Goths, Emos, Scene kids, Punks etc. Also makeup sucked so much for us back then, so we had NOTHING to work with because every makeup brand was chalky and based on White skin tones, so while we were figuring it out, it was rough.  Now that we have our own spaces, makeup tutorials, and music scenes, we're so much better off.

 

Of course with all communities, they each have their own problems, but the pros heavily outweigh the cons and if it wasn't for the Black alt community, I wouldn't have found a supportive community while I built my career over the years. The biggest issues I have are that our community is still obsessed with conformity and colorism, and we hold Black women in this space to higher and stricter standards than our male counterparts. I feel like there have maybe only been two or three men in our community who faced negative social consequences and they were outed for serious allegations or charges, whereas all a Black woman has to do in our community to get hazed and de-platformed is not have a perfectly laid wig, or the shoes she bought on Depop, that she posted in once, don't have the "right" brand tags. We've got to be better to Black women in our scene because let's be honest, Black femmes CARRY the Black alt community, and we deserve equal respect without harsher punishment, because we deserve it. I feel like once our community sorts out our in-house issues, we can really be our own force of nature. 

So we can support the community and make it strong, what are some Black-owned brands you recommend?

 

The DIY clothing and handmade jewelry shop that I run with my twin sibling, London Spinelli called, Camp Buzzkill. Our clothes come in sizes Small to 5X. Aside from us, Glam Goth Beauty, Alt.6ix, and of course, Punk Black - they're more of a music based business and not necessarily a clothing brand, but they promote different Black bands, artists and businesses in the alt community and keep me in the loop.

 

And who are your favorite Black alt artists?

 

The Urge, Bam Bam, Sevendust, Zulu, Jesus Piece, Rico Nasty, 4 Non Blondes, Skunk Anansie, Straight Line Stitch, SYM1, and Ho99o9.

 

Once again, Roxy, thank you so much for doing this. It was an absolute honor and pleasure to get to interview you. Your advice to the youth and your insight into our community overall genuinely touched my heart.