Salvia (born 2000/2001) is a Welsh drag artist, performance artist, designer, and FX artist. Based in

Cyffylliog Cyffylliog (also ''Y Gyffylliog'' in Welsh) is a village and community in Denbighshire, Wales. It is situated to the west of Ruthin on the banks of the River Clywedog. The community covers an area of 31.59 km2 and includes the hamlet of B ...

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

, She first garnered attention from fashion names such as

Rick Owens Richard Saturnino Owens (born November 18, 1962) is an American fashion designer from Porterville, California. In addition to his main line, Owens has a furniture line and a number of diffusion lines. Early life and education Richard Saturnino ...

and

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

For her outlandish and alien like looks and

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

posts. She collaborated with Rick Owens for his autumn/winter 2019 collection runway, working on prosthetics and makeup for the models. She often closely works with other artists such as

Jazmin Bean Jasmine Adams (professionally known as Jazmin Bean) (born February 7, 2003) is an English singer, songwriter, social media personality, and makeup artist. Based in London, they first gained attention online for their "extreme" makeup looks. They ...

and Parma Ham, creating performance art videos and art installations, however her main platform is Instagram, which she uses to showcase her work and drag looks.

Early life

Growing up in a small village in

North Wales , area_land_km2 = 6,172 , postal_code_type = Postcode , postal_code = LL, CH, SY , image_map1 = Wales North Wales locator map.svg , map_caption1 = Six principal areas of Wales common ...

, Salvia accounts being bullied at a young age, and finding solace and inspiration from artists such as

Leigh Bowery Leigh Bowery (26 March 1961 – 31 December 1994) was an Australian performance artist, club promoter, and fashion designer. Bowery was known for his flamboyant and outlandish costumes and makeup as well as his (sometimes controversial) perform ...

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

, and fashion designer

Alexander McQueen Lee Alexander McQueen CBE (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen label in 1992, and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His achievements in fashion ...

. Around the age of 13, she began creating drawings and paintings inspired by

sci fi Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Launc ...

and futuristic visuals, eventually moving on to using those visuals in her makeup and drag looks.

Artistry

Salvia's work covers numerous mediums, such as

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

, directing,

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

, FX work, makeup artistry, styling, and

film making Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

. Photographer

Rick Castro Rick Castro (July 20, 1958) is an American photographer, motion picture director, stylist, curator and blogger whose work focuses on bondage and sado-masochistic sex. Early life Castro began work as a fashion stylist and clothing designer. Ove ...

described her as "an influencer, a fashion icon, a beauty icon, a goth diva, the illuminati, and a Satanist." Her focus is creating edited

of her

fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

and makeup design, and she often struggles with her work being censored on online platforms due to her extremity. Her main outcome with her work is to present

alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

and

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction ** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction **Korean horror, Korean horror fiction * Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...

influenced visuals, through muted colour palettes, medical prosthetics, and often uncomfortable displays of humanity and biology. Salvia released a single in 2020 named "The Man who watches me sleep", an

ambient pop Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...

darkcore Darkcore (also referred to as darkside hardcore) is a genre of electronic dance music, considered to be a subgenre of breakbeat hardcore, which came out from the UK rave scene of the early 1990s; this genre in particular emerged from late 1992 ...

song, which she has stated is inspired by her childhood. She uses sounds incorporated with

in the song, using "frightful" sound to evoke fear in the listener.

Nullo

Collaborating with artist Parma Ham, Salvia created Nullo, an inaugural runway show featuring

fetishwear Fetish fashion is any style or appearance in the form of a type of clothing or accessory, created to be extreme or provocative in a fetishistic manner. These styles are by definition not worn by the majority of people; if everyone wears an it ...

fashion design Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and plac ...

, and

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

. The show was created to "Redesign

and bodily augmentation for today’s posthuman tribes". Their aim with Nullo is to critique

binaries A binary file is a computer file that is not a text file. The term "binary file" is often used as a term meaning "non-text file". Many binary file formats contain parts that can be interpreted as text; for example, some computer document file ...

, explore

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

, and find new ways of experiencing the limits of the body.

Rick Owens Autumn/Winter 2019

For the runway show of his Autumn/Winter 2019 show, fashion designer

enlisted Salvia's help to transfer her otherworldly visuals to the models in the show, creating makeup inspired by and assisted by her, Salvia stating "Rick felt like my

aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...

would be very appropriate for his show; it was exciting to see my makeup brought to life on multiple models" The following year, Owens was criticized on social media by Salvia, for "borrowing heavily from the

of the teen" in his Spring/Summer 2020 show, in which Salvia was "not consulted or paid for her likeness in the show".

Personal life

Salvia identifies as a

trans woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and so ...

, and has stated "negative and immature reactions" to her work "are just one of the many signs of the ignorance and trans-misogyny that is still vastly present in society". In 2023 she has voiced thoughts of detransitioning, stating "I started feeling like I didn't identify with being a trans woman anymore around 2 years ago" and that she was "born to serve feminine cunt" but as a boy, though added "maybe that will change one day." She also stated she is fine with any pronouns. She is dating Damien Smiler.Salvia (11 February 2023)
Instagram Story.
''Instagram.'' Salvia''.'' Retrieved 11 February 2023.

Discography

References

{{Authority control Welsh fashion designers People from Denbighshire Transgender women artists Welsh transgender people Welsh LGBT artists LGBT fashion designers Living people 2000 births