THE LE
megsuperstarprincess interviewed
Clara Joy, November 10th, 2021, NYC
“megsuperstarprincess “Is similar to all great new York artist-types* . Cliché is the theme of this summer FYI” ” ~megsuperstarprincess
by Clara Joy
Clara Joy (CJ): Who is megsuperstarprincess?
megsuperstarprincess (MSP): c’est moi! Im a fashion plate. And I have a blog called Le Hipster Portal where I write about/share photos of my life and style.
CJ: Why did you start megsuperstarprincess and your blog Le Hipster Portal?
MSP: ‘megsuperstarprincess‘ has just been my instagram name since i was like 16. At this point the name feels totally not my taste but its been going on way too long to change it now.
And I obviously started instagram to post photos of myself …and to document outfits. Sharing outfits is def the main purpose of it to me. and to make jokes and be annoying. The blog was born out of Covid lockdown boredom, a fashion blogger obsession, and being gifted a digital camera. I think I usually have some sort of pop culture obsession of le moment and I was absolutely in a blogger phase last year. I spent loads of time researching memorable bloggers from my childhood: fashion toast, sea of shoes, tavi, bryan boy, etc. And then for the first time in my life I had a camera that wasn’t a part of a phone. I wanted somewhere to post all my pictures besides social media and I had a lot of time on my hands to blab. I was deffo sick of like all the pseudo – fashion – academia I was seeing on the internet and wanted to just do fashion bullshit. Sometimes you can communicate more by saying less. I didn’t want to talk about archival Westwood pieces or whatever…. I didn’t want to unpack the implications of certain trends..I didn’t want to talk about fucking philosophy via twitter-style hot takes. I just wanted to talk about what shoes I thought were fuggly and what the chicest coffee order is and what I was wearing when I blacked out on 14th street. Unapologetic. fashion. shit. And I also was in a time in my life where I think I had really been feeling an intense loss of identity and wanted a space that was just mine.
“Comme Ci Comme motherfucking Ca…..” ~megsuperstarprincess
CJ: Why do you choose to reference/rep past aesthetics, cultural symbols, language and lifestyles?
MSP: The way i see it, the only way to do something interesting in 2021 is to remix references. I think about how popular music has evolved to sampling…. its sort of like that with style too.
………aaaand I’m infatuated with MYTHOLOGY. I like loaded symbols and cliches. I feel like there’s all this rich cultural material to work with. As a young kid- I loved collages and preferred making them to drawing a picture on a blank canvas. I’m also just interested in history. Especially pop culture history.
“1920s occupy wall St swagger” ~megsuperstarprincess
CJ: Why do you value hipsterism?
MSP: I don’t know that I value hipsterism so much as I find it an interesting marker of le times. Its such an effing era. Mega millennial. To moi – the hipster phenomenon is like the moment where all young people became “alternative”. Alt went mainstream. A point of the commodification of “indie”. And a time where the idea of subcultures really mutated because of the internet. .
I’m also just attracted to the idea that a big part of being a hipster was that thing where every hipster claimed to not be a hipster. brilliant..
its all just nouveau nostalgia! I have these pockets of my life where i’m obsessed with era or cultural phenomena . It starts as like research and a bit ironic and then I dig in super deep and totally assimilate and get lost in le sauce. im sure each time i get obsessed with a movement there’s some sort of parallel to the current cultural zeitgeist.
“Street styled moi-self!!! OOTDs, travel, and LOADZ of TYPOs UP NOW ON LeHipsterPortal!!!!!!!” ~megsuperstarprincess
CJ: How much of MSP is a persona/performance?
MSP: I honestly try to not think about persona and performance much. I probz will sound like a pretentious douche for saying this …. BUUUT…. i find a lot of “performance art” and *”"internet art”" mega cringe. Like i don’t want to label something as contemporary as social media- as an increasingly passe (or maybe just classic lol) art form.. why try to contextualize a new experience from an old lens? Maybe I’m just in too deep. I don’t feel that much disconnect between my online and physical self. I don’t see online life as faker than non digital life. I’m down to let the idea of “IRL” fade away… So i guess i only see MSP as a performance as much as anyone’s life can be a performance. Its prob rlly bad for le ego to view your effing life as more of an art piece more than anyone else’s. I’d rather chalk my online presence up to obnoxious, emotional oversharing/self obsession. That’s swag to moi. …. Le Blogs a bit different. it feels less fluid and is more curated and its my writing so there’s more of a concrete output besides just my identity/image. But its still all about moi moi moi so its kind of a timestamp/diary/ essays from my life as i live it now.
“So Important had to rp moi-self” ~megsuperstarprincess
CJ: Who are some of your favorite writers/favorite books?
MSP: My favorite things to read are def books about crazy women. I love Tennessee Williams. I love lots of memoirs. When I was in high school my favorite book was Prozac Nation lolz! I love the writing on like xojane. i love old gawker articles. I like fashion books but they usually suck. I read page six every day. Everyone should read Hollywood Babylon. If Courtney Love wrote a real memoir that’d probably be my favorite book.
“Old shirt same bitch” ~megsuperstarprincess
CJ: How do you feel about the current state of New York City’s fashion and culture?
MSP: Everyone is much less jaded about fashion post Covid. Its refreshing AF. We all thought we’d seen and done it all and then all of a sudden we couldn’t do anything. so things are a bit less jaded at le moment. I love seeing young designers just put shit out by any means possible. I try to not be mega critical on a taste level and just appreciate when someone not high up in the industry manages to do anything remotely interesting in fashion. Sometimes I feel like in New York, trends are too tight or something. Like people just dress in relationship to each other. In the context of their little scene or clique and its boring. Like I want my style to be a conversation with the world at large, not just my immediate peers.
I don’t know anything about le art world except that le peepz in it dress terribly. Samesies with music. But one of my favorite things about new york city is that everyone is so energized and going harrrrd. Of course its annoying at times how much everyone shoves their identity down your throat 247- but ultimately i love it. Big personalities clashing into each other constantly. Peepz doing the most to embody their true vibe . Its ridiculous and amazing and inspiring.
“the scene” and its constant mutation is one thing.. it’s amazing to be around like minded creative peepz, but ultimately (FOR MOI) the culture of being on the street in New York City is le best part of living here. An amaze cliche! running around crowded streets is my favorite thing in life. Its my biggest inspiration. There’s no other feeling like it. Earlier I mentioned my love of mythology in fashion/style- New York is efffing full of mythology and mystique. it’s so layered in history…. shared and intensely personal experiences. Everyone in New York is so obsessed with the IDEA of New York. That obsession creates this sort of crazed, self-fulfilling prophecy. New York haters think the emperor has no clothes… but I think there is some real magic here fosho. New York is like God – you either feel it and have faith- or you don’t. Can’t force it.
CJ: Who and what has shaped MSP and LHP over the years?
MSP: Pop culture icons for sure. Peepz that are embodiments of le cultural moment…. And anyone that behaves badly. I just love it.
Clara Joy (21) (http://www.instagram.com/clrajoy): based in NYC is a known downtown recording artist. Between ages 12 & 13, from an art-studio in a converted mill building, she launched a wildly successful online performance-photo project, SoftOceans, for which she also designed & fabricated hand made clothing-art — selling hundreds of pieces to an audience of over 21,000 people. At age 13, as a working photographer, she professionally documented the artist Alison Knowles for curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. By age 15, she was engaged as a correspondent to cover the Frieze Art Fair recreation of George Maciunus: Flux Labyrinth (1970/2015). She began recording songs as Clara Joy in 2015, with 7 albums and 2 singles released to date, which have earned critical acclaim. Intervening band culture, she appears alone on stages, yet has incited multi-artist concerts in the streets. In 2019 Clara Joy was featured in Humans of New York. During 2020, Part of Something (2021), the first film about Clara Joy was made by Sophia Johnson and debuted in 2021. Most recently, Clara Joy is documented performing with artist Alison Knowles in her feature length video reading of The House of Dust presented in Wiesbaden, Germany in 2021 at the construction site of the artist’s corresponding 3D printed building. Clara Joy was a 2021 invited performer for the Brooklyn Rail’s event dedicated to Nam June Paik and inaugurated the sold out reopening concert of Elsewhere in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. More at http://www.instagram.com/clrajoy