Instagram: @salvjiia
Founder: “Salvia”
Current location: United Kingdom
Followers: About 107,000
The gist: Salvia, the founder of the Instagram account @salvjiia, has quite the fantastically freakish look—a contorted, digitally warped form of drag. Other online personalities boast similar aesthetics, like the duo behind Fecal Matter. Here, there are lots of teetering shoe moments, nightmarishly cool takes on baby fashion, and some alien effects.
What you’ll see: Expect out-of-this-world looks. One image depicts Salvia wearing platform shoes and a witch costume, her face dotted with thumb-pressed prosthetics. Out from under the dress hang a pair of bow-legged mannequin limbs, almost as if Salvia is birthing them. In another upload, Salvia stands in snow on top of two wooden chopines in a milky bodysuit, a pink fungus-like structure poking through an elegant fur chubby. Elsewhere, Salvia wears a pretty frock and boasts two pairs of limbs.
Clothes are sometimes DIY: Salvia sometimes makes her own clothes. For an über-whittled waist, she deconstructed the inside of a leather jacket and used it as a peplum for a corset—and a halter top. Occasionally, her looks are even edible: Salvia will place meat into her tights, or build it into a Flying Nun–shaped hat.
Naturally, getting ready isn’t a 10-minute deal: “It will usually take me between two to three hours to get ready depending on how difficult the look is to achieve,” writes Salvia in an email. “I don’t like to spend longer than two hours just on makeup, though.”
Haters are going to hate: Like many personalities of Instagram, Salvia does receive a barrage of comments, some mean, some confused, and some positive. Salvia, who is a trans woman, notes the following: “Whenever someone has something loving or kind to say I appreciate it so much, but negative and immature reactions are just one of the many signs of the ignorance and trans-misogyny that is still vastly present in society.”
There’s a higher meaning to Salvia’s message: “I believe that beauty is completely subjective; dressing up gives me an opportunity to experience a fantasy and celebrate myself,” writes Salvia. “And although I don’t need to do it to feel beautiful, it’s an important form of self-love for me.”
Fun fact: Salvia’s name comes from the song “Salvia Plath” by the band Teen Suicide—and yes, is also a nod to the hallucinogenic drug salvia.
