Harper\'s bazaar Malysia September 2018

162 HARPER’S BAZAAR SEPTEMBER 2018

STYLE

The

Chanel, Supreme, and Vetements. Between hanging

out at hip real-life eateries such as Cuties in East

Hollywood, she champions social equality, advocates

for transgender rights, and urges her followers to

donate to Planned Parenthood. You could be forgiven

for scrolling straight past her photos, dismissing

them as those of just another influencer, but a

moment’s study reveals skin that refracts light ever

so slightly oddly, features that are a little too smooth,

eyes that are a little too glassy.

In truth, she is the digital construct

of Brud, an LA-based startup

specialising in artificial intelligence

and robots, the team also behind her

“friend” and fellow CGI influencer

Ronnie Blawko (@blawko22), a

moody, reclusive yet inexplicably

stylish male “robot” with a

following of 135k and counting.

(Despite rumours to the contrary,

Brud denies creating Bermuda—

@bermudaisbae—a virtual Trump-

supporting frenemy of Miquela’s

who once hacked her account.)

In an e-mail “interview” with

Miquela mediated by her agents,

she mused to BAZAAR on her wide

reach as a virtual influencer. “I’m

out to inspire anyone who thinks

they don’t quite fit in. I felt like an

162

A

s a child, I had an imaginary friend. I named her

Neri after the Ocean Girl character. She would

tell me all about the flickering, confectionery

hues of the coral, the clicks and coos of the

dolphins, and the salty depths—it was a world

I knew only through her. In older years, my

interest in the fanciful began to dovetail with

that of the wider cultural landscape: Fight Club’s Tyler Durden, (“I

look how you wanna look, I f**k how you wanna f**k, I am smart,

capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you

are not,” he explains to his imaginer); Gorillaz and their cartoon

counterparts; James Cameron’s Avatar; the humanlike robot hosts in

Westworld; and “friendships” with Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa.

It seems many of us fantasise on some level about the alternative

possibilities of our identities. We Facetune, we filter; there’s nary an

image we see that isn’t in some way edited. Isn’t it understandable,

then, that the next step is visuals that are unabashedly virtual?

Take Miquela Sousa, aka Lil Miquela, a 19-year-old Brazilian-

American slashie with more than 1.3 million followers (@lilmiquela).

She appears on magazine covers, in Instagram takeovers for luxury

brands such as Prada, “collaborates” on a line of clothing, has three

singles on Spotify and iTunes and an enviable wardrobe of the latest

IMM ATER I A L

GIR LS

Way beyond filters and Facetune, meet the

virtual influencers and CGI supermodels ruling

fashion’s digital frontier. By Divya Bala.

Lil Miquela does Left Bank

chic in Kenzo

The 3-D Insta-

model Shudu Gram

counts Rihanna as

one of her fans

Going full ’90s in a

spaghetti strap and

rugged leathers