Billboard - 29.02.2020

Yo Gotti

ABELLAN: CLAUDIO LAVENIA/GETTY IMAGES. BALVIN: ALEXANDER TAMARGO/GETTY IMAGES. GOTTI: NABIL ELDERKIN.

38 BILLBOARD • FEBRUARY 29, 2020

For last year’s Premio Lo Nuestro awards, Abellan played off Balvin’s

penchant for oversize clothing and chose an emerald green suit from

Virgil Abloh’s Off-White label (left). “I wanted him to look cool and

comfortable, but I didn’t expect it to be as oversized as it was,” says

Abellan. “When he first tried it, I thought he looked like the Grinch!”

Ahead of this issue’s cover shoot, Balvin had one request: tons of

color. The artist has become known for his ever-changing hair, which

for the shoot was colored with rainbow streaks and leopard spots,

and the styling in the photos captures the vibrant energy found in his

chart-topping singles and personality. Says Abellan: “He really trusts

my vision and lets me be free.”

Before attending Dior Homme’s fall/winter 2020 collection show

in Paris in January, Abellan and Balvin partnered with the label’s

creative director/designer, Kim Jones, who proposed specific items

he wanted Balvin to wear. Says Abellan: “With other brands, like

Louis Vuitton, Casablanca, Off-White” — all shows Balvin attended

— “we just go to the fittings and select the coolest looks.”

Sita Abellan grew up feeling confined by her small hometown of Murcia, Spain, and turned to

Tumblr to feel connected to fashion trends around the world. “I was very attracted to trashy artistic
things,” she says, “and the internet was perfect for that.” In 2013, she moved to Milan to study ad-
vertising and public relations at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart; soon after, she signed

with local modeling agency Monster Management and started booking campaigns and runway
shows. One day, Rihanna found Abellan while searching for models to appear in her 2015 bandit-

inspired “Bitch Better Have My Money” video, and the role raised Abellan’s status in the fashion
industry. Since then, the now-26-year-old, who moonlights as a techno DJ, has worked with ev-
eryone from Kim Kardashian to Rosalía. (Abellan’s new serpent-inspired Lilith jewelry line has been

worn by both, as well as Billie Eilish.) The designer, whose personal style is a fusion of ’90s club kid,
Harajuku girl and goth dominatrix, found her mirror in J Balvin, who is her sole styling client. The
two met at Coachella in 2018. “I’ve been a big fan of reggaetón since I was young,” she says. “I told

my friends, ‘I wish I could style for some reggaetón videos’ — then I met [Balvin].” —BIANCA GRACIE

SITA ABELLAN

DESIGNER/STYLIST

IN DEMAND

PREMIO LO

NUESTRO 2019

FEBRUARY 2020

BILLBOARD COVER

PARIS MEN’S

FASHION WEEK

FALL/WINTER 2020

Abellan (left) and

Balvin attended the

Louis Vuitton menswear

show in Paris on Jan. 16.