Meet the Woman Paying Homage to Video Vixens Through Her Designs

Biancha Jones’s Instagram is filled with images of her dressed up as glammed-up celebrities and video vixens. In one photo, she models an airbrushed bandeau top with the word Princess and lace-up leather pants with stars on the sides, a look worn by Melyssa Ford in Jadakiss’s “Knock Yourself Out” music video. In another image, she models Janet Jackson’s “All For You” cropped bedazzled top with a leather jacket, each pin placed exactly as Jackson wore them. Each piece, often identical to the original, is intricately made by Jones. In addition to painstakingly researching each design, she uncovers the stories behind the outfits along the way.

The Bronx–based Jones, 27, got interested in sewing for precisely this reason: To recreate looks worn by women in music videos. She works as an assistant merchandiser by day and crafts these costumes by night. In 2018, she made her first project—Beyoncé’s golden skirt and halter top from *Austin Powers in Goldmember—*and became more serious about the craft during the pandemic.

Her dedication is clear in her recreation of a lavender, body-skimming dress with dramatic décolletage and cut-outs, worn by Jeanette Chaves from Jay Z’s “Excuse Me Miss” music video. A friend of hers was enamored with the piece and asked Jones to create it for her birthday. The original look was created by the label Trosman Churba by Jessica Trosman and Martin Churba, and was styled with a fur coat by famed stylist and costume designer June Ambrose. At the time, Jones had seen the dress recreated by users on Twitter but she, a stickler for detail, noticed that the original appeared beaded while the redesigned versions were never beaded. She tracked down Trossman to confirm, and it took her roughly five weeks to recreate the dress (which was indeed beaded).

Jones has gone on to explore the costumes worn by video vixens in early ’00s music videos, drawn in by their powerful auras. “People don’t realize how confident you have to be to be on camera,” Jones says. “But these women look so effortlessly amazing, and that’s what caught my eye. And I would always pay attention to what they had on as well because I felt like they just had this It girl attitude in all these videos.”

Even so, she reaches out to all former vixens to get permission to recreate their looks. “A lot of them, they are trying to push away from the video vixen thing, so I always ask them if I can recreate their outfit,” she says. Throughout her deep dives into video vixens, Jones has been able to uncover some stories behind the looks. When researching “The Last Time” by Clipse featuring Pharell, Jones was captivated by a dress worn by Lisa Marie. She could make out that on it read “Virginia Is for Lovers.” She contacted Marie on Instagram to find more about the dress, and Marie revealed that the singer Kelis made it on her body using an oversized T-shirt. To recreate the piece, Jones found instructional T-shirt weaving videos, ordered a souvenir T-shirt, and wove it into a dress. Marie gave Jones her stamp of approval.

Most of all, Jones is drawn to the stories that she uncovers and hopes to recreate these looks professionally. “If these ladies get an exhibit in the hip-hop museum, I would love to be the person who recreates the outfits from the music videos and puts them on a mannequin. Or if artists are on stage for music videos, and they want to recreate a look, or they have an idea, I would definitely love to do that,” she says. “My favorite thing about costume design is storytelling. I feel like they all have a story, and that’s what makes me so interested in it.”