MINA LE YOUTUBE’S FASHION MAVEN

BY EVELYN J. CARR CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

In college, Mina Le wanted to be an “Anna Wintour-type person.” Today, though she may not be the Editor-in-Chief of “VOGUE,” she sits at the helm of a distinctly Millenial/Gen Z fashion empire of her own — and arguably boasts a superior signature look. Dressed in opulent ensembles that she describes as a mix between regencycore, cottagecore, 1980s New Romantic, and the occasional “sleazy corporate wear,” Le dishes out an equally unique combination of fashion and pop culture commentary across her social media platforms that keep her “beautiful doves,” her affectionate moniker for her fanbase, well-fed.

Le launched her eponymous YouTube channel in 2020, and has since amassed over one million subscribers, signed with IMG Models, and started a podcast called “High Brow,” the title a playful nod to Le’s iconic pencil-thin eyebrows. She is modest about her explosive success, at- tributing it to a combination of fortunate timing — her first videos were posted during the pandemic, when “people were kicked out of their jobs and were spending a lot of time home … watching things online” — and a lack of competition in her YouTube commentary niche at the time she began her channel, though she says that this genre has since expanded into “quite a category” on YouTube.

Le asserts that her first videos were inspired by the fashion history content she consumed to pass the time during the pandemic, not from any desire to become an influencer. “I didn’t do it with the intention of creating a career for myself,” Le said. “I loved watching that content, and I was like, ‘I need more.’ But there was no more, because I consumed all of it! So I had to make my own.”

Armed with her own considerable fashion knowledge and her New York Public Library membership — “Go Library!” Le said, laughing — Le decided to research and film a video about the historical accuracy of Disney Princess dresses, an idea she credits to the Glamour YouTube channel. The video, which went viral, was Le’s breakout piece; almost overnight, her subscribers climbed from 600 to 60,000, to Le’s own surprise. Le’s early days in the public eye were challenging. Trying to navigate the industry without the help of a management team made her feel like she “didn’t know what [she was] doing.” During this time, she relied on other fashion and commentary YouTubers — a community she describes as “very supportive and not competitive at all” — to make sense of sponsorships, strategies for platform growth, and the notoriously mysterious YouTube algorithm.

However, social media hasn’t always been a positive place for Le. She likened seeing discussions about herself on social media to “jumpscares” that only increase with her growing success. “I’ve realized that there are spaces on the internet that I don’t want to be in,” Le said. “People have all the right to say whatever they want about me, but it’s in my control whether I expose myself to that.”

Le is cognizant of the amount

‘Paragon’: Floor Jansen Sets Alight The Dark

BY LARISSA G. BARTH CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

“I won’t give up just yet / Gotta lose sometimes to gain,” sings Dutch singer-songwriter Floor Jansen on her debut album “Paragon,” released on March 24. Best known as the frontwoman of the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, Jansen began releasing solo tracks in 2020 during the darkest days of the pandemic.

Accordingly, a thematic thread of resilience and hope runs through the album. On “Paragon,” Jansen explores and creates her sound as a soloist, veering into the realm of pop without losing her metal and classical roots. Full of empowering, therapeutic songs that showcase her vocal versatility and unique sound, “Paragon” is an exciting debut that leaves fans with much to anticipate for future releases.

In an interview with FaceCulture, Jansen spoke about developing her sound as a soloist apart from the metal bands she has sung for. Still, many songs contain symphonic and metal instrumentation beneath their pop formula. The jazzy and mysterious “Me Without You” feels even more experimental than the rest of the songs, but all of them are genre blends in some way — a truly refreshing contribution to the current pop industry.

On “Paragon,” Jansen blends vocal techniques as seamlessly as genres. As an operatically trained soprano with a range of almost four octaves who’s a master at belting and death growls, Jansen is already known for being an extremely versatile singer in the metal scene. Yet switching to pop singing proved to be far from effortless.

The main vocal challenge was to “make it sound open and strong without actually opening all the way” , she explained to [the media page] FaceCulture, because less is more in pop whereas more is often more in metal. But as expected, Jansen has now also mastered this style of singing. “Fire,” her cinematic debut single, showcases this new side of her voice through a dramatic, yet refined build-up that allows her to open up vocally in the end.

Similarly, pop songs are more limited in other formal aspects: In contrast to Nightwish tracks, they aren’t usually 10 minutes long and also tend not to employ complex, classical-inspired harmonies. Again, “Fire” encapsulates her new approach to songwriting and genre: Although it doesn’t contain crazy harmonic changes, it ranges from a slow, ballad-like beginning over a choral interlude to powerful belting, and it is this variety that makes her songs interesting.

It also epitomizes one of the main themes of “Paragon” — resilience — by way of fire being a

“metaphor for coming back to life, back into our world outside of our little houses and sofas” after the pandemic, she stated in another interview with FaceCulture. The song starts with dejected lyrics: “Muted are the days, we lost our will / Frozen in a whirlwind that stands still / Time itself is silent, the silence… / Longing for some warmth back on our face / Find a way to get out of this maze / Scream away the silent, the silence.” As the song starts to soar vocally and instrumentally, Jansen “set[s] alight the dark” in the chorus to “burn the silence down / Let the fire out.” of time she spends online, and she believes that allowing herself to be “bored” and spend time away from social media has been beneficial for both her mental health and creative process.

“Storm” is another impeccable song that captures her formula of slow build-ups and style blends. In the song’s Genius annotations, she stated that “it became a guideline of [her] solo sound.” It begins as a wistful ballad with sparse instrumentation as she sings, “I won’t give up just yet / Gotta lose sometimes to gain / To the whole wide world I’ll say / Gonna make it to the end.” The chorus, especially in the end, gives her powerful voice room to open up, supported by dramatic symphonic instrumentals: “You’re gonna hear my voice roar / Like thunder.” Lyrically, the song explores themes of self-acceptance and dreaming big, of “finding power in saying ‘I am that storm’ with all its imperfections and chaos,” she said in the interview with FaceCulture.

Though Le’s videos primarily focus on fashion history and pop culture trends, she often integrates nuanced political and historical commentary into her analysis. At first, this combination seems unexpected, but Le confidently maintains that “fashion has always been political,” effortlessly connecting the sumptuary laws of the 15th and 16th century — which banned the lower classes from wearing certain items of clothing — to today’s fascination with “old money aesthetics” to illustrate her point.

How did Le amass such an encyclopedic knowledge of fashion history?

“JSTOR or Semantic Scholar,” she said. “I’ve worked with librarians in the past, who helped me to curate research guides.”

Le loves research: Her favorite video she’s ever made was one that focused on modernism in interior design trends, simply because it gave her the opportunity to branch out of her primary field and discover something new.

Similar to her research process, Le’s personal wardrobe is a meticulous labor of love. She carefully combs through New York vintage shows and websites like Depop, Vestier, and eBay to find new items. Sustainability and vintage pieces are a particular priority for Le, who likes to collect “items for every decade, from a historical standpoint,” even if they don’t align with her curated aesthetic. “If you ever get invited to a themed decade party, I’m your girl,” Le joked.

With her collection of clothing from the past, Mina Le welcomes uncertainty in her future. She recognizes that content creation, which sees platforms emerge and die out in the blink of an eye, is a particularly fickle and ever-changing field. “I have no idea where I’m going to be in ten years,” she said.

“I’ve thought about what person I want to be,” she added. “It’s good to be ambitious, but it’s also good to be flexible.” evelyn.carr@thecrimson.com

Whatever the future brings, Le’s unique and well-researched repertoire of fashion history and cultural commentary will certainly remain engaging for years to come.

The album’s lyrics seem quite personal to Jansen, as many listeners have pointed out that they might, in addition to the pandemic, also refer to her recent cancer diagnosis (fortunately, she has since undergone treatment and is cancer-free as of last year). However, she has explained that all of the songs were written before her diagnosis and she used to see them more from a mental health perspective, yet she now sings them “really different, from a much more personal perspective as when I wrote the song[s] because then I thought of other peo ple and now I think of me when I sing [them].”

In addition, she sees sharing the difficult moments of her life as a way to empower others by showing on social media that no one’s life is perfect: “More and more of this openness and awareness is seeping through the cracks of the fake and the polished, shiny, and I think that’s super important.”

This openness about her struggles is always accompanied by a positive approach to dealing with them, as all of the songs are life-affirming and hopeful. On the upbeat title track “My Paragon,” Jansen focuses on the good in life by counting her blessings: “There are so many things that I dreamt of, that I made come true,” she stated. In the music video, Jansen hangs out with her childhood and teenager selves, as she lyrically looks into the future (“One day I will be, oh oh / One day I will reach it all / One day is a dream, oh oh”) before coming back to the present moment and realizing that “One day is today / I’m already there.” larissa.barth@thecrimson.com