Lassyri
Content Creator, YouTuber, Fashionista
LASSYRI (he/they) is that person with the blonde braids and stylish bright colorful outfits you can easily spot in the streets of Brussels.
“Born in Congo, but raised around the world. Currently spreading my sense of fashion and creativity all over Belgium and some small parts of the world online.”
As a multidisciplinary artist and content creator, what inspires your work and what is your creative process?
“I define myself as the multi-talented genderfluid local colorful fashionista, and that is just the short version. The extra short version would be, "the genderfluid Creative" or "the genderfluid Content Creator", but those are too simple and I'm not simple, I'm extra.”
“Monochrome or color block has been my signature visual style for my content, fashion style, my whole life actually is intensely monochrome or color block to the smallest detail. I get a lot of visual inspirations from paintings, clothing store windows, buildings, logos, anything with colors can give me an inspiration to recreate in a outfit or background.”
“I sometimes collaborate with brands on Instagram and YouTube, so when I need to make an outfit I keep it simple and just incorporated the color palette of whichever product I'm showcasing. I always first start with the outfit, followed by designing a visually fitting background with that same color palette.”
“As much as I love being in front of my own camera, I love the editing stage of my photo and video contents more because that's when I get to unleash all the creativity. Those 2 years of studying Film in college were definitely not a waste because I can film and edit all my content myself. This allows me to create this colorful universe in my mind which I can then project into online content.”
“My Instagram content versus my YouTube content are visually the exact same style but personality wise I project different energies on both platforms. On instagram you could say that I'm maybe more of model/influencer/showgirl, while on YouTube I'm a self-proclaimed comedian with an endless supply of internet pop cultural references, also known as memes. This makes releasing YouTube videos a much longer process because there are way more technical skills that are required to me to make a YouTube video in order for me to translate my esthetic in video form. Not just that but I try to give my viewers a far too long glimpse into my mind which requires a lot of different elements and time to find that suitable element.”
Are there any recurring themes/issues you like to address within your work?
“All my content is decided on whatever I feel is relevant to me in that moment in life, so the subjects vary, however beauty could be considered an ongoing theme. Beauty, because as a black genderfluid male there weren't really many visually relatable genderfluid people like me in my surrounding that I could relate to. Not in person, in the YouTube videos that I was watching, or those brands who were working with influencers. I couldn't see myself in any of them so I decided at some point in life that I wanted enter their world and be that representation.”
“I'm quite aware that I represent a different style of gender fluidity. When I discovered the term, it was in a time where if you typed the word for images or videos, it was mainly men in skirts, dresses or make-up which just visually happens to just not be my style. In my content I also therefore try to show the world that, "hey, gender fluidity can also look like this".”
“I managed to showcase this black male gender fluidity when I participated for the second time in this lipsync competition called Crown Me, Bitch.”
“Part of me participating was to show that you don't need to be a drag artist to win a competition like this. You don't need to be that modern day cliche fem drag queen, heck, you don't need any make up cause I sure didn't, but I did do 3 completely different stylish outfit changes and unexpectedly won. I say unexpectedly because I thought that performing wise, I would have a lot of things to work on and therefore I was really planning on participating on several editions to absorb as much performing tips as I could for a potential future in stage performance but my original plan was cut short and I won.”
What is your dream project?
“My dream project is to release 1 single before I turn 30, which is all the way at the end of 2023. I've been writing songs since the age of 11 and have a good ear for making tunes so we'll see. Even if it's just only on Spotify, I feel like I kinda owe it to child-me to release at least one song and see where and if that goes anywhere. If it were to go anywhere I have 10 track album with a whole fully developed concept ready to be recorded, but let's just make it to the age of 30 with one single on Spotify, because who needs to buy a house and settle down before 30? Not me. I have tones of creative content to make.”
“I have a lot of YouTube videos currently in pre and post production. It's been a while since I've uploaded a video and I've missed the creative release of my YouTube videos, so I'm going back to that. I am going to explore my stage performance skills in the near future. What exactly? Well you're just gonna have to follow my journey to find out. All I can say is that it's going to be a colorful stylish gender bending journey worth watching. I also recently signed with them studio which is a talent agency, which is something I've been working up to to finally feel qualified to do. I have so many different talents so it was important for me to find a talent agency to help me take my talents to their next level.”
How do you think the queer community can better uplift each other during these uncertain times?
“I think that with the current troubles facing our community and the attacks, it is important that we continue our rise in the mainstream media and us content creators to continue making our colorful content. It’s easy to let the current events dim or lights but we should be doing the opposite and shine even brighter and more colorful.”
“It’s then up to our followers and supporters to help us spread our light and colorful content so that the world knows that we are not defeated.”
