Growing up with my uncle Shavi, a high-fashion designer, felt like pure magic. He used to joke and genuinely mean it, that I was the only person in the world he would ever take fashion advice from. Watching him compete on Project Runway and hearing him talk about me on national television were among the most iconic moments of my life. He understood my brain and my style better than anyone else ever could.
When he passed away so suddenly, it felt like a part of my identity died with him. The grief was heavy. I stopped writing. I stopped dancing. The vibrant connection I once felt to fashion seemed completely severed. The door to that world felt locked forever.
Then I met Rachel Waxenberg, better known as Wax.
Discovering Wax’s work as Bella Kay’s stylist brought a sudden surge of warmth back into my chest. The very first time I saw one of her creations, my immediate instinct was to tell my uncle about it. But, of course, I couldn’t.
Stylists truly deserve so much more praise than they receive. Watching Wax shift and reinvent how people think about fashion and styling brought back a piece of me I thought was gone for good. Bella’s outfits, and even Wax’s own street style, leave me completely wowed every time. Her creativity pushed me to draw inspiration from my own wardrobe again.
What Wax is doing goes far beyond the stage. Her styling has become such an essential part of Bella’s visual identity that we fans have created an entire movement around it. We have used her aesthetic as the blueprint for curating our own concert outfits, turning the crowd into a living, breathing extension of the art.
I think my deep appreciation for Wax comes from growing up alongside someone whose creativity operated on that same artistic wavelength. I love talking to her and hanging on every word she says because her approach to clothing is intuitive, intelligent, and fascinating. Beyond her insane talent, she is sweet, genuine and remarkably understanding—which is practically a superpower when Bella’s teenage fans are constantly messaging her and passionately analyzing every detail of the artist they love. Teenage fangirls are a terrifyingly observant audience and I say that proudly as one of them.
Meeting Wax did not just give me an incredible, creative figure to admire; it gave me my passion back. Fashion may never feel exactly as it did when my uncle was here, but because of Wax, that door no longer feels locked. I am finally ready to walk through it again.