Hot Grrrl Shit

Getting dressed is a universal experience. Save for those of us lucky, or unlucky, enough to live in a nudist colony, putting on clothes is an essential step of getting ready. When we were kids, getting dressed was a treat. Dressing up meant the joy of pairing your favorite red boots with a princess dress, but as we get older, that joy fades for most of us. Most of us aren’t Canadian college student and TikToker Clover Mulo. 

You may have seen her on TikTok, recreating iconic outfits from the wildly popular Roblox fashion game Dress to Impress in real life. Or maybe you were hooked by her rambling to herself in her heavily decorated room. Her originality helped her to build a TikTok following of over 200 thousand. But the outfits and persona you see on screen aren’t just for show. 

When we met on Zoom, she wore an adorable camo tokidoki top adorned with homemade pins and a matching camo cowgirl hat that would make Chappell Roan scream. 

Mulo’s style is heavily inspired by Japanese fashion, including the Lolita subculture, which she was introduced to in 2020, by TikTok.

“That’s when I was introduced to a bunch of different Japanese fashion magazines, like Fruits… I would try to study images from each magazine,” Mulo said. 

Her admiration of Japanese street style taught her how to round out her maximalist aesthetic by expertly layering pieces. Mulo’s outfits often feature the frills and playful feminity characteristic of Lolita. But her personal style has a spark that can’t simply be replicated by studying fashion magazines. She credits other Black women in the J-Fashion community with her ability to fully dive into her own unique style. 

“ I find, especially, black women that do Lolita, whenever they see like other black girls that want to feel inspired or join their community, they’re always willing to like help you and teach you about different Japanese fashion brands,” Mulo said. 

It may be apparent from the way the walls of her bedroom are playfully plastered in drawings of her favorite cartoon characters, but Mulo is also heavily inspired by animation. Her love of cartoon inspiration doesn’t just come through in her fashion sense. It’s reflected in her personality. During our conversation, I was struck by her welcoming sense of upbeat confidence. She approached the interview with the same bright demeanor as her online persona, which can be rare in the world of fashion influencers. 

Mulo is a self-described combination of Mabel Pines from “Gravity Falls”, Lindsay from “Total Drama Island”, Misa from “Death Note”, and her namesake, Clover from “Totally Spies”. 

“My parents named me after Clover,” Mulo Said “[Totally Spies] is a big reason why I like fashion, because they changed their outfits every episode

Clover exemplifies what it means to have a personal style, especially in an era where adopting and dropping aesthetics monthly has become commonplace. By curating a unique aesthetic, Mulo has become more resourceful, and made her closet more sustainable, by investing in personal pieces and reworking everything from fake flowers to homemade buttons as accessories. For Mulo, this isn’t only beneficial for the environment, but also for her mental health. 

Like so many alternative Black girls, the ability to freely express herself has been healing, “it’s really helped me to be able to understand who I am as a person and to connect me with the type of people that I should be with, and the type of people that will uplift me for being who I am. It’s definitely healing.”