Meet Video Vixen Exhibit Founder Biancha Jones

Popularized from the 1990s to the early 2010s, the term video vixen transports you to a golden age of hip hop and R&B. A period when music videos were essentially bigger than the song itself. The concept of a video vixen was a sensual and seemingly aspirational music video model, often starring alongside a famed musician. Melyssa Ford, Karrine Steffans, Gloria Velez, Esther Baxter and Buffie The Body are some of the many recognizable leading ladies of that era. 

At a time when misogyny powered the industry’s aesthetics, video vixens literally danced the duality of glorification and objectification. And while the controversy surrounding the video vixen archetype still exists, there is a sweeping appreciation for its culture in the present.  During the 50th anniversary of hip hop in 2023, costume designer Biancha Jones wanted to highlight the women who shaped the music videos. Fueled by the lack of representation at other hip hop exhibits that year, Jones conceptualized the first video vixen exhibit.   

“It’s a deeply personal project for me—one that aims to honor these cultural icons and give them the recognition they deserve,” said Jones. “I’ve curated costumes and memorabilia to create an immersive experience that really takes visitors back in time and highlights how these women influenced fashion, music, and culture.” The second annual video vixen exhibit returned this fall after a one-year hiatus. This year featured a 3-day immersive installation, which ran this past October. The exhibit displayed archival magazines, a gallery wall, and video installations. Not to mention, the recreated costumes from unforgettable music videos.

The Bronx-born and Brooklyn-raised costume designer spoke to MadameNoire about the behind-the-scenes process of creating the exhibit. From bootstrapping its inception to wide-reaching support, and permanent archive aspirations.

RELATED CONTENT: ‘I Truly Adored Him’: Melyssa Ford Opens Up About Her Past With Drake

MadameNoire: You’re a native New Yorker with a background in merchandising. Then you began designing costumes, specifically recreating looks from the women who starred in hip hop/R&B videos. What inspired you to do that kind of archival work? 

Biancha Jones: “Every time I would watch these music videos, I would see the video vixens, and I’m like, ‘I want to look just like her when I get older. I love how she dresses. She looks so cool.’ My love for fashion didn’t come from watching runway shows or anything like that. It came from watching videos.”

“So it went from me just saying I like their outfit to I’m going to recreate it…I’m actually talking to them [the video vixens] now, and I’m asking permission. I’m hearing their stories. And I’m like, ‘alright, this is not about the outfit anymore.’ This is about them. This costume is their story. And the way that they would feel after I would recreate it made them feel so good about what they’ve done. It made them feel seen. Now this isn’t just about recreating outfits. It’s about getting to as many of them as I can so that they feel proud of their work. So that’s how that started.”

Creating the annual video vixen exhibit

MadameNoire: The exhibit features archival magazines, gallery walls, iconic recreated looks from the mid-90s to the early 2010s. How did you decide what to include in the exhibit annually?

Biancha Jones: “I put the costumes on the mannequins, paid out of pocket. I have a nine to five doing merchandising…[I’m] not rich but I did what I could do. My friends helped me. I had no sponsors. The ladies came. I got flowers for them. They all started crying back to back. And at that point, I said, okay, I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.” Yeah, that was the first one. Then that one got good feedback from the ladies. They’re like, I want to go to the next one. So I had the second one in October, and that’s where I’m at now…”

“When I curate the space, I try to include the women that are coming to the exhibit. So I’m like, ‘you may not be in a magazine, you may not have done a lot of videos, but I feel like you’re still important.’ You still contributed. So I’m like, whatever you have, I’ll find it. I’ll put it up somehow, because I want you to see yourself when you walk in. And then I also include things that stand out to me fashion wise that I love, or things that just speak to me. But also speak to us. That I see is cool, that I remember, like, ‘oh my god, I wanted to wear that.’”

MadameNoire: What pieces and memorabilia didn’t make it into the exhibit? And what do you hope to showcase in years to come?

Biancha Jones: “[I] probably [would] have more memorabilia and more costumes out. I’d definitely love to have the original costume designers there too, which would be great because my costumes are also attributed to them. I love Misa Hylton – I’ll tell you that all day long but I had her costume recreations of her work from “Breathe and Stop.” I think that video is like one of the best style videos ever. She did an amazing job. But just having them there will be great. And [also] the makeup artists, the actual magazine editors there will be great. Things like that, I would love. 

1990’s and 2000’s outfits reimagined

MadameNoire: Some of the costumes you reimagined were Melyssa Ford’s look in Jadakiss’s “Knock Yourself Out” and Gloria Velez’s look in “Big Pimpin” by Jay-Z and UGK. Do you have an all-time favorite outfit inspo?

Biancha Jones: “I can already tell you, Melyssa Ford, “Knock Yourself Out.” I said, when I get older, I’m gonna be in my boyfriend’s car. He’s gonna come with a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, have the Playboy ring. Like, that’s gonna be me. Because she just killed it! I was just astonished. I’m like, when I get older, I’m gonna look just like her. She just looked so beautiful in that video. The outfit was amazing – the star pants. Even recreating that, I recreated it twice. [The] first time I did leather pants. And then I watched another video, and I saw she had on denim pants. Then when I spoke to her, when she came to the first exhibit, she was like, ‘yeah, it was denim pants.’ I was like, I thought it was leather for some reason because it was so dark.”

“But there’s so many looks. “Excuse me, miss” was great. I love that video. The thing I loved about that video too, from recreating it is I realized the importance of sequins. I would always use the flat back rhinestones. Those are the ones that you just glue. But I never understood how they really reflected, right? But then I realized  it has a little silver backing, so that it reflects the light through when it hits it. And now I’m thinking about the video vixens in this video, and the costume designer, what they’re thinking about. They have this beautiful girl in a room of beautiful women everywhere, and they’re like, how do we portray attraction via clothing and lighting?”

“…When you like somebody, it doesn’t matter what they have on. Your eye just goes straight to them. They’re like a piece of light just moving by. It could be a sea of all these attractive people, but your eyes are on this person. And they’re like, let’s put her in the most beaded sequin light reflecting dress so that your eye goes to her. I was like, this is so cool. That’s why I love costume design. I learned so much from recreating this outfit. That’s probably one of my favorites right now too. But not to stray away from your question, it was definitely. Melyssa Ford. But that was [also] a good one. She did look like she was that girl on that one, yeah.”

MadameNoire: Today, we see a lot of Y2K inspired fashion as well. What do you personally like about that fashion era?

Biancha Jones: “I would say what I loved about that era was how fun it was. Style wise, you could just be yourself. You could be different. And I feel like now we are missing the fun. Some people are just scared to look different or try something new, versus back then. And I feel like a lot of the time now, people are going into the archive for stuff because of how much fun we had with getting dressed and things that were out there. I think it’s probably with social media too. It was less social media back then. You didn’t have all these eyes on you looking different…Bring that carelessness back, because you had some cute outfits back then…I wish that would come back but maybe it will.”

Video vixens are ‘cultural icons’

MadameNoire: You mentioned that video vixens weren’t just music video extras. You refer to them as cultural icons – essentially the blueprint for the “baddie” aesthetic. Who are some of your favorite past and present “it girls” in general across the industry?

Biancha Jones: “I would say the next up is probably Tyla. I love Tyla! Naomi Campbell, you have Chanel Iman, Jordan Dunn. Oh my gosh. Then you have  Kyla Pratt. I love Gabrielle Union. Oh, my God so many, so many.  Oh, you know who I love? Oh, my God, Tanisha Scott. I know she’s a choreographer. I’m gonna sneak her in there. I used to watch all her videos and I would always talk about the different types of vixens too.” 

“You got the dancer vixens, the vixens who were professional dancers, who knew that if they could dance and they were pretty they could get into music videos and get paid really good money. It’s a lot of them. There’s so many, it’s insane…And then from there, you realize it kind of trickles on to the influencer era now.” 

MadameNoire: In 2023, opening night was an invite-only event. But this year, it was open to the public in addition to press, celebrities and influencers. Why did you make that distinct change this year?

Biancha Jones: “The first one I had, since it was my first one, I wanted to make it as genuine as possible, right? This is my way of saying ‘here, thank you’ but also protecting them [the video vixens]. Because I felt like, sometimes people come just to be negative. I’m like, I don’t want that to happen at this exhibit. But I’m like, well, you guys also deserve to see the people who love you come to this event too.”

“So this time, I opened it up to the public. They came, they were really excited, they took pictures with them. And it was something that I tried to tell them during the first time. Like, I know there’s a lot of people here this time, but there’s thousands of people who love you. But it was kind of nice for them to see that. It was nice to see their faces light up and talk to the people that they inspired. It’s one thing to tell somebody you inspired a generation of people but to see the generation of people you inspired is something that I can’t even imagine at this point.”

RELATED CONTENT: Elisabeth Ovesen Drops Visual Trailer For Her Debut Fiction Novel, ‘The House Of Ill Repute’