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As one half of the 2017-founded, Miami-born City Girls, Jatavia “JT” Johnson has become a fixture on the rap scene, with both the Girls’ own tracks (“Act Up” being their biggest) and features on others, including a remix of the Nicki Minaj megahit “Super Freaky Girl.” Known for her distinctly brash sound—Johnson fires off bars in a super-blunt, semi-Southern Dade County staccato—she is also becoming something of a style icon thanks to her centerfold sweet–meets–gothically slick aesthetic. Sonically and visually, Johnson toes the edge. You can’t not look.
Her sartorial credentials hit a fresh high last week with the reveal of a new campaign from Poster Girl, the high-gloss and hyper-online London-based label founded by Francesca Capper and Natasha Sommerville. In the promo, Johnson is on staged trial, with a look and feel that kind of mirrors the lo-fi paparazzi scrum of the aughts (think Lindsay Lohan’s and Britney Spears’s run-ins with the law, the public’s ongoing intrigue with those days, and the attenuated glamour of the era). Johnson makes multiple court appearances, sporting nothing but micro-boy shorts, a G-string, a cropped jacket, long acrylics, and a venti iced coffee. The campaign has gone viral, in large part due to the rapper’s commanding presence and neo-pinup-girl charm.
“I would describe my style as alt-pretty,” the Liberty City, Miami–raised rapper told me over a phone call this summer. “I don’t want to say Barbie, actually, because it’s not. But doll. It’s doll.”
Johnson bounces between the coquettish and the subversive, and sometimes nails both at the same time, such as at the 2023 BET Awards, where she wore look 40 from Jean Paul Gaultier’s fall 2022 collection. (The ensemble was designed by Olivier Rousteing, who was a guest creative at the house for the season.)
Johnson gave the deconstructed Le Smoking corseted suit and dramatic, volumized skirt a figurine formality, adding only a subtle diamond necklace from Kallati and a black tulle hair bow and brown lip liner (which has turned into something of her beauty signature). She is working with the stylist Miso Dam, a CFDA-pinned one to watch. It should also be said: Johnson’s prior stylist and close friend, Monica Suh, who helped shape and evolve the rapper’s image, tragically died in a car accident earlier this year.
Johnson says she loves to play with style and is not afraid to differentiate. She’ll dig deep and go archival, such as with a recently worn, colorfully paned fall 1994 slip dress from Told Oldham. She’s also a major Rick Owens stan.
“Everybody knows that I love Rick so much,” she says, laughing. “I feel like people think that Rick is very, very dark or grunge. But I just like to bring pretty to the grunge. I don’t care if people think it’s ‘ugly’ or if they’re like ‘What the fuck does she got on?’”
That links to Owens’s own sentiments: He sees and celebrates beauty in what others might find off-putting or austere. On her Instagram feed, Johnson wears a lot of his work.
The rapper says she has long been interested in exploring her fashion curiosities—and plans to continue to develop them within the space.
“In this industry, we are so used to streetwear and like, I don’t want to say BBL fashion, but…BBL fashion,” she says. (BBL stands for “Brazilian butt lift”; the suggestion here being that, for women in rap, there’s an expectation to dress sexily and with a lot of skin on show.) Johnson doesn’t shy away from sexy when needed or when she’s in the mood, but she wants to control her own presentation, which can include those “What is she wearing?” looks.
“I’m not going to lie,” she says. “Earlier, even though I wanted to dress the way I do, I didn’t. I kept it behind the scenes.” She’s been turning to brands like Mowalola, Dilara Findikoglu, and ForBitches to round it out. Johnson wore sunglasses from the latter in her most recent City Girls video, “I Need a Thug,” which debuted over the summer.
Speaking of new music: It is on the way, but there are still a few wrap-up delays on the Girls’ long awaited next album. Johnson says there will be an update “soon,” and hints that she and her City Girls partner, Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee, are making a few last-minute creative decisions.
This summer, Johnson also started a venture called thegirljtworld, which is a lifestyle brand and project that she hopes to build beyond simple artist merch.
“I was very uneducated with fashion when I first started, and I still am a little. Every day I’m learning something new about it. I feel like where I come from, we are so stuck on the main brands, like Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton. We don’t really get educated on fashion fashion, small brands, independent brands, Black brands. I plan on collaborating with so many different people, so we can spread this creative culture throughout my community,” she says. “Shit, I might have a furniture line.”
She finally feels she’s at a point of comfort with her style and persona—and knows there will be haters and fans no matter what she wears. “I just want to be where I am supposed to be,” says Johnson. “With my style I don’t have to fit in nowhere, really, because I’m just that bitch alone.”