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This story is part of a special feature package celebrating Selena, the Queen of Tejano. Lee la historia en español aquí.
You have to start with the right bra. If you start gluing rhinestones onto any old brassiere lying around, you’re bound to fail. “It won’t look the same,” says Monica Peralta, a 27-year-old Selena fan from Los Angeles. “It really won’t!” She recommends a sturdy bra from Victoria’s Secret or Carnival Creations—one like Selena would have used.
To recreate Selena’s timeless, bejeweled bustiers, Peralta has studied countless photos, as well as interviews with the late tejano singer’s family members, to glean clues as to how her intricate stage looks came together. On her YouTube channel, which has more than 10,000 followers, Peralta documents her process so that fans can learn how to pay homage to La Reina with meticulously embellished clothing. Over the years, she’s delivered tutorials on how to replicate Selena’s hair, makeup, statement hats—even the studded leather jacket she wore to the 1994 Tejano Music Awards. The demand for such tips makes clear that, for Selena devotees, there’s much more to the singer’s appeal than just the music.
Today, her songs remain a force for many reasons, none more powerful than her insistence on simultaneously elevating Tejano culture and propelling it into the future. Though she wasn’t raised speaking Spanish, early in her career, she sang tejano songs phonetically in their traditional language. At the same time, she and her band stretched the definition of the genre by singing in English and working disco, R & B, and funk flourishes into her tunes.
Yet we rarely talk about how Selena’s fashion sensibility evoked a similar tension. “I find that Selena’s interest in fashion often gets diminished to, ‘Oh, she likes glitter,’” says Maria Garcia, the El Paso County–raised creator of public radio’s Anything for Selena podcast. Such an attitude radically undersells how interesting Selena’s fashion sense was. As in her music, she refused to accept the binary of staying true to your culture or eschewing it. She chose a different path, embracing her culture while also demanding that it evolve.
As a fashion icon, Selena unabashedly celebrated her Mexican American heritage rather than conforming to Eurocentric beauty standards. Few Latino celebrities...