Giselle Lopez and why emo style won't go out of fashion

Photography by

Bishop Elegino

Styling by

Giselle Lopez

April 15, 2024 7 AM PT

This story is part of Image’s April issue, “Reverie” — an invitation to lean into the spaces of dreams and fantasy. Enjoy the journey.

A bag becomes a different thing entirely when worn by different personalities — similar to how no one perfume smells the same on two different people. To test out this idea, we invited four different artists to style the same bag into their personal look and lifestyle for one day, dreaming up places across L.A. where they would wear it. The bag? The Acne Studios rivet wine box bag from the brand’s spring/summer ’24 collection. It felt like a bag tough enough to withstand a long day in L.A. and lightweight enough to not drag you down.

In the third installment of the series, Giselle Lopez, a model, stylist and DJ, takes the bag to Mariachi Plaza, where she sees cumbia sonidera bands play on the weekends with friends. For Lopez, the Acne Studios bag summons her inner emo tween who just won’t quit. “I’ve tried colorful styles. I’ve tried classy or minimalist,” she says. “But I always go back to all black, studs, spikes.”

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m a DJ, a model, stylist and I also run a party with my friend Dante called Discoteka. We go as DT:33. We do them monthly and invite a lot of DJs from Mexico or outside of L.A., just to bring in new music and new sounds to people.

Describe your personal style.

I would say my 12-year-old emo self really won. Everything is always inspired by that. I’ve tried colorful styles. I’ve tried classy or minimalist. But I always go back to all black, studs, spikes. Really into punk as well. That has been the main inspiration.

Giselle contacts Santee Alley, jewelry eBay, Descontrol Punk Shop and the thrift store, dress from eBay and thrifted boots.

I’ve tried colorful styles. I’ve tried classy or minimalist. But I always go back to all black, studs, spikes.

— DJ, model and stylist Giselle Lopez

Talk to me about dreaming up an outfit around this Acne Studios bag.

I think about accessories first because they always make an outfit. So if you want a choker — which is usually what I like to style myself with, I like cross necklaces, spike chokers, all of that — I usually look at my [other] accessories I have to style, which is a bag. From there I go, “Maybe I want to do a dress, a skirt, see what I have in my closet.” I usually search on EBay. EBay is my No. 1 place to shop. I go on my Notes app a lot. I write down, “black halter top, belt, skirt ...” and then I go back to it.

How does sense of place inform sense of style? How do you travel through L.A. with style in mind?

The party scene in L.A. has always inspired my fashion ever since I started playing out here. I was a little raver girl five years ago, so just seeing all the colorful looks people wear that are very inspired by Japanese culture, Japanese raver fashion, Fruits magazine and all that. I like to mix it up by doing a little raver in there, but also keep it still very punk and dark. I chose [to bring the bag] to Mariachi Plaza because when I first moved here, I spent a lot of time in Boyle Heights, and this became one of my favorite spots. On weekends, they would have cumbia sonidera bands playing here and I would come and see them with my friends. My grandmother is from Guadalajara and my little brother plays in a mariachi band, so I grew up around a lot of mariachi. Seeing men in their mariachi suits, it’s very special to me. It feels like home.