CAUSE TO CELEBRATE
Is this the new face of fashion? We spend a night in Venice with @golden_barbie and find out what makes her tick
Jasmine Sanders is celebrating her birthday. In fact, it’s been a birthday festival of sorts, kicking off with friends and fireworks at a Japanese sushi bar in West Hollywood and now keeping the momentum days later with a surprise dinner in Venice, thrown by her other “family”, Roman jeweller Bulgari. Sanders is the newly nominated digital ambassador for the Lvmh-owned brand and she’s been generously welcomed into the fold. “I’m super excited to be working with such an amazing group of people,” she says the morning after, looking freshfaced and for all the world like she’d been tucked up in bed by 9pm instead of partying in a local Venetian bar until the early hours. “[They were] all over my page and saw that I was celebrating and figured I needed to celebrate with the family here as well!”
Sanders has been flown in to the City of Masks for the launch of Bulgari’s Festa, a collection of more than 100 one-of-a-kind jewels and highend watches inspired by the tradition, colour and cheer of the Italian festa. With her ready smile and effervescent personality, she’s the kind of party guest you know will be first on the dance floor. If you haven’t yet heard her name, it’s likely because many know her by the Instagram handle Golden Barbie, a moniker derived from a childhood nickname. You’ll most definitely recognise her though, from Kim Kardashian’s happy snaps from their jaunt in Mexico last August, or perhaps Kylie Jenner’s lip gloss line-up. But with respect to her high-profile friends, Sanders is a social-media superpower in her own right, and the 26-year-old has got the luxury fashion world’s attention.
“I feel like I started off just having fun,” she says of her Instagram success. “My first photo, which I still have on there, is a group photo of me and my friends at an amusement park. All of my friends were like, ‘Oh, look at this new app, you can use filters.’ I didn’t know that it was sharing to the world... It was just another way for me to express myself and it was nice to see that people cared and, eventually, it just built and built and built.” As her followers grew, so too did a strategy to build brand @golden_barbie, to the point where she’s now being proclaimed as the face of a new generation. But she’s taking it in her stride. “I try not to go too serious because I want people to really see me as is. At this point, it’s no more selfies. I just let someone take the photo for me because I feel like people want to see who you actually are rather than an imaginary angle.”
Keeping it real is how Sanders stays connected to her 2.5 million followers, from behind-the-scenes snaps on photoshoots to shots of her boyfriend, producer Terrence J (he’s already Facetimed twice
“I THINK THE WORLD IS MORE ACCEPTING OF MY LOOK NOW. BEFORE THEY DIDN’T KNOW WHERE TO PUT ME, WHAT CATEGORY TO PUT ME IN”
to make sure she’s made our interview), and their two French bulldogs Bam Bam and Rocky (who now have their own Insta account – “If not, my whole page would be taken up by puppies so I think I helped everybody out by splitting the two!”). But the likes inevitably come with some bullying, to which she takes a zero-tolerance stance, unapologetically deleting offensive comments from her posts. “It’s fine to say something rude to me because I can take it, but don’t say it to a 14-year-old at home because I can’t defend her... And it’s my page so I can do what I want.”
It’s been no easy success for Sanders. Born in Germany (see the “Made in Germany” tattoo on her left arm) and raised in South Carolina, she went from being a self-described tomboy with an “ugly duckling face” and “crazy” hair to modelling at age 13, working with some of the world’s best photographers. More than a decade’s worth of work has brought her to her breakthrough moment, with luxury brands now seeing the value in her unique look. “For a long time I was doing more commercialstyle work – Forever 21 campaigns, Nike campaigns... Then people [began] seeing me as an adult and branching me into things such as Bulgari.”
Now, she’s walked the runway for the likes of Miu Miu and Jeremy Scott’s Moschino. Super-stylist Katie Grand and makeup magnate Pat Mcgrath are both huge fans. “I think the world is more accepting of my look now,” she says. “I feel like before they didn’t know where to put me, what category to put me in.” With castings increasingly defined by multiculturalism and diversity, Sanders is embodying our times. Having a direct line to Naomi Campbell has helped. “I have to pinch myself because I looked up to her and now to be able to call and talk to her about an issue, whether it’s regarding work or family life, she’s always there.”
Later, at the Bulgari gala dinner held at the historic Scuola Grande della Misericordia, Sanders flits between Lottie Moss, Lily Aldridge, Bella Hadid and power couple Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender, dressed in a dream Ermanno Scervino bustier dress, strapless to best show off the highjewellery necklace she’s borrowed for the night. It’s a pink-gold masterpiece, dripping in amethysts, pink tourmalines, spinels and diamonds, and brought to life by Bulgari’s legendary creative director Lucia Silvestri. Sanders is literally glowing. “I believe in the energy of the stones,” says Silvestri approvingly. She also subscribes to Sanders’ preferred way of wearing them: easy and relaxed with denim and sneakers (Sanders is a diehard Sporty Spice fan). But for now, the model is soaking up the magic of the moment.
“Sometimes you just have to stop and look around and take it all in because it’s nothing that you would ever dream,” Sanders says of the perks afforded by her skyrocketing status. “I personally didn’t dream of this. I’ve always wanted to feel like a princess but... the past couple of days, just being able to wear the big pieces, it’s nice to feel like a queen for the day.”