When you think of OnlyFans, New York Fashion Week probably doesn’t come to mind. But one of the latest celebrities to align with the subscription-based platform known for its X-rated content. Elena Velez, a 30-year-old American fashion designer, didn’t join OnlyFans to peddle porn or reveal any big secret. Instead, she chose the platform so she could escape “outrage” and the “culture war” that she’s faced in mainstream media.
Described by Vogue as “explosive and aggressive”, Velez has dressed celebrities like Grimes, Taylor Swift, Julia Fox, Solange Knowles, and Charli XCX. But recently the designer, who won the CFDA Award for Emerging Designer of the Year, has made headlines, including in the Washington Post, for being “problematic.” In 2024, her New York Fashion Week show had many celebrities cancel after Velez revealed that the show would be a meditation on “Gone With The Wind.”
That’s why she is turning to OnlyFans, to avoid a “culture war” as she shared in an interview with Page Six recently.
“On top of the precarity of a career in the creative industry, we’re also in the middle of a culture war. Every public proclamation or creative assertion that lies outside of a tightly sanctioned social window comes with the possibility of outrage and professional ostracizing. It has never been more important as an artist who values the integrity of creative expression to diversify their means of income.”
Velez continued, “OnlyFans is a really cheeky and disruptive way to democratize access to capital and target different audiences.” She speculated that her unusual lifestyle and struggles as a professional artist may make for some compelling footage.
The mother-of-two is taking a bit of a meta approach to this entire endeavor, writing on X (formerly known as Twitter) as she reshared a post from Page Six: “Whats always been interesting to me about being a performance artist slash method actress is when media refraction becomes its own creative instrument. More on this in my future retrospective…”
It will be interesting to see what becomes of this whole experiment, other than making money. Part of this collaboration with OnlyFans includes a small capsule collection of clothing. The collection is quite literally just two items: an oversized black hoodie that features both Elena Velez and OnlyFans on the arms, a small logo on the upper left corner and a white corset design on the back, as well as a ripped black washed-out T-shirt featuring a white corset print on the front and Elena Velez and OnlyFans written on the back.
If you’d like to own either of these limited run items, you can purchase them on both Velez’s website and on OnlyFans. The hoodie will set you back $350, while the tshirt is $275.
Velez will also be creating content on the platform, though it seems that her work will appear on the “SFW” (safe for work) side of OnlyFans, their OFTV.