NIÑXS is The World’s Latest Girl-Group Crush

TORSO Follow the Young Stars Around Miami
as They Prepare to Break the Internet

Text: TORSO
Photography: TORSO

NIÑXS rehearse songs from their new EP at their Brickell condominium.

It's noon on a Thursday and the three members of NIÑXS are downing iced flax milk lattés with their fermented tea leaf salads. The girl group earned it, working up a sweat with their choreographer at a dance studio in Brickell, Miami. The members Mayee, Niki, and Asia, are in the midst of a rhetorical altercation, speaking in platitudes and fiercely debating social issues between bites. Their self-titled, debut EP is riddled with such conversations, ruminating on the complexities of the human condition. “It is almost impossible to be ourselves, except on the world's terms. But everything we do, we do for our fans. We want our music to be their mirror,” says Asia, referring to their lyric, “I’m a NIÑX, you’re a NIÑX, we’re all NIÑXS here,” from the track “¿Puedo ser una marca y seguir siendo un ser humano?” (translation: Can I be a brand and still be a human?).The trio derives agency from their volatile group discourse, acknowledging the control of capitalist ideology—how they enjoy it, desire it—even as they know deep down something is wrong. TORSO followed the new Miami girl group over a one month period, documenting their lives as they prime themselves for impending internet domination, bouncing between their staged and authentic selves—through choreography, studio sessions, high school graduation, and volatile down-time in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood.

Featured In This Image: Grlfrnd jeans, Reebok Classics sneakers and Burberry t-shirt. Giuseppe Zanotti sneakers, Balenciaga jeans and Craig Green jacket. Reebok Classics sneakers and Dsquared2 dress. Reebok Classics sneakers, Grlfrnd shorts and Burberry t-shirt.

Model wears Palm Angels bouse, Palm Angels pants and Helmut Lang bag.

“Civilized life is based on a lot of illusions in which we all collaborate willingly,” says Mayee during hair and make-up. “The trouble is we forget after a while that they are illusions, and we’re shocked when reality is torn down around us.”

The bilingual trio is currently in production for their namesake Univision reality show, which they shot, edited, and produced. Model wears Helmut Lang dress.

“The future belongs to magic, and it's women who control magic.” - from “A Total Reorientation of the Personality.”

Model wears SSS World Corp shirt, Helmut Lang leggings and Helmut Lang bra.

Featured In This Image: Palm Angels blouse, Palm Angels pants, Alexander Wang sandals, Helmut Lang jacket, Helmut Lang bra and Helmut Lang leggings.

Featured In This Image: Prada skirt and Prada socks.

“There’s a binary opposition between acting and being real,” says Niki, taking a break from singing along to headphones on the 29th-floor balcony. “Sometimes it’s like you're a stage set, one push and the whole thing could collapse. It’s like you're living someone else's life, in a house you've rented by accident. The 'you' you've become isn't your real self.”

Featured In This Image: Prada dress, Prada skirt and Prada socks.

Featured In This Image: Gucci polo, Unravel shorts and Alexander Wang tanktop.

“There's a logic today that places a greater value on celebrity the less it’s accompanied by actual achievement,” says Mayee after a dance rehearsal. “We’re expected to package ourselves, our emotions, and sexuality in attractive and instantly appealing forms. But you’re authentic only if you resemble your own dream of yourself."

“We’d been talking a lot about the Miami real estate market, with hurricanes, and rising sea levels,” says Asia, when asked about the lyric “Estamos construyendo prisiones en todo el mundo y llamándolos condominios de lujo.” “Miami is facing half a trillion dollars in flood damage. But people keep building luxury developments and the market keeps rising. So we decided to record our first album right here in Brickell.”

Featured In This Image: Helmut Lang dress, Helmut Lang coat and Helmut Lang dress.

“Playing a role can liberate you,” says Niki, as their management crew hovers over laptops and smartphones in the dining room, buzzing about scheduling and travel plans.

"They’re control freaks," their producer Nile Harris says with a wink. Featured In this Image: Helmut Lang dress and Helmut Lang coat.

Featured In this Image: Helmut Lang dress and Helmut Lang coat.

“We need nothing, so we’re never disappointed. We just want to show all the haters out there.” – Asia

Mayee, Class of ‘18. Featured In This Image: Helmut Lang skirt and Helmut Lang bra.

Featured In This Image: Helmut Lang jacket.

“We wanted this album to present the perversity, complexity, and contradiction of the world we live in today, where every object we own contains an ideology, every shred of material is a product." – Mayee