You may not be familiar with Maria Beltre by name, per se, but as followers of her Instagram handle, @looseunicorns (more on that later) can attest, you likely are familiar with her singular aesthetic and visual signatures.
Beltre got her start building an audience on Tumblr before making the transition over to a wider one over on Instagram (all while still in high school, BTW), and we’ve been rapt with attention and screen-shotting her looks ever since. She pulls off everything from sweatsuits (adidas, natch) to vintage tees and sheer feathered negligees, or mixing and clashing textures and prints with aplomb—often with hair and makeup mix-ups to match; whether that’s curls, braids, or a handful of shade change-ups from baby pink to bleach blonde.
Dominican Republic–born and Brooklyn-bred, Beltre borrows equally from both the references she grew up on (keep an eye out for a Kim Possible motif in her next collection), and the city she calls home in her namesake-ish line, Could Be Maria, too. After spending the last year putting things into place, Beltre’s been moving full steam ahead with the line’s drops, the latest of which borrows from men’s workwear, only with a more feminine silhouette. And while Maria’s still slightly awestruck every time someone tags her, inspired by her style or wearing her pieces, we suggest she get used to it: Her influence isn’t going anywhere.
Stylewise, you can find her combining vintage with one-off “where’d you get that?” items from her travels around the world alongside the streetwear favorites. As she explains, “I can go into any store and make something out of nothing. I love going to new cities and going thrifting, finding cool pieces. When I went to Japan, I found something in literally every single store, which was really bad, but also really good.” She marries these sportier separates with look-at-me designer accessories for a look that’s completely her own—it’s almost like the icing on the cake.
