Photos: GIRLS, An Honest Exploration Of Gen Z Femininity (NSFW)

"It all started with Livvy, who I found on Instagram one year ago. She was the first and original subject of this story." London-based Italian photographer Guen Fiore is talking about her most recent project, GIRLS: an honest exploration of Gen Z femininity and its infinite expressions. Featuring portraits of young women from different places, the series is a collaboration with stylist Rubina Vita Marchiori and reflects on what it means to navigate the world as an adolescent today. Refinery29 has spoken to the young people in the images too, and their words are shared throughout this piece. 

The first pictures Fiore took of 20-year-old Livvy are gorgeous. Peachy-haired and glowing as she poses around her room in cute outfits, she makes an arresting model. "What really intrigued me was her appearance, of course, but also the way she expresses herself, which seemed to me like a mysterious balance between sensuality and innocence. I had the chance to photograph her a few times in different environments and I began imagining a project around her," Fiore says. She reached out to Marchiori and the three worked together on a shoot. "After that, we were so excited about the session with Livvy we decided to continue with other girls," says Fiore. 

The duo found their models in a number of ways — through people they knew already, via modelling agencies and Instagram. Their process was simple and grounded in their shared desire for a personal, authentic and intimate approach. That’s why they chose to photograph each of the models in their own bedrooms where possible, and why Marchiori chose a way of styling that mixed the young women's favourite items from their own wardrobes with items she chose. "When I first proposed the project to Rubina, what was essential for me was that we had to keep it realistic, and faithful to who the girls actually are nowadays. I wanted to bring in as little manipulation as possible, while also leaving Rubina enough space to experiment and create," Fiore says. "Mostly we wanted to have fun with it and put our trust in the girls — let them introduce us to their worlds, and combine it with our own memories." 

Born in 1988, Fiore is a millennial, the generation which precedes Gen Z. Teenage life for her began in Pescara, Italy, before she moved to Rome to study engineering, where she discovered a love of photography. Before long she found herself daydreaming about taking pictures full time and, in 2018, she moved to London to become a photographer. She met Marchiori in 2019 and through collaborating on a couple of editorial projects the two struck up a friendship, professionally and personally. "That’s why when I envisioned this story, Rubina was the only person I wanted to collaborate with on a long-term-project," says Fiore. Not only does she admire Marchiori’s vision, she says, but "we are similar ages so we share the same experiences, which was a very important element for this story." 

Fiore and Marchiori were both teens in the '00s so one of the first things they bonded over was an appreciation of Gen Z style and seeing the trends of their own adolescence making a comeback. "There’s a really nostalgic '00s moment happening right now," Fiore smiles. Aesthetics aside, what’s really struck them about this generation is the very different context in which they are growing up, compared with their own upbringings. Fiore says her coming-of-age experience was markedly more stifled than those of the girls she meets now. "I remember growing up in a society where there was no space for any different kind of beauty. You had to be tall, skinny, blonde, white, and tan to be considered beautiful, and that still felt like a very important thing to aim for," she says. "I never realised how much this impacted me until recently, when I started working with such inspiring girls and began considering the idea of beauty without any kind of external filter or conditioning. I think that young women today have much more diversity to look at and although there is still a way to go, and still the same pressures, there is also a lot more to aim for than beauty now." 

It’s not easy to pinpoint the beginning of a zeitgeist but if we think about the values that seem to unite the majority of Gen Z — progressive politics, intersectional feminism, climate activism, identity as a fluid and ever-shifting spectrum — it must, at least in part, have to do with how (or, more importantly, where) young people are growing up now. The internet was still very much a novelty for millennials in their teenage years but, for Gen Z, what happens online is as much a part of their lives as what happens offline. The internet has democratised and globalised the growing up experience, which is why social media has been so instrumental in what sets Gen Z apart. "On one hand, platforms such as Instagram have made self-awareness more accessible to and achievable by everyone," says Marchiori, "but on the other hand, they constantly expose people to shaming and judgements from those who, hiding behind a screen, throw comments without restraint." Out in the real world, women still face the same old sexist tropes too. For young people in fields like the creative industry, Marchiori says, these sorts of taboos are gradually losing meaning and relevance but at a wider societal level there is still a lot of work to do. As a generation, Gen Z is emphatically engaged in the fight. 

What Fiore and Marchiori have grown to admire most about Gen Z is the tireless, impassioned drive for self-expression and the right to hold their own spaces. "I think that apart from any exterior similarity, it’s impossible to deny how this generation of girls shows off a confidence, an emancipation and a desire for the freedom to express themselves that our generation just didn’t have, and that is so precious," says Fiore warmly. "The young people we’ve met are so much more aware of society than I ever was, and we really wanted to make this element a focus point." Marchiori agrees, saying that every girl has filled her with fresh inspiration — similar in ways, yet so unique in others. "What makes this generation stand out from previous ones is that these girls proudly and confidently embrace their uniqueness, and they are not afraid to be the most authentic version of themselves," she says. 

In 2020 the New York Post reported that Gen Z has become the world’s largest generation, constituting 32% of the global population. That’s around 2.47 billion of the 7.7 billion people on Earth. This makes Gen Z the biggest slice of the population to be listened to and learned from; most importantly, it leaves the coming decades in their hands. The young women here offer us a glimpse of Gen Z consciousness by inviting us into their worlds. Photographed as they are, beautiful and bold in their self-awareness, they speak about what's important to them: identity politics matter, rigid binaries don’t, and the future is something sacred.

Photography: Guen Fiore
Styling: Rubina Vita Marchiori
Makeup: Machiko Yano and Raffaele Romagnoli
Talent: Livvy, Albertine, Eliza at Anti-Agency, Molly at Anti-Agency, Anugraha at Anti-Agency, Florence, Vera at Anti-Agency, Catherine, Karwea, Adhieu at Neo Management, Jewel at Anti-Agency.