Gen Z isn’t coming for the spotlight. It’s already theirs. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the fashion industry, where trends are now being driven by the brands or retro fashion items the younger generation decides to back from fashion’s history books instead of, well, actual designers. Full of internet mavens with a heightened sense of self-awareness and personal identity, Gen Z wields an enormous amount of influence, especially over our wardrobes. And now, a new member of the under-25 club has entered the chat.
Even if you don’t yet recognize the name Maia Reficco, I guarantee you’ve seen her face. The 22-year-old Argentinian American actress got her start playing Kally in Nickelodeon’s Latin American series Kally’s Mashup. Though, her roles in two of this year’s most talked-about productions have shot her into our collective unconscious. This summer, she became the first Latina to be inducted into the Pretty Little Liars universe, playing Noa Olivar in HBO Max’s slasher spin-off Original Sin. Her career trajectory shot up even further with the September release of Do Revenge, Netflix’s take on the John Tucker Must Die trope starring Maya Hawke, Camila Mendes, Alisha Boe, and Sophie Turner. With another star-studded project in the filming stage and season two of PLL yet to come, there’s no end in sight for Reficco’s rise. If you ask me, though, she could quit everything tomorrow (fingers crossed she doesn’t), and her fiercely personal sense of style and low-key cool approach to social media alone would get her to the top.
What makes Reficco such a breath of fresh air in the fashion world is how she approaches style and dressing. Among a sea of people who mostly prioritize fast trends, Reficco looks at fashion as an extension of herself and a mode of expressing who she is. According to the actress, fashion has long been something she’s felt drawn to, but it wasn’t always her strong suit. In fact, she says her brother was the stylish one in the family. “My brother, he’s literally the most stylish person I know,” she tells me over Zoom from a filming location in Amsterdam. “Ever since I was a little girl, that’s something that we always bonded over.” It wasn’t until she got older and started to settle into herself that she began navigating her own sartorial tastes and figuring out what made her feel most confident. “The older I got, I progressively got more and more comfortable with trying new things and being more adventurous with [dressing],” she says. According to her stylist, Siena Montesano, Reficco’s confidence allows her to pull off anything with ease, one of the reasons why she wanted so badly to work with the actress. “What’s special about her style is that it’s really her,” Montesano tells me. “She can wear leg warmers on her arms and [make] them look cool. Maia just has that confidence.”
For Reficco, the clothing she wears is often the first thing people see when they meet her, both in real life and online, where she’s garnered more than five million collective Instagram and TikTok followers. “At the end of the day, [your clothes] are the way you’re presenting to the world,” she explains. “It can be whatever you want it to be. There’s literally no limitation as to what you can wear and how you can wear it.” When she’s shopping, her mentality is this: “If I see something I like at that given moment, I’ll try to get it because I feel like I’d rather just own pieces that I’m really excited to wear.” Rarely does she go out looking for specific items or things she spotted on tons of other people online. Instead, her shopping process relies more on her internal feelings than anything else.
That level of understanding about herself and her style makes Reficco the perfect client for a stylist. According to Montesano, who has been working with the actress for almost a year, it was crucial that the two understood each other and each other’s intentions. “The most important part … for me is energy,” Montesano says of the relationship between a stylist and their client. “It’s so important that we match one another and have a clear understanding of the roles we will play in the relationship and styling.” According to her, the two immediately clicked: “Within a couple minutes [of meeting each other over Zoom], we both knew we had an excellent flow in communication and how we wanted to work and collaborate as individuals.”
These days, the two text “every day,” says Reficco, sending each other inspo pictures from vintage and new collections alike. “A lot of times, I’ll even show her specific pieces I think might work,” Montesano explains. “She then has full control to tell me if she loves or hates something.” Rarely does it take long for the duo to agree on the perfect look, whether it’s a vintage gown or an off-the-runway set. “At the end of the day, you have to get each other and understand what it is that you’re trying to express through your clothes and through the fashion that you’re wearing,” Reficco says of working with a stylist. “It’s a really personal and intimate relationship.”
Their connection, according to Montesano, allows her to showcase Reficco’s style in a personal way. “It’s important to make sure each person is dressed like themselves. Yes, we are playing dress-up, but she is her own doll, not mine” she says. “Personal style should always translate in the options we pick in a fitting—whether it’s a signature piece of jewelry that she always likes to have on or adding a little bit of edge to a classic silhouette using accessories.” Without a relationship, it’s unlikely she’d even know about those intimate details let alone be able to seamlessly incorporate them into one of her client’s outfits. But because of the bond she and Reficco built from the start, Montesano says that creating those special moments is a natural conclusion.
Their relationship hit its stride ahead of Reficco’s red carpet premiere for Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin this summer. “It was my first red carpet in the U.S., and being Latina and coming from where I come from, it’s such an unheard of thing, at least for me, to dream of,” the actress says. The significance of the occasion meant she wanted to wear something that felt right—something that she could look at years down the line and feel not only good about but also excited about and even proud of. Two days before, Montesano lined up countless options for Reficco to choose from, but a black vintage Halston gown almost immediately won out. “Literally the moment we chose what I was going to wear, it was, as cliché as it sounds, so kismet,” Reficco says. “It felt so right, and I was like, ‘Okay, no questions asked, I love it.’”
Reficco was joined on the carpet by her fellow Liars—Bailee Madison, Malia Pyles, Zaria Simone, and Chandler Kinney—all of whom are also members of the younger generation and, as such, showed off their equally unique style preferences at the event. According to Reficco, letting your sense of self determine what you wear as opposed to the trends around you is a mindset that’s practically inherent to Gen Z. “This generation, we’ve all had some sort of awakening in terms of what we know we deserve and what we want in terms of acceptance,” she explains. Reficco says that people her age have a heightened understanding of themselves—from gender identity to sexual expression—which has allowed them to communicate more deliberately and clearly with their style. “That also translates into judging yourself less and daring to wear stuff that maybe wasn’t meant to be worn the way that we’re wearing it,” she continues. “It’s such a cool feeling to get to experience how this freedom in ourselves or in our sense of identity has allowed us to express ourselves in a different way that feels way more allowing.”
In knowing who she is, she’s been able to find balance in work and life, especially when it comes to social media. Like anyone born in the new millennium, Reficco doesn’t know anything but a world enamored by the internet. But because it’s so familiar to her, she knows how to deprioritize it when so many cannot. “It would stress me to let people in so much,” she says of sharing anything and everything online. Instead, she says that not giving social media too big a chunk of her energy and time not only protects her from the anxiety that apps like Instagram and TikTok have been known to prompt, but it also keeps her profiles from feeling “too glossified and thought-out” in comparison to who she is IRL. As a result, her presence online is refreshing and real. It’s like following your best friend—the one who likes singing on TikTok and taking selfies in a really good outfit.
Because she’s not trying to be like anyone but herself, Reficco has done what so many before her have strived and failed to do: possess the It factor. “We shouldn’t be molding ourselves into fashion,” she says. “Fashion should just be a complement—a little cherry on top of who we are.” Her feeds don’t look like anyone else’s, which is what makes them so alluring. “Maia’s personal style is helping to show people everywhere that you can take risks and you shouldn’t always try and fit the mold of what everyone else is doing,” Montesano reiterates. “Her personal touches on things are what make her stand out.”
Next up: Gen Z Knows What’s Up—7 Outfits I’m Copying From Celebs 25 and Under
