The 33-year-old "It" girl, model, and actor has built a career on calling things exactly like they are, and our conversation was no exception. Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Nov. 25, she joined L'Oreal's Stand Up Against Street Harassment campaign. "Being able to defend yourself is also part of feeling self-reliant, confident, and beautiful," she told me.
"Sorry for fog, I feel self-conscious," Maria Manow of Bassvictim giggles in her slightly broken English, swirls of theatrical smoke obscuring her silvery blue hair, dark top, and thigh-high socks. Her bandmate, the producer Ike Clateman, is somewhere else onstage, cloaked in the haze. The galloping bass of the phonk tribute track "Canary Wharf Drift" kicks off, and a blitz of white lights flashes across hundreds of people jumping so hard the floor wobbles.