Note: This post was originally published in November of 2020. We’re posting it again as part of Philebrity’s 17th anniversary in October of 2021. 

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For more than 72 hours last week, as the presidential election began to turn on the PA vote count, Philly was the center of the known universe. And that center, while it held, was both joyous and hilarious. But in the midst of the kind of rational/irrational exuberance that this city may have been born to enact, we noticed something as the rest of the world was noticing us: People around the world responding to the Philly spirit with their own interpretations of the Philly spirit. Put it another way: Philadelphia’s feedback to the world created a loop in which the world then fed back to us in its own Philadelphia-ese. 

Somewhere in the midst of this, amidst a sea of Gritty memes created by people all over the world, we met Grittney.

“I wanted her to be upsettingly sexy,” Riot Rogers told us. Rogers is an aspiring costume designer based in her native London, and as you can see, she accomplished her mission, and then some. Made of upholstery foam, gym mats, scrap canvas, leather lips and 100 feet of hair extensions, Grittney is clearly of  the uncanny (Delaware) valley.

Slideshow: The making of Grittney. All photos courtesy Riot Rogers.

“She actually has a defined ass crack and it’s the worst thing I have ever done,” says Rogers. Why did she do it? Out of a love of Philadelphia so pure — and so frankly without any good reason other than Rogers just really, really picks up what Philly puts down — that it truly touched us. 

We had to talk with her. It turned out to be a great conversation. Give a listen.

Follow Riot at twitter.com/RiotRogers, and subscribe to the Philebrity podcast, wherever you get your podcasts, here: podlink.to/philebrity.