Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Pop Stars Are Harnessing the Power of Fantasy Fashion

Pop Stars Are Harnessing the Power of Fantasy Fashion

When the going gets tough, the tough get inventive. For musicians, that means serving up fantastical style (remotely, of course.)

I worry that I’ve lost my muscle memory for live music. I’m at the point of withdrawal where I miss the sensory details with unnerving specificity: The strategic shifting of weight from one foot to the other. The craning left and right to avoid an obstructive gaggle of phones, or the tallest man in the room who’s somehow always in front of you. The purr of a strong bass reverberating between my ribs. The euphoria of relinquishing my personal space to the pit. Instead, my calendar is pocked with remote performances subject to the whims of internet connectivity, designed to be watched languidly without a thought to putting on outside pants. Yet, for all its physical inertia, the past year has been a time of considerable mental exercise: reimagining the collective music experience for our cloistered present, dreaming about what its future might look like, rewiring our brains for a new world.



Cardi B in Rey Ortiz at the 2021 Grammys.

As we live anxiously through a chapter in upcoming history books, pop stars and their teams have granted us flashes of psychic reprieve through the fantasy of performance. Music and fashion, two realms that thrive on elaborately constructed visions, have joined forces. There was the mirror-festooned cowboy hat and tangerine chaps that winked to Nudie suits in Megan Thee Stallion’s Apple Music Awards rodeo; Rina Sawayama’s nod to Marie Antoinette in Moschino panniers; and the utopian alternate reality of the “Positions” music video, in which Ariana Grande plays POTUS in Lanvin, Mugler, Gucci, and a series of pillbox hats. The optimism of splashy, gloriously inessential moments of pop culture excess, of unsolicited élan by way of plush creative budgets, has been a tonic. The show is different, but it has gone on, at least remotely.



Rina Sawayama performing in Moschino.

With concerts confined to screens, stylists have risen to the challenge of bridging the emotional gap, telegraphing the vitality of live music through amplified, exuberant, extravagant fashion that serves as a kind of visual Caps Lock. A Philip Treacy for Valentino couture hat imbues Dua Lipa’s Saturday Night Live performance with an ethereal lightness that only cascades of feathers can convey. Consider, too, the otherworldly burlesque of Cardi B’s “WAP” look: a custom Mugler thong bodysuit, set off by a corset with mammary cutouts and gold areola shields.



Dua Lipa, in Valentino Haute Couture, getting ready for SNL.

The dizzying wardrobe of Beyoncé’s Black Is King-its billowing jewel-toned skirts, sculptural shoulders, and curtains of diamanté-serves as the maximalist material expression of the visual album’s message: the insurmountable beauty and majesty of the African diaspora. “Creating a world where we get the opportunity to escape visually, especially in today’s circumstances, is always a treat,” says stylist Zerina Akers, who led the production’s costume design and assembled talents from all around the globe, from Senegal’s Tongoro studio to Greek designer Mary Katrantzou. “I often think of the many people dealing with very real and harsh realities,” Akers says, “and hope that if they saw a glimpse of my work, it would bring them joy.”



Beyoncé wears Mary Katrantzou in Black Is King.

When Lady Gaga and Nicola Formichetti began work on the visual identity for her Chromatica album, the idea was to construct a fictional world born of the therapeutic transformation she found through making music-feelings Formichetti echoes when reflecting on his own work. Like music, fashion is a form of escapism, he tells me, a way “to create a world of fantasy where anything is possible.” His childhood interest in visual art began, he says, as an inward search for identity and a safe haven that turned outwardly generative, a coping mechanism that became an act of self-determination. For Chromatica, he teleported to a metaphorical planet where “Ancient Aliens meets evolved beings” and aggressive elements are subverted, painted in candied hues. Shortly after filming wrapped on the video for “Rain on Me,” the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and many countries implemented lockdowns. Suddenly, the album’s themes of healing from grief and trauma felt not only relevant, but prescient. The incorporation of masks into all nine of Gaga’s outfits for the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards was effortless.



Lady gaga promotes Chromatica in pieces from Cecilio Castrillo Martinez, Gasoline Glamour, and Gary Fay.

The connection between these imagined and lived realities nods to the peculiar dynamism of fantasy, not just as a kind of mental Eject button, but as something more instructive. “That push and pull between dreaming and living feels more real now than ever,” says Schiaparelli artistic director Daniel Roseberry, who created the elegant yet whimsical gown Gaga wore to sing the national anthem for President Biden’s inauguration. “The sadness of this time we live in, but the power of the imagination and the world we can create for ourselves. Maybe it’s our greatest power.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×