The Evolution of Concert Couture
From Maddona to Beyoncé to Taylor Swift, over time, concerts and musicians have found themselves uniquely intertwined with the world of haute couture.
To buy tickets for a concert in this day and age is to invest in an unspoken expectation of witnessing a spectacle. And to a certain degree, that's always been the case.
In the early to mid-20th century, when jazz, swing music, and rhythm and blues were all the rage, singers such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Ruth Brown, and Nat King Cole, embodied timeless elegance — fashion that we today may even consider "stealth wealth." Their stage style wasn't ultra-glitzy and glamorous (though the women may have had a few sequins that sprinkled their dresses) and wasn't adorned with logos and symbols, leaving a mystique for the audience to question where the garments originated from. This era was the epitome of Old Hollywood glamour, especially for stage performers, where fashion was all about keeping it chic and sleek.
The pivot began in the late 20th century thanks to musicians such as David Bowie, Diana Ross, Elton John, Michael Jackson, and Elvis Presley who helped change the concert-goer experience as we see it today. All are stunning vocalists with their distinct genres and fanbase, but what they had in common was that they turned concerts from singing to a spectacle.
It wasn't just the elaborate, over-the-top sets, large venues, and booming speakers, they also ushered in a new take on concert fashion — completely different from the priorly subdued, timeless stage outfits the world was used to seeing.
Whether it be Bowie or John who made eccentricity and daringness the name of the game or artists like Ross, Presley, Cher, and Jackson whose stage fashion wasn't nearly as controversial (though still attention-grabbing), couture found itself in the center of a new market. It takes a special kind of designer to match the energy of rockstars and music icons, especially ones that are lightyears ahead of their time. Nonetheless, the merge of concert and couture brought to light a lineup of creative genius' who were the hands behind these artists' stage outfits.
From Kasai Yamamoto (Bowie) to Bill Whitten (John) to Bill Belew (Presley) to Michael Bush and Dennis Tompkins (Jackson), with the help of the expertise of these designers, concert clothes slowly became less about style and more about fashion. A designer that became exceptionally well-known in the realm of concert couture is the prolific costume designer Bob Mackie.
He would go on to work with top talent such as Ross, Cher, John, and Whitney Houston. Though most of his clients worked in music and entertainment, he would become as well-recognized in the mainstream fashion world as any other courtier. The momentum for concert couture would continue to gain momentum, not yet having reached a point of slowing down to this day.
In the '80s and '90s, musicians like Madonna would also hop on the couture bandwagon, becoming a collaborator with longtime friend and legendary designer Jean Paul Gaultier. The two would create iconic stage outfits that would leave a lasting imprint on the fashion world, even up to the present day. Perhaps the most famous design of all between the two is Maddona's statement-making cone bra that we wore on her Blonde Ambition in 1990.
Mid-riff baring crop tops, low-rise waistlines, mini dresses, and anything sheen and metallic — this is the stage style that dominated the early to mid-2000s, sported by artists like Destiny's Child, Britney Spears, Spice Girls, and Gwen Stefani. It was here that artists began to step back from the expected idea of concert outfits as being seen as costumes, and donned ensembles, that while still attention-grabbing and often custom-made, was casual enough to wear off the stage as well.
Though, an outlier to this shift was Mother Monster to the Little Monsters, Lady Gaga — who, like Bowie and Elton John, was ahead of her time during her peak throughout the 2010s, especially on the fashion front. Her outfits will never be forgotten in the fashion and music world: the bubble dress designed by Hussein Chalayan worn on her 2009 "The Fame Ball" tour; the human hair dress created by Charlie le Mindu; the transparent, nun-inspired, underwear-exposing design by Rachael Barrett for her 2010 Lollapalooza performance.
Since the late-2010s, couture stage outfits have become a merge of formal opulence and ready-to-wear. Most recently, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have brought on a new influence to couture concert dressing.
Throughout her Renaissance Tour, Beyoncé has flaunted couture look after couture look, with new fashion moments revealed at every stop. More than that, instead of opting for one or two designers, she obtained custom designs from an array of labels, including but not limited to Balmain, Ferragamo, Feben, Mugler, Miu Miu, Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton, Ivy Park, and Alexander McQueen.
The distinct designs are more than a power play, it's a genius storytelling move, as it aligns with the overall alien-western aesthetic of the album and has encouraged the Beyhive to design their own interpretations of her concert couture looks to wear in the audience.
The Swifties have also been quick to go all-out for Swift's Eras Tour, who, like Beyoncé, has tapped in an array of labels for couture designs — such as Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Alberta Ferretti, Oscar de la Renta, and Elie Saab. For such influential women to don custom outfits from these luxury labels on a world stage has been a major case of visibility for the couture world in a way that fashion would be remiss not to continue in the future.
The stage in which artists have revealed these luxurious concert wardrobes has become a new type of runway that has effectively connected with a fashion-loving younger audience who seeks accessibility in an infamously exclusive world. Throughout the evolved relationship between concerts and couture, we have now reached a point where costume couture has found a happy medium — exclusive yet relatable.
As Beyoncé says in her song "Pure/Honey," "It should cost a billion to look this good." And in this current era of concert couture, we appreciate that billion-dollar dress, so much we're making closet space to recreate the look for ourselves.
