Robotic dogs, crowd surfing models and a drag queen cosplaying as Jennifer Coolidge. Fashion month has officially come to a close but after four weeks of viral moments you have to ask: does anyone remember the actual clothes?
“Stunt dressing” is a neologism that captures this new mood of performative fashion. It’s the act of getting dressed to gain maximum attention offline and (maybe even more importantly) online.
It all started in January when Kylie Jenner arrived at the Schiaparelli couture show in Paris wearing a black velvet gown with a hyperrealistic lion’s head attached to the front. Images of her descending the steps of the Petit Palais as the faux lion’s mane gently blew in the wind were splashed all over the internet, newspapers and on TV news. Sitting next to her on the front row at the show was the singer Doja Cat, who had covered herself in 30,000 red Swarovski crystals (above).
Inspired by Dante’s Inferno and the nine circles of hell, there were equally dramatic looks prowling the runway, including Naomi Campbell who wore a dress featuring a fake wolf head. However, it was Kylie and Doja who officially “broke the internet”. According to the data firm Launchmetrics, the duo garnered visibility worth over $44m in earned media for the brand.
This type of “viralability” is the crux of stunt dressing.
How we consume both celebrities and fashion has completely changed in the last decade. Thanks to social media, celebrities are in control of their own narrative. They don’t need a magazine cover to reveal a newsworthy story, they can simply share it directly with their millions of followers live on Instagram. A fashion show is no longer restricted to invited guests. Brands live-stream the runway while some attenders offer a AAA pass, posting content at every stage from the unboxing of an invite to the post-show designer interview. Anyone with a phone can join in. The discourse has pivoted from the front row to the comments section.
With users rewarded for engagement, unsurprisingly stunt dressing is becoming de facto to the experience. Some such as the actor/model Julia Fox have built their personal brand around it. Everything she wears is memeable. Just in the past month we’ve seen Fox in cut-out chaps with a horse tail attached, and carrying a bag shaped like a human body.
Stunt dressing, which can be both organic and contrived, is something we are guaranteed to witness at Sunday night’s Academy Awards. Dressing for attention isn’t new to the Oscars. In 1986, after being passed over by the Academy for her role in Mask, Cher attended the awards in a cut-out dress and towering feather headdress from Bob Mackie. “As you can see, I did receive my Academy booklet on how to dress like a serious actress,” she quipped. And who can forget Björk’s swan dress from 2001? Yet, these were rare moments rather than the norm.
In 2015, the #AskHerMore campaign encouraged red carpet reporters to question nominees about their creative projects rather than their clothing. Curiously, just eight years later celebrities are now championing the angle previously condemned as reductive. It would be a bit odd for a reporter not to ask Sam Smith about their inflatable latex trousers at the Brits or Anya Taylor-Joy’s duvet-esque cape at the Baftas. Even celebrities known for their fuss-free style seem to be delving into stunt dressing, albeit on an entry level – think Kate Middleton’s black opera gloves that clashed with her white gown at Bafta.
This way of dressing is trickling down to the high street, too. Memeable accessories such as JW Anderson’s resin pigeon bag, Jacquemus’ giant straw sun hat and Loewe’s inflated sunglasses sold out within hours, resulting in waiting lists from shoppers keen to add them to their wardrobes. Even a puffer jacker patterned with farfalle pasta has become a social media phenomenon, while MSCHF’s Big Red Boots makes anyone who wears them walking clickbait. Why let celebrities hog the spotlight when just one shareable accessory and a TikTok account means you too could be a main character?
However, as stunt dressing reaches a tipping point (see the musician Tommy Cash World at Y/Project wearing a duvet and applying a face mask), many who once advocated for it are beginning to distance themselves from it. Yu Masui, a favourite of street-style photographers, says he has stopped getting changed multiple times at fashion week in order to be photographed more. “This fashion week I just wore my own clothes and pieces from my archive,” he said. “Fashion and costume are two different things.”
“We’re not trying to break the internet with this collection,” said Schiaparelli’s creative director Daniel Roseberry ahead of his latest Paris show, which lacked a drama-filled front row. Even Demna, the creative director of Balenciaga, who on Sunday showed his first collection after a controversial ad campaign featuring children holding teddy bears in bondage gear, said he was keen to veer away from stunt dressing. . “Fashion has become a kind of entertainment but often that part overshadows the essence of it,” he wrote in the show notes.
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