During a four decade-long music career, Madonna has mastered provocation with her wardrobe.
This weekend, the wait for her much-anticipated tour-drobe ended, as she kicked off her 12th world tour, Celebration, at the O2.
The singer was forced to postpone the original summer start date in Canada after she contracted a life-threatening virus in June. But now, finally kicking off the 78 dates in London, Madge was ready to prove she’s still in vogue.
Her tour-drobe includes a series of 17 archival looks, as well as plenty of all-new pieces — from corsets to mirrored bodysuits, to capes and veils.
In July, Vetements’ creative director Guram Gvasalia announced he was to produce costumes for Madonna, writing on Instagram: “@MADONNA thank You so much for the last months! Working so closely together on the costumes for your tour and bringing our visions and creativity into one big CELEBRATION. Designing your costumes was such a privilege and an honor. Seeing you work, seeing your drive and determination is so inspiring, now I understand why you are who you are. You are a fighter, you are an icon, you are THE QUEEN!”
Indeed, despite her recent health set-back, the 65-year old put on a dizzying display of looks and choreography to accompany her first retrospective show.
For her opening song there was a replica Jean Paul Gaultier kimono in a nod to the original music video for Nothing Really Matters. Then, over the course of the concert, as she performed among oiled-up dancers on a spinning carousel, the looks recalled hallmarks of her fashion past brought into the present.
A new incarnation of the infamous cone bra from her 1990 Blond Ambition tour was mandatory. So who else could she call on but the original designer, Jean-Paul Gaultier? He was responsible for decking her out three decades ago and has worked with her many times since, on and off the stage.
The 2023 equivalent was a black corset encrusted with beads and jewels. It was a half-way house between the original and the 2012 look she wore on her MDNA tour, which was a gravity-defying, PVC peekaboo version worn over a shirt, tie, and pinstripe trousers. This time there was a sculptural silk jacket, with beaded cone breast plates worn over the corset.
Also giving throwback feelings was a white veil on a jewel-encrusted headband, worn with another canonical corset, this time a blue one. It recalled her Like A Virgin era, and later, her love of underwear as outerwear, worn with cross necklaces and fingerless gloves.
ForDon’t Tell Me and Die Another Day there were lace and leather corsets, silk shirt dresses, and stetsons by Ukranian milliner Ruslan Baginskiy (also responsible for the mirrored fedoras on Beyoncé’s tour). Madge left the sheriff nipple tassels to her dancers. Same goes for the gimp mask and beret combos.
Baginskiy took to Instagram after the gig on Saturday to thank Madonna for her ongoing relationship with him and for being a “forever inspiration”. He wrote, “Thank you Madonna! For believing in me from the start. For your incredible support. For almost eight years together. Our story that comes to this amazing night. Thank you for making me part of your Celebration. This support is not just mine, it’s the support for my country. Our victory comes through cultural ones as well, though unity. Through No Fear. You were always an example of that and you really mean it.”
Tour wardrobes are big business — just look at the noise around Beyoncé’s Renaissance looks. People tune in to the after-show coverage as much to peep at the custom looks as they do to see the set list. And it’s a major coup for brands to appear in them. As David Koma said, “For us, the designers, it is not just an amazing exposure but a wonderful cultural moment to be a part of.”
Withstanding the choreography of a world tour is surely the strongest proof you can get of a design’s craftsmanship.
