If there is one thing we can say about Dua Lipa’s style, it is that she has always taken a pick-and-mix approach to vintage fashion.
Recently, she wore a baby pink Blumarine crop top and snakeskin print jeans (channeling Y2K style, a perennial Lipa favorite) on a trip to Kosovo; and earlier this month, she wore a red mini dress and Marine Serre go-go boots to celebrate the Euros soccer final, creating an ensemble that could have been plucked straight from Swinging Sixties London.
And yesterday, with the premiere of the video for her new collaboration with late rapper Pop Smoke, “Demeanor,” Dua Lipa went to the past for aesthetic inspiration once again—albeit a bit further back than usual. Lipa’s ensemble, designed in collaboration with her longtime stylist Lorenzo Posocco, pays homage to none other than Marie Antoinette, including a sleeveless gold and lace bodice with bows and pannier-like embellishments over the skirt. Finally, she adorned her hair with another bow, VRAM’s dazzling drop earrings, and an emerald pendant necklace that would not appear out of place on any monarch today.
Naturally, Lipa being Lipa, this was not an ordinary corset selected from a costume rental store. Rather than that, the sumptuous item was an original from one of Jean-Paul Gaultier’s most renowned collections: his spring 1998 couture collection named “Les Marquis Touaregs.” The collection, which included an explosion of lace, embroidery, and Toile de Jouy, was a tribute to the magnificence and decadence of France’s Ancièn Regime, as viewed through Gaultier’s invariably quirky vision.
Lipa’s new video depicts her swanning down the hallways of a Rococo castle to join a debauched party, before bursting into a dance routine evocative of Madonna’s legendary Marie Antoinette-themed “Vogue” performance at the 1990 MTV Awards. Glamour fit for Versailles with a humorous, of-the-moment twist? It couldn’t possibly be more Dua Lipa.