Dua Lipa At The BRITs
The BRIT Awards are a breath of fresh air when it comes to fashion, and this year was no different, with celebrities taking to the red carpet to show what styles they had to offer after the long lockdown hiatus. The atmosphere was buzzing, the cameras were flashing, and viewers were left with plenty to talk about.
One of the main moments of the night was Dua Lipa’s custom Vivienne Westwood look, which paid tribute to her heritage as a proud English singer-songwriter. Lipa’s look included a three-pearl white choker, yellow U-line bust with corset underneath, and an asymmetrical matching skirt complete with flowing train. The outfit was adorned with complimentary purple netting, and Lipa also wore a garter, stockings and purple embossed platform heels mimicking the texture of crocodile skin.
The look was undeniably Westwood and referenced many of the designer’s longstanding inspirations and interests. The three-pearl white choker, one of her most expensive necklaces to date, pays homage to the house’s early foundations; as one of Westwood’s most staple and versatile pieces, pearls are constantly reimagined throughout her runway collections. Meanwhile, the U-line bust of Lipa’s dress recalls Westwood’s long-time fascination with corsets, inspired by the fashionable silhouettes of the 18th century. Known at the time as ‘stays’, these pieces were made primarily of stiff-boned foundations which lifted the bust, trimmed the waist, held back the shoulders and supported the gown worn on top. Corsets reshaped the feminine silhouette, changing the posture (and, indeed, internal organ structure) of the wearer, as they pulled the body into a more alluring and shapely physique. Often made from wool, twill, stiffened linen, and silk brocade, they might be considered the ‘bras of the 18th century’, but Westwood’s designs reclaim the corset and celebrate it as a garment of female power and liberation, as opposed to patriarchal oppression.
The asymmetry of Lipa’s outfit is also a contemporary reimagining of its Georgian origins. In fashioning a mini skirt, Westwood frees the wearer’s legs and opts for a more rebellious take on the traditionally floor-length evening gown. Instead, Lipa’s shorter skirt length reveals stockings, further referencing the styles of the 18th century whilst also providing the outfit with a frisson of sensuality and desire – something Westwood, whose punk boutique SEX opened on the King’s Road in 1974, has always been keen to explore.
The purple netting around the dress might additionally be symbolic, perhaps inspired by the sea and Westwood’s environmental activism. In recent years, she has created collections made purely out of used materials in an effort to highlight fashion’s responsibility to rethink its earthly impact. With t-shirts and merchandise promoting the importance of ‘saving the ocean’, the netting on this dress might be a visual depiction of the multitude of debris and plastics that get caught up in fisherman’s nets from the ocean.
Below, Luke Marr, otherwise known as YouTube’s HauteLeMode, considers the netting of Lipa’s dress in relation to Westwood’s foray into stocking deconstruction. An homage to her punk rock days, in which people would destroy their stockings and remake them into different outfits as something of a political statement, Marr comments that “in the 1970s, the punk rockers of that era were taking fishnets and making it their own and putting them into an anti-establishment connotation, and I think here […] Vivienne Westwood, who was one of the main originators of the punk style and aesthetic, is taking those elements and bringing it into a regal aspect.”
Finally, the infamous purple platform heels on which Dua Lipa balanced can only reference supermodel Naomi Campbell’s infamous fall on the runway for Westwood in 1993. One of the most memorable moments in the history of runway, Campbell took the dramatic tumble whilst wearing extremely high purple platforms, paired with a plaid skirt and pink feather boa. She laughed it off before regaining her composure and completing the walk, leading magazines all around the world to discuss her fall and making Westwood’s 1993 collection instantaneously famous.
In conversation with Vivienne Westwood for British Vogue, Campbell confessed that she was asked by several designers after the collection to fall purposefully in their shows for a large sum of money:
“Did I ever tell you this?” Campbell asks Westwood in the video. “Afterwards, I’m not going to say who, designers asked me if I would fall for them, and I was like ‘Why would you want me to fall unnecessarily?!’ ‘Press! The press you got!’ ‘But it wasn’t planned!’” Campbell told Westwood, “they asked me if I would do it and I said, ‘absolutely not, it goes against everything that I stand for. I’m not falling purposefully.’”
“I didn’t pay any of you very much, so you can take it for granted that I didn’t pay you to fall down,” Westwood jokingly replies. “Two women of integrity! Please don’t ask your models to hurt themselves in the name of publicity.”
As you can see, Dua Lipa’s custom dress embodies generations of Westwood history, and acts as a reminder of the designer’s success, versatility, and commitment to her principles, in an ever-evolving fashion landscape.