A new Madonna tour means new costumes. The pop star has announced which designers will be making the outfits for her Rebel Heart tour starting next month and the list includes the great and good of the fashion industry: Jeremy Scott, Alessandro Michele from Gucci, Italian designer Fausto Puglisi, Alexander Wang, Miuccia Prada and Lebanese designer Nicolas Jebran, who created the dress Kylie Jenner wore to her recent 18th birthday party. What is Madonna saying with this list of designers? What she always wants to say – that her finger is firmly on the pulse of now.
The pop star has collaborated with a few of these names before. She wore one of Scott’s Moschino designs to the Met Gala in May, and Wang even appears in the video for Bitch I’m Madonna. Puglisi, despite his relatively youthful label, has worked with Madonna since the Music days, when he designed accessories for her. Arguably, it’s the Gucci element that is the most exciting. Michele is the buzzy designer of the moment, but his aesthetic – all geeky glasses and pussybow blouses – is hardly razzle-dazzle stagewear, However, it could be great to see Madonna in something similar look 44 from the AW15 show, an oversized floral suit with pussybow blouse or, indeed, look 25 of Puglisi’s show, a long coat of fuscia and green.
Madonna, as every pop fan knows, is no fool. She knows that what she wears is part of a full pop package – a considered image has been there ever since she wore bangles up the arm and bleached denim in the early 80s. While her social-media presence can be a bit cringe, she has used it effectively in the runup to her tour to give enticing clues as to what she’ll wearing.
Her Instagram account includes a drawing by Scott of a short leopard-print dress and pink jacket, similar to what she wears in the video for Bitch I’m Madonna, and an embroidered biker from Gucci. Those glimpses are the final product of what is probably a lengthy process, all overseen by Arianne Phillips. Phillips, the costume designer who worked on Walk the Line, is Madonna’s secret weapon. She has been collaborating with the pop star on tour costumes since 2009.
Madonna’s tour wardrobe has been watched closely since the Blonde Ambition tour of 1990, with Jean Paul Gaultier’s now-infamous conical bra. She has continued to work with Gaultier and push designers who are either on the up or of the moment. Olivier Theyskens, then an obscure fashion name, designed the black gothic dress in the video for Frozen in 1998. Riccardo Tisci, the Givenchy designer with buzz around him for mixing streetwear and couture, made her costumes for the Superbowl half time show in 2012. This roll call of designers shows she’s still working on that principle. Rebel Heart is the pop star’s tenth tour in 30 years; a remarkable feat with – one hopes – the costumes and pussybow blouses to match.
