In the moody, luxe noir video for Kanye West’s new single Wolves, he cries. The emotional outpouring is as big as the video, which doubles as a Balmain campaign. As a sweep of models (including Joan Smalls and Alessandra Ambrosio) catwalk around like the beautiful undead, West, dressed in the same bejewelled denim coat he wore at the Met Ball, shoots a perfect double stream of tears from his eyes, as his wife, Kim Kardashian, does the same.
Shot by Steven Klein, the director/photographer known for making Rihanna cry gold tears on the cover of this month’s W magazine and the likes of Colton Hayes and Madonna reach for the tissues, the clip makes crying look beautiful. The trickle of saltwater complements the glistening diamonds on the Balmain clothes and Kanye and Kim look regal in their perfect sorrow.
Balmain is a label driven as much by as the otherworldly luxury of the garments, as it is by creative director Olivier Rousteing’s personal story. He was taken into an orphanage when he was seven days old, and adopted by white parents at five months. He told Vogue last year: “When I was living in the orphanage, I was always crying.” Wolves is an emotionally bruised, paranoid song and in the context of Rousteing’s narrative, tears are the ultimate symbol of unending anguish.
Still, there’s a limit to the how teary a face can go, because fashion’s relationship with tears is an aesthetic one. Think of Lara Stone’s two single, perfect drops on the cover of LOVE magazine. Or the glitter-tear trend, where tiny pieces of glitter are placed below the eye, à la Pierrot clown, and, at the Burberry AW16 menswear show, a bit David Bowie. Jeremy Scott subverted the idea when he gave the models star-shaped tears at his AW womenswear show.
What’s significant is that these artful, prettified versions of tears are at the different end of the spectrum to “ugly crying”. From Carrie on Homeland and Gwyneth Paltrow at the Oscars, to memes such as Magic Johnson crying, that scrunched up, torrent of tears is a little bit too real for the catwalk.
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