Chappell Roan Is Rewriting the Pop Star Playbook, One Outlandish Costume at a Time
Despite having recorded only one studio album, several singles and a few EPs, Chappell Roan has become one of music‘s master storytellers. She’s performing in her sold-out Visions of Damsels & Other Dangerous Things tour as if it’s her own book of fairy tales, illustrated with her spectacular concert outfits.
Roan hadn’t planned on touring in the U.S. at all. But in July, she announced three surprise fall “pop up” dates in New York, Kansas City and an Oct. 11 final show in Pasadena. For each of these performances, Roan debuted a different set of spectacular new ensembles. In her Kansas City show, for example, she unveiled her “Pink Princess look,” a multilayered medieval masterpiece complete with overembroidered and hand-painted lace embellishments, yards of pale pink satin, pink velvet burnout sleeves, a pink satin and lace bodice cut like a piece of armor and a veiled hennin (a coned hat).
Roan’s approach has changed the blueprint for tour-look development, marking a stark departure from the standard pop-star playbook followed by the likes of Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Madonna, who generally have one wardrobe for the entirety of their tour.
For this stage strategy, Roan and her stylist, Genesis Webb, worked closely with designers and makers in the costume industry, mainly based in New York’s Garment District, and not with fashion designers. Rising stars James Nguyen and Alexander Cole Gottlieb, aka James + AC, who have worked on such Broadway hits as Death Becomes Her and Moulin Rouge!, developed Roan’s tour looks beginning June 7 for Barcelona, her second stop. They all met after Nguyen assisted Oscar- and Tony-winning costume king Paul Tazewell (Wicked) as an associate designer on this year’s Met Gala looks for Janelle Monáe and Roan. Nguyen and Gottlieb also were the costume designers for the music video of Roan’s single “The Subway.” “Our job is to make Chappell’s vision a wearable reality,” Gottlieb explained last summer. Working with Roan is the first time he and Nguyen have been lead costume designers on any project.
The process starts with Roan, explains Rachael Reichert, owner of Euroco Costumes, which built four outfits for the star: the “Thistle” and “Bat” for stops in Europe, and the “Cavalier” and “Pink Princess” for New York and Kansas City, respectively, among their tour contributions. Roan’s ideas are translated by Webb to mood boards featuring a wide range of folkloric and mythical references along with images of historical and contemporary fashion.
From the mood boards, Nguyen and Gottlieb create renderings for costumes composed of three looks for Roan to peel off, one one after the other, during a performance. The first look is the most elaborate, while the last is generally a bikini top with a lingerie bottom. The designers compile their sketches, fabric swatches, measurements and other critical information and put them in a costume “bible.” Each vendor gets pages specific to their order and creates their own bible; Euroco’s bible for four costumes totaled roughly 130 pages.
As costume designers, Nguyen and Gottlieb are tasked with lining up suppliers and makers to construct their designs. The work of crafting Roan’s — or anyone’s — theatrical costumes resembles that of Parisian haute couture: Everything is custom-made to fit Roan perfectly and allow her to move freely, and completion requires highly skilled sewers and hand-stitchers, among other specialized artisans.
“These [designs] were fairly over-the-top” compared to her typical clients, says Reichert, who bought Euroco after starting there as a stitcher. She notes that the “Cavalier” outfit, which fans dubbed “The Pirate,” took more than 550 hours to construct.
“Chappell and Genesis are reclaiming a more classic way of doing things,” says Camille Benda, costume designer, author and costume-design faculty member at CalArts’ School of Theater. “They’re going back to costume designers to look at clothes as storytelling pieces.”
Roan’s costumes are as central a component to her stardom as her music. Anticipating what she will wear at a given date feeds into the excitement. She encourages fans to dress up to match her themes and drops hints on social media a few days before each show.
“Being a concertgoer and to witness her costumes, it feels so special, because those are works of art,” says Maria Chencinski, 27, an ad strategist who saw Roan at Forest Hills in New York. “It’s like a little fashion show for me, and getting external validation from someone in passing is really gratifying. Everyone in the stadium is wearing [some of the] same looks. There’s a collective, effervescent vibe that indulges all your senses and self-expression.”
For all the thought that goes into the costumes, Roan told Jimmy Fallon last year that while she loves how fans find meaning in them, she doesn’t take them that seriously, adding she simply thinks she looks hot in them.
Striking a similar note in Pasadena, Roan instructed the entertainment industry folks in the crowd to not talk about work.
“I just want you to feel like you did when you were a kid, when you were 13 and, like free,” she told the crowd. “That’s what I need, and I am so glad I get to do this with my job and feel free and wear this onstage. I needed this … to just feel like myself.”
This story appeared in the Oct. 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
