Thursday, December 5, 2024

Medieval Costumes on World Tour!

    Many music artists take months to plan their tours and to plan their costuming with their designers. The designs of these costumes are planned mostly though a stylist, which connects with a multitude of designers that then create costumes that embody the artist and their tour (1). With that, costumes need to pop on stage so those with nosebleed seats can still see the artist.

    In medieval times, and in stories we have read, we have seen elements of knights and kings. We rarely talked about their fashion choices, because quite frankly, no one cared back then about what these people were wearing. In today's day-in-age, their fashion choices take a modern twist and celebrities look back on these times for inspiration.



Beyonce
(3)
    In May of 2023, Beyonce embarked on a 56 show world tour called the Renaissance tour after the album of the same name. Not only did this tour make history in 2023 by being the highest grossing world tour by a female artist pulling in $579 million, but the costuming is iconic (2). 
   Occasionally, her wardrobe takes a very modern twist on medievalism.
Working with designer Marine Serre, a silver body suit that looks quite knightley was created.

(4)

Lady Gaga
    This blog simply cannot go without the mentioning of costuming queen Lady Gaga. She has had some iconic moments in costuming, like her iconic meat dress at the 2010 MTV video music awards, to breathtaking costuming at her concerts (5). 
    Gaga embarked on her Born This Way ball tour in 2012 and ending in 2013. Working primarily with Giorgio Armani and Donatella Versace, Gaga created costumes that had elements of medievalism with their visual appeal and style. They had wide shoulders which can be noted as being kingly (or queenly) and specks of silver which can represent armor.

  











Works Cited
  1. Hoo, Fawnia Soo. “The Big Business Behind Concert Costume Design.” TZR, https://www.thezoereport.com/fashion/concert-fashion#:~:text=An%20artist%2C%20most%20likely%20through,the%20performer's%20trademark%20sartorial%20persona.. 

  2.  Brathwaite, Lester Fabian. “Break my soul, break these records: Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour by the numbers.” Entertainment Weekly, https://ew.com/music/beyonce- renaissance-tour-by-the-numbers-records/

  3. Mazur, Kevin. Beyonce Image, getty images.

  4. Lady Gaga image, from https://ladygaga.fandom.com/wiki/The_Born_This_Way_Ball

  5. “Meat Dress of Lady Gaga.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_ dress _of_Lady_Gaga#:~:text=On%20September%2012%2C%202010%2C%20American,top%20fashion%20statement%20of%202010.. 

    

4 comments:

  1. This was very interesting to read about! I have never noticed these before and I think it is cool to see medieval times living on through moder, popular artists.

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  2. I find it kind of crazy that I have never noticed the costuming connections to medievalism. I really enjoyed your blog, especially because of the visuals you put in to help. I would have loved to see more examples, but thats only because I found this so interesting!

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  3. I did not expect to see a tie to medievalism with costuming being done in this recent decade. However, I wonder if there are other examples out there of possibly the noble class in a more modern setting or other designs? You do bring up a good point that there is not a major emphasis on the details of the clothing in medievalism. Only in a handful of our readings are details like this brough to attention.

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  4. I find it fascinating how the medieval look is achieved in the modern era. The use of silver and bright colors is an effective way of grabbing audience attention and making sure everyone can see the performer.

    ReplyDelete

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