Getting musos to rock the frock

Rihanna

Rihanna

Published Dec 8, 2014

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AFTER the success of the UK edition of Styled to Rock, the show has now been adapted for the US market.

Fronted by the queen of fashion herself, Rihanna, we see a group of contestants compete to create impressive outfits for international music acts. What is intriguing is that Rihanna (pictured), who is the executive producer, has made some fashion statements which have had tongues wagging over the years. So what do you design for such a person?

For the 2012 Met Gala Ball, the singer wore a lace dress which appeared torn on one side and almost revealed everything from breast to bum. Earlier this year, at the CFDA Awards, Riri shocked all with her see-through dress which left nothing to the imagination.

This explains why at the recent Channel O Awards there were several lacey dresses that made the showcase look like a porn convention. You had the likes of Scandal’s Pam Andrews and Generations’ Denise Zimba in black see-through dresses that could’ve been used as lace curtains. Both had some clever reasoning behind their dresses, but the only thing men where interested in was gawking at their crown jewels.

But the question now becomes: what makes women dress like this? This sort of thing has been happening for ages. Perhaps even Cleopatra was a show-and-tell kind of dresser. One of Marilyn Monroe’s most famous pictures is of her in a short dress being blown up by a subway grate. That was sixty years ago when she was shooting for The Seven Year Itch.

We had people like Cher wearing skimpy dresses in the ’80s with people copying ever since. Madonna was also another risky dresser. For most of her career, all she has been worried about is making sure that people know she is sexy, even in her 50s.

Over the years we have even had the least likely of people, like crooner Toni Braxton, shock us with a double-slit dress about 12 years ago at the Grammys. It helped that she won something because those who hadn’t seen her on the red carpet got a good look when she accepted the award.

Then there was Lil’ Kim and that purple jumpsuit at the ’99 MTV Video Music Awards. The suit had one long sleeve and no arm on the other side. In fact, the design was such that her left breast had a matching purple sticker on the nipple to reflect some sort of dignity.

But then there is Lady Gaga who has done everything from dominatrix attire to wearing red meat. Very few people dress as bizarrely as she does and she loves the attention.

So again we ask the Styled to Rock contestants, with a crazy celebrity culture like this, especially with Rihanna running the show, what is one supposed to design?

The answer lies in shock value and not trending fashion. It’s all about daring to be different.

May the best (craziest one) contestant win.

• Styled to Rock US airs every Thursday at 8.30pm on Vuzu AMP (DStv channel 114).

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