Pink Versace suit and harness of Lil Nas X

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American rapper Lil Nas X wore a couture fuchsia Versace suit with a pink harness to the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards on January 26, 2020, [1] during which he accepted his awards for Best Music Video and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Old Town Road (Remix)." [2] In 2022, Billboard suggested that Lil Nas X was one of the earliest celebrity adopters of the monochromatic pink Barbiecore trend. [3] Some critics have suggested that this outfit was the beginning of Lil Nas X's style pivot to an embrace of queer fashion. [4]

Contents

Background and Design

Throughout 2019 and early 2020, Lil Nas X embraced a country-western aesthetic for his red carpet appearances and live shows. [1] [5] Prior to the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, Lil Nas X's stylist, Hodo Musa, told the Los Angeles Times that this would be his final outfit that would reference this aesthetic. [6] She selected Versace because she found their work with hip-hop artists in the 1990s to be inspiring. [5] Lil Nas X told CR Men that the outfit was "trying to deviate from the norm that most guys wear—suit, tie." [7] He liked that the outfit could be "a talking point" and saw it as an opportunity to "get more in tune with [his] flamboyant side." [7]

The outfit consisted of a matching bright pink and gold-studded cropped leather jacket and high-waisted trousers. [1] The top underneath his jacket was black mesh [8] and he also wore a bondage harness [1] which stylist Shannon Stokes noted was likely an allusion to the 1992 Versace dominatrix collection [9] and which GQ compared to Donatella Versace's bondage dress. [10] He also wore a pink studded cowboy hat and boots, as well as silk scarves on his wrists. [1] His clothes were patterned with the Versace Medusa icon, and his jewelry was a mixture of Versace and John Hardy. [5] Overall, the outfit took over 700 hours to complete. [11]

Reception

The outfit was generally well received by critics. The Los Angeles Times said that Lil Nas X "electrified the celebrity walk." [5] Paper Magazine called the look "undeniably fresh, totally him, and the kind of garment [they] want to stay talking about." Reception from outside the critical community also trended positive, [12] with detractors primarily expressing homophobic sentiments as the reason they disliked the outfit. [13] Bondage gear would become a menswear trend in high fashion in Autumn/Winter 2020. [14]

Lil Nas X's pink Versace suit has been ranked among his best outfits by numerous publications. [4] [15] [16] [17]

See also

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References

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