Kristen Stewart uses naked dressing to make a point
Even in the context of the current pantless trend prevalent on the runway and in some celebrity circles, as well as the vogue for thematic dressing at movie openings, Kristen Stewart’s looks during her press tour for Love Lies Bleeding have stood out. Rarely has an actress been so unapologetically, gloriously undressed.
Stewart and her stylist, Tara Swennen, have taken the film’s carnality and covert politics and translated them for the promotional panopticon, forcing anybody watching to confront their own preconceptions about women’s bodies, their sexuality and exactly what empowerment means, while at the same time undermining the whole circus of branded celebrity dressing.
That’s a lot of subtext under very little — clothing, that is. But it was adroitly managed and awfully entertaining to see. Margot Robbie had fun dressing à la Barbie during her Barbie press tour; Zendaya captured eyeballs and social media during her Dune: Part Two camera calls dressed in sci-fi-themed Mugler, Givenchy and Alaïa; and the cast of Godzilla Minus One walked the Oscar red carpet in matching lizard-heel footwear. But with her Love Lies Bleeding appearances, Stewart took the concept of character cosplay to a new, more pointed level.
It started in Berlin back in February, when Stewart shed her shirt for the film’s European premiere, wearing a very short Chanel couture patchwork miniskirt, matching blazer and knit bralet. (She is a Chanel ambassador.) She raised the ante with a controversial Rolling Stone cover in which she wore only a Nike tank top and a jockstrap.
And when she showed up for the film’s Los Angeles premiere in only a “skirts, who needs ’em?” Bettter bodysuit, cut very high on the thigh, with sheer black tights, a black blazer and black stilettos, it was clear that such choices were not mere flukes but a conscious strategy.
As it happens, the motto of Bettter, a label that repurposes men’s suiting for women, is “empower rather than overpower”. Which, given the movie being celebrated, a queer film noir set in a small town in 1980s New Mexico and, as one reviewer wrote, a “deconstruction of cinematic hypermasculinity”, is pretty much on the nose.
It was when the promotional juggernaut reached New York, though, that Stewart really showed her hand. As well as other body parts, in an abbreviated black mini worn with a mesh bra, garter belt-’n’-stockings and a leather blazer for Late Night With Seth Meyers and a sheer Monot draped chain halter for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Paparazzi caught her exiting her building in tiny cream-coloured knit hot pants and a bra worn under a khaki shirt, with stilettos, and then in athletic Chanel micro shorts and matching leg warmers. Again with heels.
The clothes were like a dare to the watching world, a refusal to cater to pretty-girls-in-pretty-dresses gender expectations and a good-natured riposte to the idea that provocation is an invitation. An “I see your judgement and raise you one” piece of fashion politics.
In so orchestrating her outfits, Stewart, who looked as if she was enjoying herself quite a lot, thank you, demonstrated just how much can be said on the pseudo red carpet even without an E! host asking the point of what she was wearing. You really couldn’t miss her point. After all, she wasn’t exactly covering it up.