Does Dressing Like an Idiot at Fashion Week Even Turn Heads Anymore?

Bjork'due south swan apparel: A reviled Oscars outfit that's now iconic

Bjork's 2001 swan dress is iconic – just did it mark the end of fun on the red rug? Clare Thorp looks at how the vocaliser refused to play past the rulebook.

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Much well-nigh the 2001 Oscars ceremony played out as expected. Julia Roberts completed her awards sweep for Erin Brockovich, taking abode the statuette for best actress. Bookmakers' favourite Gladiator won best film, disappointing those hoping for an upset with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. When Marcia Gay Harden beat out frontrunner Kate Hudson for best supporting actress, information technology was a rare moment of surprise.

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But the biggest daze that night, 20 years ago – and the most memorable moment of the 73rd Academy Awards – happened outside the auditorium, on the carmine carpet, when the Icelandic musician Björk appeared wearing a dress that resembled a swan. It was a crystal-encrusted body stocking surrounded by a puff of white tulle, with a long neck that draped around her ain, the orangish bill resting on her chest. Her accessories were a trail of eggs, that she "laid" as she walked downward the red carpet.

Twenty years on, Björk's swan apparel is the 1 everyone remembers (Credit: Getty Images)

Anyone familiar with Björk – nominated that year for best original song for I've Seen it All from Lars von Trier's Dancing In The Dark (in which she besides starred) – would know she wasn't likely to show up in a classic black gown. A few weeks earlier at the Gilded Globes, she'd worn an outfit featuring Michael Jackson's confront in sequins, accessorised with an owl-shaped handbag. And yet no-one expected this – and the reactions were brutal. "The girl should be put into an aviary," sniped Joan Rivers. "Probably 1 of the dumbest things I've ever seen," said TV way pundit Steven Cojocaru.

But 20 years later, it doesn't seem such a dumb choice after all. Instead, Björk's dress – by Macedonian designer Marjan Pejoski – has gone down as i of the nearly iconic Oscar outfits ever, and the initial ridicule has transformed into – if non reverence – then certainly fondness. Julia Roberts' vintage Valentino might accept topped the best-dressed lists in 2001 but, 2 decades later, information technology'due south Björk'south outfit that anybody remembers.

For a while, the clothes was a punchline in pop culture, inspiring countless parodies – including when Ellen DeGeneres wore a copy to host the 2001 Emmys. Fast forrad to 2014, and Valentino was showing a reimagined version of the dress in a couture drove. In 2015, it was exhibited as part of MoMA's Bjork show, and in 2019 it featured in The Met's Camp: Notes On Fashion. What was once mocked is at present firmly enshrined in fashion history. The clothes even has its own Wikipedia page.

Pejoksi didn't know Björk would wear his dress, until he saw the photos the following 24-hour interval (Credit: Alamy)

Björk said the look was a tribute to the Busby Berkeley musicals, as well as swimmer and actress Esther Williams. "I thought it'd be very appropriate to wear a swan. I estimate they don't do those things anymore, correct?," she said afterwards, trying to empathize the reaction.

The dress fabricated its public debut a few weeks before the Oscars at London Fashion Week, modelled by Alek Wek in Marjan Pejoski's autumn/wintertime 2001 show. "The whole narrative that season was inspired by the motion of a merry-go-round, with all these different animals. The swan was a function of that," the designer later explained. "Björk loved it."

Björk had worn Pejoksi'southward designs earlier – including a dramatic pink organza concertina-style dress to the Cannes Festival the previous twelvemonth – but even he didn't know she would wear his swan blueprint until he saw the pictures the adjacent day. "It was a very nice surprise," he told Faddy. The eggs were all her idea. "It was fantastic of her. Then rebellious, at a traditional occasion similar the Oscars. I respect tradition of course, but everybody and everything deserves to exist laughed at from fourth dimension to time."

Michael Caulfield was working as a lensman for the Associated Press at the fourth dimension. A red-carpet veteran, he idea nothing could surprise him any more – until Björk showed upward. "When she kickoff walked up, I didn't even have my camera up to my face considering I was but taking in what she was wearing," he told BBC Culture. "My first reaction was: 'What is this?' I thought it was a political statement or she was promoting a movie. And then I picked upwards the camera and started shooting. Later on she walked away, that's all the photographers were talking about."

This was before celebrities posed against a clean backdrop and were instead photographed on the carpet itself. "A lot of people'southward heads were turned," says Caulfield. "If you wait at the pictures, you can see people looking back at her and the expression on their faces. They're confused."

Björk herself was bemused by the reaction. "They wrote about it like I was trying to wearable a blackness Armani and got it wrong, similar I was trying to fit in," she told The New York Times in 2007. "Of form I wasn't trying to fit in."

At the 2001 Golden Globes, Björk wore an outfit featuring Michael Jackson's face in sequins (Credit: Getty Images)

Caroline Stevenson, head of cultural and historical studies at London Higher of Manner, says there was a disconnect between what is expected of women on the blood-red carpeting – and what Björk gave people. "There'southward something most Björk non fulfilling expectations of female glory that fabricated information technology hard for people to comprehend or sympathize," she says.

This was Björk's get-go appearance at the ceremony – and she wasn't playing by the rulebook by wearing the most glamorous, Hollywood-esque outfit available. "I was very aware when I went to the Awards that it would probably be my first and concluding fourth dimension. And then I thought my input should actually be near fertility, and I idea I'd bring some eggs," she later said in an interview. She'd put try into her look, but for those used to couture and diamonds, it was the wrong kind.

"There is this convention of female glamour and female person celebrity and desire that gets played out through the ruddy carpet and through these beautiful gowns," says Stevenson. "Only Björk was literally dressed like a swan and she laid these eggs, and there was something in there virtually femininity and ideas of nurture, nature and fertility. I think people did not want to acquaintance that with the red carpet."

Lady Gaga wore a meat dress designed by Franc Fernandez at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards – named by Time magazine as the summit fashion statement of that year (Credit: Alamy)

If the fashion critics thought the outfit was a mistake, Björk showed no regrets. She wore the dress on the cover of her anthology Vespertine later that year, and it became part of her tour costume. In 2005 she auctioned the original off in aid of Oxfam, raising $9,500 (£6,805). But if criticism of her dress was water off a duck's – or swan's – dorsum, other celebrities dreaded catastrophe upwardly on the worst-dressed list.

While some cite Björk'south outfit every bit setting the tone for after red carpet looks, like Lady Gaga'due south meat wearing apparel at the 2010 VMAs, or arrival at the 2011 Grammy Awards in an egg – at the Oscars, it felt more like the finish of something.

In the decades leading up to that, there had been plenty of other memorable Oscar way moments: Demi Moore turning up in lace-trimmed cycling shorts in 1989; Sharon Stone wearing her married man'south white Gap shirt tucked into a Vera Wang skirt in 1998; Celine Dion's back-to-front white tuxedo in 1999. And, of course, Cher'southward incredible Bob Mackie designs throughout the 1970s and 80s (including a 2ft-high feather headpiece in 1986, and her diamond encrusted "naked" apparel in 1988).

Post Björk'south advent though, the 21st-Century Oscar red carpet provided few surprises. With the pre-show becoming as important equally the ceremony itself, and critics and viewers set to rate each outfit, no one wanted to stand out for the wrong reasons. The Oscars red carpet was also morphing into a place that was as much for commerce as information technology was for way, with luxury brands paying large sums for celebrities to wear their designs. With the fiscal stakes then high, the red carpet was no longer a place for rebellion. Angelina Jolie sticking her correct leg out of her Atelier Versace gown in 2012 was near as shocking as it got.

More recently though, a handful of celebrities have taken it upon themselves to bring some drama back to the ruby carpet – most notably, Pose star Billy Porter. The role player has become known for his elaborate carmine-rug go-ups – such as a bejewelled catsuit with 10ft-high wings at the Met Gala (where he was carried in past six shirtless men). At the 2019 Oscars, he grabbed attention with a full-skirted Christian Siriano tuxedo gown and, final year, a bespoke golden and printed Giles Deacon creation inspired by Kensington Palace.

At the 2019 Met Gala, Billy Porter sported a bejewelled catsuit with a 24-karat golden headpiece as office of a 'Dominicus God' ensemble designed by the Blonds (Credit: Alamy)

If Billy Porter'due south theatrical looks recall the spirit of Björk'due south egg-laying Oscar appearance, information technology's no coincidence – his stylist, Sam Ratelle, cites the swan apparel as a huge influence. "It'due south one of the first fashion moments that I always experienced that left a mark in me," he tells BBC Civilisation. "I grew up in a religious cult called Branhamism, and I wasn't allowed to watch television or take whatsoever sort of media. No net, no cell telephone, no tabloids or magazines. But I did go to public school, and I just think everybody at schoolhouse freaking out about the dress."

Though it would be many years earlier he was working in fashion himself, Ratelle says the dress taught him a valuable lesson almost the importance of get-go impressions. "If you're going to go to a massive upshot like that, the best way to get attending and have people talking about yous is by maxim something with what you're wearing. Information technology also really taught me that the people that interruption barriers and don't go with what everybody else is doing, they are the ones that are iconic."

Due to Covid, the past year has seen awards ceremonies – and the carmine rug – largely played out virtually. Some celebrities take taken this every bit a cue to dress down – see Jodie Foster in her pyjamas for  the Golden Globes. Just others, perhaps due to a pent-up desire for glamour, take taken a few more mode risks than they might usually. For the Golden Globes, Rosamund Pike donned a red Molly Goddard dress with combat boots. The Crown's Emma Corrin wore a Pierrot clown-inspired gown by Miu Miu. For the SAG awards, Leslie Odom Jr wore a technicolour Berluti suit while Kerry Washington posed in a puddle in a custom Etro dress and matching sparkling swimming cap.

Porter was a viral striking at the 2019 Oscars, wearing a custom Christian Soriano tuxedo apparel (Credit: Alamy)

For this weekend's Oscars, which volition accept a real-life, socially-distanced red carpet, organisers have made it clear that sweatpants are not an option, telling attendees: "Nosotros're aiming for a fusion of Inspirational and Aspirational, which in actual words ways formal is totally cool if you want to go there, only coincidental is really not."

So volition celebrities indulge usa and show us something a little more creative? "I think we all but really need a interruption from monotony, so it would be good to have something that's a little fleck more fun and playful," says Stevenson.

Ratelle thinks we're seeing a shift towards celebrities wanting to "exude personality" – and that in itself is seeing them take a few more than risks. "I think one of the things that's dying is the fear of needing to be liked."

Björk's clothes continues to be an inspiration to him – not least for the fact that, 20 years on, nosotros're withal talking about it; something he hopes volition happen with his ain work. "For me, if the garment isn't being talked about, then what's the point?"

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