DUA LIPA and
the clothes she wears
Scarlett Conlon
Hey, Barbie
‘ ’
She was on set an hour early like the professional she is, lighting up the set like the megastar she is, and most importantly chatting with everyone like the incredible down-to-earth person she is.
— Tom Ackerley, Variety’s Power of Women awards, November 2023.
The biggest grossing film of 2023 wasn’t just a film. Barbie was widely acknowledged as a vehicle for female empowerment – especially with a younger female audience. It was apt therefore that director Greta Gerwig and producer (Barbie herself) Margot Robbie wanted women onboard who encapsulated that sentiment. Step forward Dua Lipa. As well as collaborating on the title track ‘Dance The Night’ with Mark Ronson, Dua played Mermaid Barbie in the film.
Dua paid tribute to her mermaid character at the London premiere with an iridescent look from her Versace collaboration earlier that year, styled with wet-look hair. She told the red-carpet host Amelia Dimoldenberg, ‘I think I’m party Barbie [tonight]’. It was a continuation of one of her more revealing outfits to date; a shimmering chainmail gown by Bottega Veneta, which she had worn to channel her inner Barbie for the global premiere in LA some weeks before, where she told Brittany Broski: ‘Barbie is so empowering and she’s strong and she’s fun and she’s sexy and she owns it and I think everybody has a Barbie in them’.
this page: Chain reaction – wearing Bottega Veneta at the LA premiere of Barbie. opposite: Taking her Versace collaboration for a walk on the red carpet. overleaf: Shimmering in Valentino at the Sunny Hill Festival , 2022.
Hello London
For me, music has always served as a form of escapism. It’s about community, togetherness. It’s one language that we can all universally connect with.
— Dua Lipa, The Guardian, May 2024. ‘ ’
When a 15-year-old Dua arrived back in London from Pristina in 2010, the capital was on the precipice of a new heyday that would firmly establish it as a creative hotbed for the 21st century. The new decade saw a break from the indie-sleaze era of the Noughties, which hinged on skinny jeans and ballet flats. Instead, the new uniform comprised boyfriend jeans, blazers, a trophy heel and big bags carried in the nook of one’s arm.
Dua embraced the look with enthusiasm, especially when she started getting papped while attending London Fashion Week and glamourous boutique openings in pursuit of introductions to the music industry. It was around the same time that she was experimenting in the studio, finding, as she put it, ‘her sound’. As her musical DNA became more distinctive, so too did her wardrobe. Pieces that would become long-term favourites began making regular appearances in her repertoire, including leather jackets (biker, aviator and motocross styles all featured), little slips and corsets, which nodded to the emerging underwear as outerwear trend, and translucent layers that imbued a very subtle sensuality.
Working the London look in Topshop, 2013.
Versace, Versace, Versace
To have a voice outside of my team come and tell me how she sees Versace is so important… Dua represents the woman of today: she’s confident, strong, and she has the ability to influence people – not just because she’s famous, but because of her values.
— Donatella Versace, British Vogue, May 2023. ‘ ’
In 2016, when Dua attended her first BRIT Awards wearing a fringed Alexander Wang dress and strappy sandals, little did she know that fashion royalty was taking note. ‘I was immediately struck by what a talented, passionate, and strong young woman she was, and a true inspiration to other women,’ Donatella Versace, who was also in attendance, would later tell Elle magazine. At the 2018 BRITs, Dua wore a printed Versace bodysuit and jacket combination from the designer’s S/S 2018 show to perform her smash hit ‘New Rules’ at the same ceremony during which she won her first two gongs (for British Breakthrough Act and British Female Solo Artist).
From there on, the Versace credits kept rolling in. In 2019, when she won her first Grammys (for Best New Artist and Best Dance Recording), she recreated one of the most iconic Versace red-carpet moments of all time in a version of ‘the safety-pin dress’ first immortalised by the actress Elizabeth Hurley in 1994. Soon after, she opted for a spangly mini dress for her appearance on The Tonight Show, followed by a
An
early Versace look performing ‘New Rules’ at the 2018 BRITs.
Brit Icon
24 years ago, I had an idea – to wear a Union Jack to celebrate The Brit Awards. Despite the doubts, I trusted my instincts and wore it anyway.
All these years later to see it worn by a fellow sister is so special.
— Geri Halliwell, Instagram, May 2021.
When Geri Halliwell stepped on the BRIT Awards stage in 1997 to perform with her fellow Spice Girls, wearing a dress she had famously made at home by stitching a tea towel to a Gucci LBD, pop history was made. The now iconic Union Jack dress not only symbolised the group’s globally resounding message of ‘girl power’, with a nod to their signature peace sign printed on the back, but it also rubberstamped the moment the girls found themselves at the height of their global domination.
Dua was only two years old when Ginger Spice’s outfit made headlines around the world, but when she found herself headlining on the same stage 24 years later (in 2021), as a modern-day icon of female empowerment and the most streamed female artist of the previous year, she decided to pay tribute to Geri’s legendary onstage ensemble. Celebrating her London roots, she opened with a prerecorded performance on the Jubilee line of the London Underground before the cameras cut to her live onstage.
this page: Geri ‘Ginger Spice’ Halliwell at the 1997 BRITs. opposite: Girl Power – Dua takes the Union Jack for a spin at the BRITs in 2021.
Girl on Film
— Matthew Vaughn, Getty, 2023. ‘ ’
Lots of people are playing at being a popstar, [but] she is a popstar.
No stranger to the red carpet, one of Dua’s proudest moments to date was the premiere of Argylle, the spy-action thriller by Matthew Vaughn, in which she made her acting debut. Arriving at London’s Leicester Square for her big night, she wore a custom-design sequinned bustier gown by Gucci in a mulled-wine hue to match her hair. ‘My dress is so heavy,’ she joked, pulling the gown up, ‘lots of sequins!’ The outfit was, in part, an ode to her character, LaGrange, who cavorts around as the femme fatale in a gold-sequinned mini dress (custom-made by Versace) and served as an apt reminder that her glittering sense of style helped land her the part in the first place. ‘I saw Dua being interviewed on The Graham Norton Show, and she was wearing a crazy Valentino dress that no one could pull off except her’, Matthew told Getty during a press junket for the film, adding that it was Dua’s authenticity that won him over. Soon after watching the show, Matthew gave Dua a call, they had a chat, and he offered her the part. The rest is film and fashion history.
this page top: Leading lady – starring alongside Henry Cavill in Argylle.
this page bottom: In Gucci at the London premiere of Argylle opposite: Eye-catching – performing in Valentino on The Graham Norton Show
Material Girl
Given that Dua’s star status is grounded not only in her music and clothes, but also in her cross-generational appeal, it will come as no surprise that when her first manager, Ben Mawson, asked what her ambition was, she told him: ‘I want to be as big as Madonna.’ With similar levels of fame and success on the horizon, Dua realised a dream in 2020 when she collaborated with her idol on the remix version of her second studio album Club Future Nostalgia. Produced by The Blessed Madonna – not to be confused with actual Madonna – the album did feature the original material girl, Madonna herself (alongside Missy Elliot, no less), on the track ‘Levitating’.
‘It was bonkers! I couldn’t believe it’, Dua told Music Week in 2021. ‘We were texting back and forth about the song and sending ideas to each other, talking about stuff. Then she called me and we had a 20-minute conversation and the whole time I was turning round to my boyfriend going, [whispers] “It’s Madonna!” It was exciting, a very surreal experience but she was very chill. She’s everything you’d expect her to be.’
Miss Scarlet – Dua looking killer in a red, Madonna-style fit at the 2019 American Music Awards.
The Last Word
The start of 2024 marked a defining moment for Dua. Teasing her third studio album Radical Optimism across her social channels, the big reveal would come at the biggest music awards ceremony of all – the Grammys – on 4 February in Los Angeles. As one of the night’s performers – along with the likes of Miley Cyrus, Jon Batiste and Joni Mitchell – Dua had the world’s attention and knew what she had to do with it.
Arriving on stage in an oscillating cage to perform the title track from the album, she then weaved her way through the audience, launching into ‘Houdini’ with a dance choreography so tightly performed that it went viral online. The reaction mattered for two reasons: firstly, it won her an army of new fans across the world; secondly, it silenced any armchair critics still clinging to the idea that she was somehow a ‘lacklustre’ dancer. Some years prior, during a 2018 rendition of ‘One Kiss’ with Calvin Harris, Dua had been trolled for not giving enough energy to her performance, which birthed a million memes and the phrase, ‘go girl, give us nothing’.
Dua’s knockout show at the 2024 Grammys.
And The Host Wore Chanel
Fashion changes, but style endures.
. ‘ ’
— Coco Chanel, Harper’s Bazaar
As the fashion adage goes, the devil wears Prada. However, for the 2023 Met Ball hosted by Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, it was all about Chanel – specifically from the late Karl Lagerfeld’s reign at the storied French fashion house. In a coming-of-fashion-age moment for Dua, Wintour bestowed the honour of co-host on her for the opening night – famously always on the first Monday in May – alongside Penelope Cruz, Roger Federer and Michaela Coal. For the occasion, Dua mined the 1990s Chanel archives and chose a black-and-white tweed ballgown from Lagerfeld’s autumn 1992 couture collection, which was famously worn on the runway by his muse Claudia Schiffer.
Dua called it a ‘massive dream of mine forever’ to wear the iconic piece of fashion history. ‘I reference Claudia Schiffer in this dress non-stop!’ she told Vogue as she got ready to attend the event (she would later stand beside the supermodel at the premiere of Argylle, which Schiffer’s husband directed and Dua starred in). Finessed with a 100-carat cushion-cut
this page: Claudia Schiffer in Dua’s dream dress on the Chanel runway in 1992.
opposite: Living the dream – Dua wears the Claudia Schiffer dress at the 2023 Met Gala.
The Lady Loves Leather
I’ve always been inspired by the ’90s… I like wearing baggy trousers, and blazers with slip dresses and thigh-high boots or leather jackets, and just a mixture of all those together.
’
— Dua Lipa, Harper’s Bazaar, 2017.
The one constant throughout Dua’s wardrobe is her love of leather. From her first street-style leather jackets to her 2024 Grammys performance, and her first BRITs red carpet in Alexander Wang to her three-look outing at the 2024 ceremony, it’s clear that the lady loves leather. While leather has always held a special spot in the repertoires of musicians on- and off-stage – from Elvis to Billie Eilish, the Beatles to Beyoncé – there is a niche reference that Dua’s love of leather consistently harks back to. With the ’90s ever present on her mood-board, it’s no surprise that many of her favourite silhouettes come from iconic style moments, but one in particular stands out – the black leather coat in The Matrix. The characters of Neo and Trinity, played by Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, became icons of the all-enveloping, floor-sweeping leather coat when the film dropped in 1999. With designers repeatedly referencing the look in the years since, it’s become something of a sartorial touchstone for bad-ass chic. Take the blue leather Luar coat Dua wore on the streets of New York in 2022. Or the black
this page: Pink onstage in Las Vegas, 2012. opposite: Biker girl – Dua in a leather biker jacket at the BRIT Awards afterparty in 2024.
—
Lady in Red
Red is life, passion, love. It’s the cure for
‘ ’
sadness.
Valentino Garavani, Valentino Rosso: The Legends Collection (2022).
Dua frequently sees red – not in a raging-bull sense, but in terms of her sizzling style choices. It’s a colour she’s chosen for some of her most iconic big-ticket moments, chat-show appearances and off-duty breathers. And the designer she keeps coming back to? Valentino, arguably the high-fashion designer most associated with the shade (so much so that his particular pigment, Valentino Red, is recognised by Pantone).
The year 2024 saw Dua take it up a notch, as she sported Valentino’s studded leather jacket at the pre-Grammys party, an oversized shirt for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and a sweeping gown at the 2024 BAFTAs. At the latter, Dua served the ultimate fashion reference, arriving on the red carpet complete with halterneck and long train. As a self-confessed and obsessed fan of the 1990s, it would have come as no surprise to Dua that the dress drew comparisons with Julia Roberts’ Pretty Woman gown. The original was designed by the lesser-known costume designer Marilyn Vance specifically for the 1990 film. By coincidence, Vance was nominated that year for a BAFTA for her costume design.
this page: An exhibition at the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome for Valentino’s 45th anniversary in July 2007. opposite: Dua arrives in style at the BAFTAs in London, February 2024.
‘
DUA LIPA and the clothes she wears
I feel like there are no dos and don’ts in fashion… if you like it, you can make it work.
’
Dua Lipa, Vogue, Forces of Fashion, 2022.
Dua Lipa has enjoyed a sensational rise to the peak of pop stardom. Her infectious disco-influenced hits have scored billions of plays on Spotify – yes, billions! – and her sharp style choices have turned heads across the fashion industry. In 2023, Dua’s Barbie soundtrack, her acting debut, and high-fashion collaborations won her a legion of new followers around the world. Her headlining Glastonbury set in 2024 sealed her place as one of the world’s most celebrated hitmakers and style icons. Written by journalist Scarlett Conlon, Dua Lipa and the Clothes She Wears is a must-read for Dua fans and style lovers everywhere.
