Are Freaky Tutus the Next Frontier of Coquette?
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Since 1832, tutus have typically been worn by female ballet dancers. But in 2024, a tutu can suddenly become the signature look of a pop star who sings about drinking Diet Pepsi in the back of some hot guy’s car.
Shortly after releasing her single Diet Pepsi, Addison Rae attended the VMAs in a custom tutu look by tutu enthusiast Miss Claire Sullivan, who is known to wear hers styled with hoodies and puffer jackets on the streets of New York and Paris. It was perfect because it was weird. The bra top had padded cushions that jetted out the sides with feathers arching upwards. The tutu component was attached to the back of a high-waisted panty, its transparent white layered fabric mimicking the fanning out of an avian tail. Rae looked like a girl midway through metamorphosing into a swan.
Tutus are dainty, diaphanous, and refined. If anything, they are a symbol of peak femininity. They’ve come to represent the kind of perfect proportions and beauty ballet dancers are known to embody. To wear a tutu is to be a woman worthy of a pedestal, like a tender glass-encased Degas at the Louvre.
But Rae’s tutu, and the series of funky iterations that would follow this fashion month—from Simone Rocha and JW Anderson in London to Vaquera and Loewe in Paris—were downright freaky. They were offbeat in a way that doesn’t feel entirely aligned with the over-the-top girliness of this past summer’s girlhood obsession. Bows feel tame in comparison.
On JW Anderson’s runway, the tutus were harsh. They were rendered in leather and looked drawn onto the models, with exaggerated sharp curves that jetted out and revealed almost the entirety of their legs. At Simone Rocha, some models wore tutus with the fabric of their rosy pink blazers dripping over the side, arms held tight to the chest like they were clutching everything in place. Others had theirs styled with bright nylon jackets and knee-high knit socks embroidered with shimmering jewels. My favorite was worn by a model who held her hands as one does for a prayer hovering over her belly button, with a hoodie featuring cut-outs that let the bra underneath show.
In Paris, Vaquera’s tutu was ruched and satiny like a bubble skirt that had been crushed. It fell across the hips like a beret sitting on a head, tilted just so. It was worn with a white tee with ribbed bra cups and a fur stool draped around the shoulders. The look was seen on the town the next day, worn by Rosalía on her birthday. Meanwhile, at Loewe, Jonathan Anderson didn’t necessarily show tutus the way he did for his namesake brand, but plenty of the dresses he sent down the runway had a vaguely tutu-esque silhouette and shape.
Freaky tutus are very much happening, but it doesn’t just feel like a continuation of coquette. It’s a bit of a derivation; you can’t tie it up in a little bow. It’s easier to ruffle. It feels like we’ve overdone straightforward girly and have moved onto something a little harder to understand. It comes right after Brat summer, where Charli XCX helped usher in a messier aesthetic that was still womanly but with an edge.
It’s also, almost, a bit ridiculous, like something borrowed from a child’s closet, torn up, and supersized for an adult who only plays dress up to go out at the club (or if you’re Addison Rae, go on stage at the Madison Square Garden show with Charli XCX and Troye Sivan). Weird tutus are for the girls who wear bows, but who wanna twist the convention that leaning into a more feminine look makes them delicate. It’s like they’re living out a childhood ballerina dream while also laughing at the whole thing. Most of us don’t grow up to become something we’ve idolized for years, but we can embrace small bits of it that we can twist to fit into our reality. We can pose with swaths of transparent swanlike layers on our hips and a hard stance maybe a ballerina wouldn't approve of.
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