The Tamesis
The pop star collaborated with her close friend Anna Fleische to create the show’s retro West End vibe, as well as her setlist flow. (Come for her single “West End Girl,” and stay for “Madeline” and “Pussy Palace.”) “I did two West End plays in London last summer and one in Bath, and all of those set designs were executed by Anna,” Allen says. “We are rehearsing Hedda in Bath when I asked her to think about how to bring this album to life in a dramatic way. I think what she does is just genius. “
Is it the same as a genius? The glamorous fashions Ellen wore on stage were styled by legendary stylist Mel Ottenberg, who has worked with the likes of Rihanna and is the current editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine. interview. “I asked Mel if he would come out and do this tour with me, and to my delight, he said yes,” Allen said. “Mel’s idea was for me to go on a journey: I started off very high energy, but for the record, everything got ruined – and then we pieced me back together again.”
For Ortenberg, the tour attire is about cultivating a fashionable vibe that echoes the show’s themes of pain and heartbreak. The aim is to tell stories through clothing. “The challenge was to help Lily tell her brutal story of heartbreak and loss through styling and to make her feel excited about it,” he said. “I wanted to start with something really fun and mellow – almost manic in its happiness, and then quickly move to something raw, naked and vulnerable as her life falls apart.”
For example, in her first look, Ellen wore a custom Valentino suit, sheer slip and platform heels, paired with Araks lingerie. He wanted her to look and feel exposed. “There’s a scene in there Japanese and American Catherine Deneuve was in a trance, taking off her dress, taking off her petticoat, and then quickly putting on a gown, and that was the vibe I wanted to convey,” Ortenberg said. “I also watched a lot of early 1930s films on Criterion, and there were a lot of notes on the way lingerie moved and flowed on stage.
Photo: Christina Bryson
