Fashion designer Gunnar Deatherage explains what went into his custom creation.
Chappell Roan is a bonafide femininomenon. If you didn't spend the past few months riding the girl pop wave, bopping along to "Hot to Go!" and romanticizing your life to "Red Wine Supernova," what were you even doing?
The pop star became an instant icon with hit after hit this summer (both old and new, thanks to the meteoric rise of her 2022 single "Pink Pony Club"), and her Coachella performance broke the internet, drawing one of the biggest crowds in recent memory for a relative newcomer.
Roan is like if Boy George and Cyndi Lauper had a baby—only cooler. And much like those ’80s pop idols, her look is no less revolutionary. She nails the internet’s Hollywood Hair Theory with an instantly recognizable crown of auburn curls and pushes the boundaries of makeup with her signature vaudeville mask and intentionally lipstick-stained teeth. But it’s her intricate and theatrical costumes, which reference everything from historical garb to folklore and fantasy, that make her the style icon of the TikTok age.
One of her most memorable looks so far—a psychedelic swan lake confection for a Jimmy Fallon Tonight Show set—was courtesy of fashion designer Gunnar Deatherage. And now, that dream team has collaborated on another career-making moment for Saturday Night Live.
Deatherage worked with Roan’s stylist, Genesis Webb, to create a look inspired by the famous Casino De Paris music hall, the home of the city’s greatest dancers, musicians, and artists, including Josephine Baker during the Jazz Age.
"There were these gorgeous photos of dancers from the Casino De Paris from 1915 that almost felt like paintings," says Deatherage of the inspiration. "The color palettes were complex, the shapes were unique and imaginative, and it was all very flashy in an old-world kind of way, so we decided to combine elements from a few of those photos, and then I added in some of my own ideas that felt complimentary to the concept."
The resulting ensemble mixes old and new, pairing a historically faithful emerald dance costume with an exaggerated hat that can only described as Napoleonic and dragon wings. Deatherage says this is "by far" the most time he's spent on a garment, and the overall look took over 500 hours and a full month to come to life.
"The dragonfly wings were sculpted from layers of thick foam, and then sewn together and mounted to a hand-painted leather belt and embellished with over a thousand chartreuse crystals," says the designer. "The garland around her waist has hand-pressed vintage brass figures to draw inspiration back to the vintage circus feeling with small lions, masquerade faces, and elephants adorning the gold braided trim." Even her socks were custom made of "hand dyed wool, that was pieced together to create the striped motif, and we added a glass beaded trim to the top of the sock as well," says Deatherage.
An instant camp classic, the singer's over-the-top headpiece was a labor of love. "It was something both Chappell and Genesis wanted for the performance, so we found a way to bring it to life," says Deatherage. "My partner, Christopher Minafo, actually created the hat for me. We often collaborate on looks and like to create together in the same space," he adds. "The hat saw many iterations before landing on the final look, but we love it in all of its lampshade/Napoleon glory!"
It's not hard to see why Roan and her stylist tapped Deatherage for the ambitious project. The fashion designer, who cut his teeth on Project Runway and Project Runway Allstars, has an aesthetic that draws on theatricality, cinema, and the history of costuming—something any Chappell Roan fan will recognize in her performance wear. However, her francophile SNL promo look was originally custom-made for a performance, but in its grandiose final form, the team decided it was better for a "stationary moment rather than jumping around on stage," according to Deatherage.
Though Deatherage's design partnership with the pop star and her stylist is grounded in physicality, it all started with a DM. "I first became aware of Chappell from her Coachella set and I loved that costume and attitude so much that I reached out to her stylist Genesis, who I was already following, and let her know that I wanted to collaborate," he says. "There was a theatricality to Chappell that I hadn’t seen in a long time and an inertia that I knew I had to be a part of."
This Flapper Era creation is only the second in what will no doubt be a long-time collaboration between the fashion designer and Genesis. "We have an incredible working relationship, and I think she has impeccable taste. It’s yet to happen that she comes to me with a moodboard that I’m not swooning over," he adds.
"When we first began working together, she said that they liked working with designers and embracing the things they were excited about, and my experience has been exactly that!"