All eyes were on singer Chappell Roan at last night’s 67th Grammy Awards, after the 26-year-old pop star spent the past year dominating the charts with her smash hit album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Taking to the red carpet ahead of the show, the singer-songwriter stunned in a vintage Jean Paul Gaultier dress featuring Edgar Degas’s painting Dancer with a Bouquet (ca. 1880). That’s one way to make an Impression(ism)!
First debuted as part of the fashion house’s S/S 2003 collection, the art historical piece of couture collages parts of the painting in which a ballet dancer stands on stage and dips into a low curtsey while holding a bouquet of flowers. The gauzy fabric of her skirt blends with the dress’s own layers of frothy tulle in shades of canary yellow and eggshell blue. The same colors are applied to the bodice in bold strokes and again echoed in Roan’s typically outré eye makeup.
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Edgar Degas, Dancer with a Bouquet (c. 1880). Courtesy of the RISD Museum, Providence, RI.
Recreating the original runway styling worn by model Mariacarla Boscono, Chappell Roan’s stylist Genesis Webb paired the dress with a floppy plume of pale tulle strips on the “Pink Pony Club” singer’s head and sheer opera gloves, though this time the fingertips had been cut away to reveal a glittering gold manicure. Once inside the event, Roan had several more outfit changes, including custom Thom Browne couture, a Zana Bayne-designed costume to perform, and a ready-to-wear gray Acne Studios dress to collect her award as the year’s best new artist.
A close up of Chappell Roan’s Degas-inspired ensemble at the 67th Grammy Awards held at on February 2, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Gilbert Flores/Billboard via Getty Images.
The French Impressionist painter Degas is perhaps best known for his many studies of dancers, usually young ballerinas learning or rehearsing in the studio. These works allowed him to experiment with new angles and perspectives. For example, whereas an artist might traditionally have captured the spectacle of a performance in full swing, Degas was more drawn to moments backstage or, in this case, the moment when a show has come to an end.
In some cases, the painting’s main subject is partially obscured, for example by the fan of a nearby audience member, echoing the reality of how we see and experience our surroundings. In some cases, dancers are also suspended in poses that feel strained or unnatural, while other figures in the same are seen incongruously in a state of rest.
