Britney Spears, once just as known for her sporting of irreverent word tees and Von Dutch trucker hats as she was for shaving her head and frequenting gas stations sans footwear, has perhaps, at last, achieved what’s known as sartorial legitimacy thanks to landing a recent ad campaign with Kenzo, the luxury fashion house founded in 1970. Yet, in this particular instance, the brand is celebrating the debut of Kenzo Jeans in 1986 (sort of like the more approachable little brother to the line–e.g. Versus with Versace).
Spears, no stranger to revisiting the styles of the 80s (you probably forgot about the “Pretty Girls” video, as we’ve all tried to), was eager to oblige creative directors Carol Lim and Humberto Leon in servicing the nostalgic motif of Kenzo’s Spring 2018 campaign, La Collection Memento No. 2, heavy on the loud prints and seemingly nonsensical pairings of the decade of excess. And though Spears was but a child in the 1980s, the effect it had on her own sensibilities would appear to be long-lasting (Madonna obsession included). As she commented, “I mean, ugly was the way to go in the 80s, it was all just completely obnoxious—but there was also something so refreshing about that and the fact that we didn’t care what anyone thought about our clothes.”
That being said, the pieces from the collection sported by Spears consist of thigh-high lace-up boots, a cropped denim jacket and a vibrant allover printed crop top, pants, jacket and baseball cap. Not exactly the “Borderline” video, but in terms of haute couture, it delivers while also remaining playful in a way that has become signature of Spears, still just a self-billed nerd at heart. While most still have memories of Spears as the provocateur in iconic ensembles like the “…Baby One More Time” schoolgirl uniform, the “Oops!…I Did It Again” catsuit and the sequined, flesh-colored “piece” from “Toxic,” the princesa of pop is ultimately modesta at heart, remarking of her very pubic photoshoot, “We had fun on set, even though it was a bit weird for me at first. I am used to shooting in a studio or a small space, and this was on the street. We were out there and I had really promiscuous clothes on, which felt odd, but, of course, on film it turned out to be really cool.”
While mainly a fashion trailblazer in terms of being sexually scandalous and a part of that sect of mid-00s party girls responsible for elevating Christian Audigier to a new, almost god-like level, Spears is admittedly not much for experimentation, noting, “There is something very courageous about the younger generation just wearing whatever they want all the time, but I don’t know if I could do it at this point. I think I would go and hide under a rug or something, because I’ve been dressing a certain way the past fifteen years and I wouldn’t know how to react to a big change.”
But maybe it’s already a big enough change for her to be asked to participate in a campaign such as this, at last metaphorically plucked from the trash of her past clothing choices and given a chance to prove that a Southern girl can bring her vestiary A-game when you least expect it, even if it so happens to be on the streets of Los Angeles, a hub of urban and human decay, and the very city in which Spears lost her mind. And even though it’s nice to see her being recognized in the fashion world for once, one can’t help but slightly miss the version of Spears that was all too happy to be photographed in this:
