Madonna is spilling a lot of daring truths in the November issue of Harper’s Bazaar, and looking fierce doing it. “I did all the opposite of what all the other girls were doing,” she writes. “I dared people to like me and my nonconformity.” Well, now all the other girls are fans of barely-there fashion (ahem, Miley) but Madonna did it first, in the biggest way.
In light of her most honest revelations, clothes may seem a bit inconsequential, and that’s probably why the Material Girl chose not to wear many. What she does sport is warrior provocateur: swords and capes over runway looks from Lanvin and Altuzzara, some Zana Bayne harnesses and a pair of Diego Dolcini boots elevated by shiny black panthers — all of it modern yet singing the same song of the Jean Paul Gaultier conical-bra days: I am woman, I own my sex. Preach on sister, preach on.
While Madonna deserves a roaring round of applause for keeping her body in shape (look at that bum!), we wish the mother of reinvention had gone for a slightly less literal conception of “daring.” Leather, lingerie, bondage and the baroque — sexy, yes, but we’ve seen it and been beaten to death by it in fashion magazines.
In the age of the Internet, see-though panties are hardly the bold proposition they were in ’93. Of course, your bra is showing, of course Terry Richardson (who directed Miley’s “Wrecking Ball” video) is behind the camera.
A complete coverup recalling the “Frozen” era (black hair and avant garde dresses, circa ’98, ’99) would have been brassy — monks are pretty hot right now — or perhaps an ode to an inspirational artist. “I would put myself together and look at a postcard of Frida Kahlo taped to my wall, and the sight of her moustache consoled me,” the singer told Harper’s Bazaar about one such influence. “Because she was an artist who didn’t care what people thought.”
Minor qualms aside, it’s fair to assert that Madonna looks good and might become the sexiest senior citizen on the planet. At 55, the pop empress should soon be cashing in on cheaper tickets to the movies. Instead, she makes them, in case you missed that documentary titled — what else? — “Truth or Dare.”