On Sunday at Paris Fashion Week, one of this season’s most hotly anticipated menswear shows finally made its debut—the first collection by the Japanese streetwear legend Nigo at Kenzo. There on the front row to witness it was Shygirl, the London-based musician and rapper behind some of the catchiest (and freakiest) alternative pop of the past few years, part of a coterie of musicians—Kanye West, Pharrell, Gunna, and Tyler, the Creator among them—who were invited by Nigo to kick off the new era of the brand. “I feel like the people who were on the front row said a lot about where Kenzo is going,” she says the day after the show. “But I was really excited because I haven’t been to a show in Paris since before COVID!”
If anyone knows where the sweet spot between music and style can be found, after all, it’s Shygirl, whose visuals have proven to be just as playfully agenda-setting as her sound. Along the way, she’s firmly caught the attention of the fashion industry, soundtracking Casey Cadwallader’s shows for Mugler (and regularly wearing his designs), appearing in a campaign for the cult London brand KNWLS, and, perhaps most notably, collaborating with Riccardo Tisci on both his fall 2021 presentation for Burberry last year and the launch of their Olympia bag. “There’s such a close relationship between music and fashion, and both groups of people inspire each other, so there’s always a really great symbiosis there,” she explains.
The Kenzo show this weekend, however, served as an opportunity for Shygirl to try out a new mode of dressing she’s exploring for her next era. “I’m kind of changing the direction of my styling, going for a bit more of a relaxed, kind of grunge-inspired look, which I feel is probably closer to how I used to dress when I was younger,” she says. “There’s a comfort in it, but it’s also bringing in new styling tricks I’ve learned along the way—it’s where glam meets grunge, that ’90s vibe.” It turned out the styling team at Kenzo had thoughts along the same lines, presenting her with flowing, hooded dresses in a grey plaid and thigh-high leather boots that couldn’t be more grunge—or glamorous—if they tried. “The print that Kenzo was working with just happened to fit exactly what I was feeling,” she continues. “I wanted it to be effortless, and it’s nice that they saw that for me too. There’s a real synergy there.”
Here, Shygirl takes us behind the scenes of her whirlwind day in Paris attending the Kenzo show—from last-minute nail art to rubbing shoulders with her peers on the front row.
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