Turner reached out to Chris Habana, “a damn legend,” to borrow an original mask from the film that Grimes will wear, and the rest of the details are still up in the air when we’re chatting. “I always say that anything with Grimes is subject to change at the last minute, so we may have a revelation at the 11th hour,” Turner admits. The one guarantee is Iris van Herpen’s custom “Bene Gesserit” gown, which van Herpen describes as “inspired by distant futures,” and spent over 900 hours perfecting. Swooshy, curvy, and extended-lightning-bolt shapes made from mirror-finish liquid silicone were individually hand-cast and arranged in a 3-D “laser-cut labyrinth” onto a nude illusion bodice that melts into 26 meters of gradient-dyed, hand-pleated silk.
“Iris has been one of our favorites. I just feel a kinship to women behind the computer,” says Grimes. “She is a technologist, you know? And I feel like she’s always been on another level. Like, to me she’s kind of got an argument for being the current era McQueen or something, she’s pushing the boundaries in a way that I don’t know if anyone is actually competing with her? We had offers to go with bigger people, but… the first thing she sent through, we were like, this is fucking fire.”
That instinct to gravitate toward artists who choose ideas over mass appeal is one that Grimes and Turner have shared for a long time. The pair started working together almost a decade ago, and have a mind meld now. “When I met her, she was dressing herself. She always calls the shots, and I have grown with her aesthetic—it’s instinctual for me,” says Turner as she fluffs the dress near a window. A former accessories editor for the New York Times and Jane magazine, she was groomed to care about details, and does her best to support other hard-working artists. She and Grimes have “an affection for them, especially young ones who are coming up.” Evidence is all around the room. Custom Lillian Shalom cyber metal elven ears sit in a bed of moss on the nightstand, a Forbidden Knowledge dress (an after party option) is draped over a wardrobe door, metallic Brandon Blackwood and woven mesh Natalia Fedner bags perch on a sill.
Courtesy of Iris van Herpen
Courtesy of Iris van Herpen
For shoes, they’re still deciding what will have enough ankle support. Rombaut’s custom boots aren’t tall enough for the dress, after all, and Turner sourced a pair of lavender lace-up 2017 Marc Jacobs platforms (named “Boucher,” Grimes’s family name) from the personal collection of Pechuga Vintage’s Johnny Valencia, just in case. It’s likely that the strappy heels by Paris Texas (that Turner’s intern painted with silver markers) will win in the end. “I’m just slightly worried about height,” Grimes says. Also, the weight of that sword. “It’s not a prop sword, I tried to pick it up and this is not really a one-handed situation,” she laughs. I reach out and touch the blade, which isn’t necessarily sharp, and certainly less dangerous than the materials from which it was forged. “The sword is based on a western European sword from the end of the Middle Ages around 1400,” Grimes reads aloud from a note on her phone. “…is a permanent piece of the Met’s collection, and the sword is also cast from a Colt AR-15A3,” she looks up. “It’s from these people who are getting people’s [guns] who don’t want to have their automatic rifles anymore, and are melting them down and making them perfect replicas of medieval swords, which I think is just so cool—I think it’s a beautiful thing.”
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