Performing against a backdrop of billowing white sheets, Omar Apollo‘s “God Said No” tour — which kicked off on Tuesday with a show just a couple hours’ drive from Hobart, Indiana, where the artist grew up — echoes the album’s romantic, vulnerable energy. The same goes for his on-stage wardrobe, which stylist Brandon Tan says is meant to “convey a mood of divinity.”
“The show feels like an expression of the album, a personification of it,” he says. “The wardrobe was really about belonging in that on-stage space we built.”
Rather than focusing on statement pieces that made fashion the center of attention, Tan wanted Apollo’s looks to channel a “humble elegance,” as if in conversation with the sometimes heartbroken, sometimes gleeful music. “We stripped it back a lot because I didn’t want the wardrobe to get distracting and take away from what all these other creative stakeholders have contributed,” he says. “It’s like a symphony, and all the chords have to play in their respective tunes.”
Photo: Kyle Mickelson/Courtesy of Open Door Management
Apollo’s on-stage style is all about flowyness, radiance and softness, which altogether brings that divine feeling to life. He wears cargo pants with straps to help trace the movement of his dancing silhouette, sparkly and incandescent Loewe garments that emit an angelic aura and three-dimensionally-printed chest plates that sculpt and sensualize the body. There are still some special, bombastic pieces, like a massive fur coat by Okane, which envelops the 6’5″ singer, and that fans will recognize as the same one he wore on the cover of the album. (It’s a moment that, according to Tan, almost didn’t happen at all: “I vividly remember leaving for the airport and was so close to leaving it at home. But I was like, ‘you know what? Let me bring it, and let’s see.'”)
The singer — who Tan emphasizes is a dedicated shopper, constantly sending archival references on Instagram and posts from Vogue Runway — performs in some of his favorite brands, like Maison Margiela, Barragán, Ann Demeulemeester and Willy Chavarria. The latter is also behind the tour’s custom merch: “Obviously, designers can develop custom looks for the artists, but for us to work with a designer to offer something to the fans is really special,” Tan says, proudly.
Photo: Kyle Mickelson/Courtesy of Open Door Management
The “God Says No” tour marks the first time Apollo performs on stage with dancers, which meant Tan wasn’t styling only the headliner. He tasked Entire Studios with creating draped pieces for the background performers that further evoked the image of divinity.
“This show is so special – not only for Omar and what he’s done in the past – but it’s different, period,” he says. “Everyone really came into it, whether it’s Keone Madrid, the incredible choreographer; the production company that did the set design and lighting; the dancers. Everything communicates to create this world for the audience.”
The “God Said No” wardrobe didn’t fully come together until the very last minute. Tan recalls it feeling “like ‘Project Runway’ during dress rehearsals, as pieces would arrive just in time. The fashion surprises aren’t done just yet: He teases some custom looks that audiences won’t get to see until some later dates. But Tan emphasizes that there’s a through line for everything Apollo wears.
Photo: Kyle Mickelson/Courtesy of Open Door Management
“What I put him in will inform how he moves on stage and how the production company designs the lights will inform how it picks up on the outfit,” he says. “Everything is really, really connected, and it doesn’t always have to be that way, but we’re all operating in such a detailed way because it all matters.”
Apollo was Tan’s first client. Back in 2018, his manager reached out saying that they needed “some drip,” he remembers: “I’ll never forget he used those words. I laugh now looking back at it, and obviously I was really excited. We went shopping at this store in the Lower East Side, that has since closed called, I Need More. The owner, Jimmy Webb, was a legend in the rock and roll and the Lower East Side scene.” Their inaugural outfit? A sparkly-lapel suit jacket for his first show in New York City, at the Bowery Ballroom.
Since then, Apollo and Tan have built a stylist-client relationship that often centers storytelling, be it in a music video or on a red carpet. The artist has “opened up a lot” over the years in how he expresses himself through his wardrobe, which the industry has picked up on (see: Apollo’s front-row spot at Loewe, Highsnobiety‘s commentary on his increasingly queer-coded ensembles).
Tan is excited to see which looks resonate most with the “God Says No” audience. After all, he says, “we want to gag the girls!”
Photo: Kyle Mickelson/Courtesy of Open Door Management
“I was sitting down with Omar earlier watching the dancers rehearse. He was like, ‘Yeah, this album was really meant to be performed and to be alive.’ He created it with that kind of vision. It’s not just a body of work sonically,” Tan says. “I feel like the tour personifies his body of work period and where he’s at currently as an artist, not just with ‘God Said No,’ but his career, artistry, humanity and manhood.”
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Source: Fashionista.com
