Whetheryoulike
themornot,Celine
Dion’siconiclooks
demandattention.
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MUSEUM/VOGUE(METGALA);AP(ACADEMYAWARDS);REUTERS(VALENTINO).P8| PURSUITS O THEGLOBEANDMAIL| SATURDAY,OCTOBER19,2019T
wenty years ago, Celine Dion gamely
wore a louche white tuxedo backward
to the Academy Awards. The outfit
from Dior by John Galliano, topped off
with a cocked fedora and diamond-studded
Ray-Ban sunglasses, landed Dion on worst-
dressed lists. But fashion is fickle. That look is
now considered one of the great red-carpet
moments of the Oscars. It helps that Dion has
emerged on the world stage as a chameleon
of daring and inventive fashion.
Dionaissance, Celinaissance – there are
varying portmanteaus for the attention lav-
ished on the singer since 2016 when, in the
wake of husband René Angélil’s death, Dion
began attending Paris haute couture shows
in person. The short distance from her hotel’s
front door to her car became a catwalk, and
the world sat up and paid attention as her
every street-style look made headlines and
she was featured in Vogue. This September,
Dion was named to Vanity Fair’s best-dressed
list for the first time.
Now 51, the mother of three has recently
graced the cover of Harper’s Bazaar Icons is-
sue, Elle Canada and CR Fashion Book, for-
mer Paris Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld’s cov-
eted magazine. Her now-famous legs dom-
inated CR’s September issue, with a low-an-
gle photograph that peers up from below the
singer’s Saint Laurent tutu. In the accompa-
nying interview, Dion admits what we al-
ready know: She’s crazy about clothes.
After more than 200 million albums sold,
16 years in Las Vegas and countless costume
changes, the Canadian superstar is hitting
the road withCourage, her forthcoming al-
bum and her first large-scale world tour in
more than a decade. Between rehearsals in
Montreal on the eve of the tour kickoff, she
sat down with The Globe and Mail to talk
about her fashion evolution.ADEDICATEDFOLLOWEROFFASHION
“Fashion is playing a big role in my life – al-
ways did. But at the beginning of my career,
we kind of kept it prettyminimaliste,” Dion
recalls, gesturing to her Burberry silk blouse,
decorated with dancing unicorns, as though
it were the high Victorian neckline of her
early homemade dresses. “Like up to here,”
she shows, “not taking so many chances.”
She started performing professionally at the
age of 12. “I have 13 siblings, and I was the last.
I wore all their clothes,” Dion once told Van-
ity Fair.”My mom didn’t have money to buy
it, so she made the clothes.”THEBREAKOUT
“Bien dans ma peau,” – comfortable in my
skin – that’s the refrain from her 1987 hitIn-
cognito. That album and its TV special were
watershed moments that first revealed
Dion’s style prowess to the world. Overnight,
fashion helped change her image from
young teen prodigy in modest ruffles to
poised, full-fledged pop singer. The new Dion
strutted around Europe in a custom war-
drobe by Montreal designer Michel Robidas.
“We were choosing fabric, and I was telling
him what I was seeing myself in and was
helping him to draw, and we did it together,”
she says. “I think that was courageous,” Dion
recalls of her 18-year-old self’s confident
taste.FEWFASHIONREGRETS
Dion says she’ll be browsing the internet and
even when she’s not looking for it, a style tid-
bit from her past will pop up. “So sometimes
I’m like ‘What isthat?’ I press on it and I’m
like ‘Oh my god!’ And that was like a TV spe-
cial,Incognito, when I was in pointy patent
leather, fishnets, heels, with dancers like
James Bond in the back,” she laughs. For the
record, that long-ago zip-front, black-patent,
cone-bra bodysuit would fit right in with her
current wardrobe of sculpted maillots. “And
I’m like, ‘Oh girl you go!’ Because if at 51 I
have legs, well at 22, I hadlegs.”SHEKEEPSEVERYTHING
Marie Kondo, who? Her fashion archive(think: warehouse) dates back to her early ca-
reer – from those first singing-contest outfits
to the recent edgy looks, and the years of styl-
ish red carpet and performance costumes in
between. “If I wore it once, I might not wear it
again, or I’ll let time pass before I wear it
again,” Dion says. She still has, for example,
the ivory tuxedo dress with embroidered lace
miniskirt from her 1988 Eurovision win. The
vast archive includes both everyday clothing
and special pieces. “Pretty much all designers.
I do have pieces by people who have passed
away” – Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld,
Azzedine Alaïa – “that I cherish a lot.”SHELOVESATOTALMAKEOVER
“I love dressing up and I love characters,”
Dion says, “and I didn’t have big self-esteem.”
She speaks fondly of the late makeup artist
Kevyn Aucoin, who famously portrayed her
as Maria Callas in his 1997 book,Making Faces.
“I didn’t really like myself so, when he was
transforming me, I loved that, and I was en-
couraging him to change me as much as he
wanted to. I never had to look in the mirror
because that was how much I trusted him and
how much I wanted to be surprised.”SHEDOESN’TCAREWHATYOUTHINK
Whether it’s a Neoprene graffiti leotard and
an oversized blazer by Off-White or a dress by
conceptual designer Iris van Herpen that
looks like an optical illusion of undulating
soundwaves, Dion’s street style has been po-
larizing. The same is to be expected for her
tour wardrobe. “It’s going to be amazing; it’s
going to be fierce; it’s going to be strong,”
Dion says of the Courage tour looks. Expect
moreoutréchoices than even the stylish
haute couture stage costumes of her Las Ve-
gas years. “It’s not going to be like, ‘Oh, we’re
not going to take a chance; well, that’s not a
crowd pleaser.’ I’m not going there. First of all,
I’ve heard that a lot. ‘Well, this is definitely not
a crowd pleaser.’ Um, I don’t care.”FASHIONISPERFORMANCE
The thrill of attending Paris couture is still a
novelty. “I’ve looked at fashion through com-
puters but to attend fashion shows, it’s like
it’s breathtaking!” For one thing, at a runway
show, Dion gets to be a spectator for a change.
“And as well, it strikes you much more power-
fully. The power that it does, like the charac-
ters that [models] play by walking. I feel that,
because I’m an artist and when I’m on stage
and when I sing a song, what I wear helps me
to deliver the song a certain way or another.”THEOSCARSOFFASHION
Her recent style has stolen the show at the
Met Gala – twice. First in 2017, in an avant-
garde Atelier Versace dress (“There are no dos
or don’ts,” she said at the time) and again at
this year’s camp-themed gala. Her headpiece
and glimmering Oscar de la Renta bodysuit,
inspired by Judy Garland’s fringed showgirl
outfit inZiegfeld Girl, won the red carpet,
hands down.GOINGPUBLIC
Dion says she’s always loved fashion but now,
working with stylists Pepe Munoz and Sydney
Lopez, she wants to use it more. “When you
wear an haute couture gown or a bomber
jacket or jeans or flat shoes or heels ... if it is
something very sexy or something very ele-
gant, I will walk differently; my demeanour
will be different. I will sing differently as well,”
Dion says.ITTAKESAVILLAGE
Dion is quick to lavish praise on Munoz and
Lopez. “I have to pay credit a lot to my stylists
that are educating me as well,” she says.
They’re introducing her to new and interest-
ing emerging talents – stay tuned for a red La-
tex gown by Dead Lotus – and in some in-
stances, knowing when less is more. “I want
to buy everything from everybody,” is what
Dion admits is her first instinct. “But they are
trying to calm me down!”SpecialtoTheGlobeandMailÀ LA MODE
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