‘How Can We Make It Campier?’
Dressing rising pop star Chappell Roan is about making the impossible happen without getting in trouble.
The first time Genesis Webb met Chappell Roan, at a 2023 V magazine shoot, they clicked immediately.
“We both have a trashy, less defined sense of fashion than high fashion,” says Webb, the 26-year-old stylist for the rising pop singer. “When I was dressing her, we immediately went into this mode of, ‘Eh, who cares about the label and politics. I just want you to look sick.’”
Both midwest-born L.A. transplants, Webb and Roan connected over their love of drag, a penchant for thrifting, and their interest in a “sharp meets soft” aesthetic. Since that first meetup, Webb has styled 50 looks and counting for Roan as she’s gone from singing her yodel-inflected pop songs in small rooms to scene-stealing sets at Coachella. Now, you’d be hard-pressed to find a festival crowd — famously full of half-fans! — that doesn’t know how to arm-spell “Hot to Go!”
Roan’s onstage showmanship is powered in part by Webb’s curated stage outfits, which amplify the camp and never shirk on theme. The singer also incorporates elements of drag: white face paint, heavy makeup, giant red hair. “I love burlesque outfits because they’re so dramatic and pretty and sparkly and intricate,” she told Vulture in 2023.
Adds Webb, about her and Roan’s ongoing collaboration, “All of the things that ended up being a mistake end up working. It’s why I love being a stylist, especially someone who doesn’t just do full looks from the runway. We start with a theme and then go, ‘Okay, how can we make it campier, bigger?’” And as far as working within a budget, she quips, “The only thing I think about is how to make the impossible happen without getting in trouble.”
Ahead, Webb details five of her seemingly impossible Chappell Roan looks.
The Prosthetic Nose
UMG Grammy Awards After-party +
“Good Luck, Babe!” Cover Art
The Backstory
I make mood boards for all of our projects together. It details the overall styling vibe, but also makeup and hair. Chappell makes Pinterest boards for me to get overall feelings of what she wants. We’re just putting ideas we like into one tangible look.
The mood board for this had Gummo and Chris Cunningham visuals, but also screen grabs from The Tales of Hoffmann. I feel like I’d had that headpiece on a mood board for a while. For the prosthetic nose, we were grappling with a lot of different ideas. She was like, “Let’s do Penelope.” I don’t know if it’s my secret to tell why she chose it. That one felt right for a variety of reasons.
These Boots Are Made for Rocking
We started the look with the idea that we would use prosthetics, and we both liked the silhouettes of early-aughts Galliano and ’90s Mugler. But she wanted to make it not serious. There’s that idea of a red carpet that we both kind of reject: Yes, make it pretty in design, but let’s not be boring.
I really liked this dress. It was in green and we switched it to red, and then I found these Dior 2002 Galliano boots. They weren’t really in her size; we used a rock to stretch them for days, and I was like, “You have to wear these. I don’t care what we have to do.”
The Necklace Lesson
I didn’t anticipate that look being used for “Good Luck Babe.” It wasn’t planned. The Grammys look just didn’t get its full moment, and it was the first time we really went big, so she wanted it to be seen again, and now it’s on a billboard in Times Square. I just wish I wouldn’t have used the necklace. That necklace haunts me. It just doesn’t fit. It should’ve been something else. When you look at something for so long after it’s done, you find the errors. If we were to do it now, the train would also be ten feet long and the headpiece would be ten feet high.
The Poor Things Corset
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
The Backstory
This was the first one we had actual budget for. Also, I was like, Okay, it’s TV. I just knew she had to be covered, and there could be no costume mishaps.
I’d just watched Poor Things. I saw it in theaters three times, and in the brothel scene, all of the girls come out and they’re very stylized in these lingerie-looking outfits. Chappell said she loved it too. We always run through everything together; I send her pictures of things in real time. We dabbled with a lot of things together on how to approach Colbert, because it was Valentine’s Day so that was always her want — to have everything be in those color tones and for it to be more romantic.
Sourcing a Corset
I went to Palace, an appointment-only costume shop in L.A. They just have so many amazing antique corsets, and these things are legitimately from — I mean, Chappell’s is probably from 1910. It’s all antique styling. The petticoat is the only thing that we bought new, just to give some sort of shape. But I love that it’s visible and not underneath. It really matched this set that was made. The bottoms probably are from the 1930s. They match the gloves.
And then we got the custom bows made from this girl in Mexico via her store, Moños de mi Niñez. They’re so pretty. And then the boots are Betsey Johnson. We love her.
We had a fitting before we left. It was the first time that I had traveled for a job. Figuring out how to take care of these antique pieces in a suitcase, I was like, What is happening? I just said a little prayer, checked the bag, and hoped for the best.
The ’80s Prom Dress
NPR Tiny Desk
The Backstory
The NPR Tiny Desk look was changed the day before we left because that dress made more sense than the initial one I considered. I just wanted to do Betsey Johnson prom, essentially, for the whole band — seven people, including back vocals — and for her. From 2010 to 2013, Betsey had a chokehold on teen prom dresses. She was able to take the ’80s prom dress and update it to make it more modern. It was really just an homage to that, and I think that modern ’80s take works really well with Chappell. People were saying she resembled drag queen Lil Poundcake, which it looks exactly like. I wanted to do Lil Poundcake for Halloween in 2020, so that was clearly in the depths of my mind.
Smoking, But Make It Fashion
She really wanted to do giant hair, and so I was like, “Okay, let’s do a little trailer-trash cigarette moment; let’s add the classic Chappell crown.” I wanted it to be very her so that when people saw it, it still fit in that iconography but also just pushed a little bit more. The cigarettes in the hair are my favorite part. To make them, I woke up at 6 a.m. and I went outside the hotel, and I had a pack of Marlboro Reds. I was just standing there like a crazy person lighting the cigarettes and then putting my lips on them while everyone was going to work and looking at me like, Who is this?
The “Eat Me” Tee
Coachella 2024
The Backstory
For Coachella, I wanted to do something a little bit more graphic. I love the photo of Paris Hilton in the bikini where she has the “Eat the Rich” shirt on; that’s one of my favorite photos ever. I was with my friend Hunter Clem, who’s also a stylist. I was just like, Okay, it’s Coachella. Everyone’s rich. That’s hilarious to me. Maybe the band has “Eat the Rich”; what should Chappell have? And literally in sync, we said, “Eat Me.” It was just funny. It was truly not a statement at all — literally having fun. I think it’s very tongue in cheek. Everything we do, I ask myself, “Can this be on Drag Race?”
Vivienne Westwood was our whole mood board for everything. This is Zana Bayne leather, and she’s a leather legend. She’s dressed everyone. Lady Gaga. And then the latex is Busted and we had him do custom. The necklace was borrowed from Violet Chachki … I think the bracelet was also.
Desert-Festival Chic
We also did our first costume change, which we’ve never done before, and I was terrified. And it worked. I was sweating. I was scared. She had a suit on and then we took that off, but the scary part was that we had to take off the full shoe and then put the shoe back on in 27 seconds. We practiced twice. It was not that much time. It was fine and it went good, but it’s just the little things: Her hair was really long and big, so not getting that caught. I was just scared of her missing her cue.
The Impossible Butterfly
Coachella 2024
The Backstory
I love bringing to light old icons. This is a Lady Miss Kier costume homage, and I can literally find about four photos online of it. I was just like, “This is the most beautiful and iconic show outfit I’ve ever seen, and we have to do it.” Lady Miss Kier is one of the sickest club-kid affiliate people and women out there, and also does a lot for the community, just like Chappell.
Coachella, Not “Coachella”
Sammy from Jackalope Land is who made it, and she did an impeccable job. I was a little afraid of it going a little too festival-y — I don’t like things to be too on the nose, so if we’re doing Coachella and the outfit doesn’t read “club kid” but instead reads “modern festival,” it would defeat the purpose of the entire idea. I didn’t want it to look like I was dressing her to go to Coachella.
Don’t Destroy the Wings
The wings were five-by-five, and they don’t fold, and getting them anywhere is impossible. I had them in my room laid out on the floor for three months. The whole time I’m thinking about Coachella, like, How am I going to get these on a golf cart? It was just me carrying around five-foot wings in a sheet.
I don’t think they were that hard to wear. She had angel wings for her last tour, and she said those were way worse and way smaller. I think this waistband here really helps. The butterfly wings are really heavy, so after a few songs, she couldn’t jump around as much as she normally does. And also they’re so big that you can just hit things by accident. It was truly not a glamourous experience. But I loved it. And they’re worth it.
Related