Olivia Dean’s rise to the top of the pops has been among the most meteoric in recent memory, but last week marked a real high point – the start of The Art Of Loving tour, the very first headline arena tour of her career. Kicking off at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro, the 27-year-old dazzled an audience of thousands with a five-act journey through her two-album catalogue. Her wardrobe, naturally, matched her energy. Our personal favourite? The fringed, figure-skimming black and silver minidress she wore for the finale.
As Olivia sprung about the stage to her get-up-and-dance chart-topper “Man I Need”, the crystal-encrusted Art Deco braid pattern of its bodice effervesced beneath the beams and streams of feathers flickered and floated in the starlet’s wake. Those in the know will have immediately clocked it as the work of Clio Peppiatt, the London-based indie luxury brand synonymous with intricately beaded, decadent sparkle – work that made her a finalist in the current BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund.
Somewhat surprisingly for a brand with such stage appeal, this was one of its first major custom moments. “I really wanted to save working on custom creations until it felt like the right artist,” shares Clio Peppiatt herself over Zoom from her West London studio. “Someone with a real synergy with the brand and its ethos.”
As you can see from the pictures, that synergy shines through. “We honestly listen to Olivia multiple times a week in the studio,” she says, laughing. “Our entire team [is drawn to her] joy and electric sense of freedom. And that’s not just in her music, it’s in the way that she moves, the presence she brings when she performs.”
It was an invitation to one of the brand’s press days that first brought Simone Beyene, Dean’s stylist, through the studio doors. Soon after, the 27-year-old pop star was sporting a silver Clio Peppiatt Orchid gown for the Pittsburgh stop on Sabrina Carpenter’s Short N Sweet tour, which Dean supported, as well as a spangled leopard minidress to the Brits after-party.
“I just remember when she put on her dress for the first night of the Sabrina Carpenter run, and it was a match made in heaven,” says Beyene, dialling in during a brief break in final rehearsals. “Beads can be tricky – they can be heavy or have really rigid underlying structures, but she slipped this on and immediately felt so comfortable.” With Olivia’s arena tour on the horizon, the stylist enlisted Peppiatt to create a suite of custom pieces that centred around “both beauty and comfort.”
Tina Turner, Cher, Diana Ross and Josephine Baker – aka the greatest divas – were all on the moodboard as the team mapped out multiple outfit changes – something Olivia had never done before. “There was this whole feeling of ‘the party dress’, but we wanted to push that further than ever. We’re known for doing sparkly dresses, but these were going to be the sparkliest we’d ever done,” shares Peppiatt, with Beyene adding: “I know that [a look is] a success when Olivia’s first reaction is to start moving about, and that was the case here. When she put on the first dress, she started shimmying straight away!”
The five final dresses Peppiatt created for Olivia will be revealed at upcoming UK tour dates, and feature five different bead shapes (each dress uses over 300,000, all applied by hand), sequins and crystals, as well as tassels and feathers. “We really thought about how all of these different materials would hit the light differently, creating this glow,” explains Peppiatt. “We even made these cute little mic packs for each dress – which, of course, are also covered in crystals.”
That the dresses are a shimmering triumph is self-evident, but it’s also a moment that stokes great pride in the firepower of British creativity across the cultural spectrum – a reminder of why the country is considered such a natural home for the marriage of sound and style. “As a brand that’s part of a new era of British luxury, this was such a wonderful moment to be part of. Playing just a small part in it feels really, really special.”
