Is dressing with discretion while expecting the new “I’m pregnant, proud and here’s my belly?” Just maybe. Fashion lovers everywhere must have reveled at the sight of the ravishing Beyoncé at the VMAs on Sunday night. Pregnancy aside, she arrived in that red-carpet anomaly, real fashion. Her high-glam affair by Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz, a side-draped swath of multo melon, worked the chic side of flamboyance accessorized by well-chosen Lorraine Schwartz jewelry. Beyoncé later took to the stage in a Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo, the glittering pink jacket, white shirt and black pants performance-appropriate despite being completely covered up, even when she now famously opened the jacket to rub her (slightly) expanded abdomen.
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This was Beyonce’s coming out as a mom-to-be; who knows if she’ll eventually go the nothing-is-more route à la Demi Moore and Cindy Crawford, who while pregnant posed naked for Vanity Fair and W, respectively, or take to wearing tight numbers that hug her baby bump. If so, she’ll fall in league with countless other women of the famous-and-gorgeous variety who work hard on their bodies and want to send the message that pregnancy is no reason to stop being sexy. Here, here to that. Still, Beyoncé’s discretion came across as remarkably fresh even though it has precedent. While pregnant with her twins born in 2008, Jennifer Lopez eschewed skimpy fare. More recently, so did Victoria Beckham. Asked about a rumor that she would pose nude for Vogue before the birth of daughter Harper in July, Beckham told WWD, “I’m not really one of these people that likes to go out and pose and flaunt being pregnant…I don’t think anyone needs to see that, other than my husband.” True to her word, she did bare all with proud papa David Beckham acting as lensman. But while out and about, whether casually or at high-profile events, she stuck to loose silhouettes of the sort that once would have been called appropriate.
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Now here’s Beyoncé, at the edgiest of awards shows, sartorially speaking, looking iconoclastic in her elegance. And stylistically advanced. How fabulous to see someone other than the trailblazing Tilda Swinton take on a challenging (read: fashiony and not at all revealing) silhouette in full public view.
Someone else wore the pants very differently at the VMAs. Lady Gaga was also all covered up in alter ego Jo Calderone mode. (As introduced in the Sept. 2010 issue of Vogue Hommes Japan, Calderone may be the professed son of a Sicilian mechanic, but presents like the secret progeny of Andrew Dice Clay.) Gaga’s performance was remarkable, and if the all-night-in-character shtick grew tiresome, it allowed her to follow up last year’s meat dress by dressing down, way down. Brilliant.