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A look back at some of the artist’s best looks over the years, as she releases her 10th studio album, “Fossora.”
One might be hard pressed to recall which film took home best picture at the 2001 Academy Awards. But what Björk wore to the ceremony may evoke a different response.
The singer, who was nominated for best original song for “I’ve Seen It All,” from Lars von Trier’s film “Dancer in the Dark,” in which she also starred, strode down the red carpet in a dress designed by Marjan Pejoski. In true Björk fashion, it wasn’t just any dress. The creation — a cluster of white tulle and feathers that came to an apex in the form of a swan with its neck draped over the shoulder — didn’t immediately register as a fashion moment. The look was panned by fashion critics, a regular on worst-dressed lists and the subject of talk-show roasts.
Years later, the memory of the “swan dress” has endured. Featured at a Met Gala exhibit and a familiar entry in the Halloween costume genre, Björk’s dress was a meme before memes and internet spoofs had a place in the cultural consciousness. It was red carpet performance art before the arrival of Lady Gaga’s meat dress or Billy Porter’s mechanical diamanté cowboy hat.
Between Bjork’s genre-busting music and avant-garde fashion choices, the world has always been a few strides behind her. Few pop stars dared to wear the inventive creations of Comme des Garçons, Junya Watanabe or Hussein Chalayan in the ’90s, but Björk immortalized the looks on her album covers and gave them lives beyond the runways.
Decades deep into her career, Björk still has not diluted the potency of her expressive taste. She’s embarked on five tours over the past 10 years; each is a full-scale production with whizzing light schemes, surrealist landscapes and orchestral ensembles emphasizing every note.
Clothes remain essential expressions of the Björk experience. For a 2019 performance in New York, her longtime collaborator the designer Iris van Herpen devised a moving dress, which Ms. van Herpen has described as “inspired by a future orchid-avatar that is hovering like an aura around her body,” that illuminated Björk onstage. Other designers have also lent some of their most off-kilter pieces for her performances, including the voluminous Balenciaga ball gown from its summer 2020 collection that Björk wore during her Orkestral Tour in Iceland and the puffer ball gown from Pierpaolo Piccioli for Moncler she wore this year at the Bluedot festival in England. Bjork also found an admirer in Gucci’s Alessandro Michele, who designed a crimson latex dress for her music video “Ovule,” from her new album, “Fossora.” Here is a look back at Björk’s most momentous fashion moments.
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS, 1994
What do you wear to your first V.M.A. red carpet? Björk opted for a green embroidered shawl worn over a breezy white maxi dress.
MTV EUROPE AWARDS, 1996
Someone, somewhere right now is searching eBay for this Comme des Garçons dress. The sheer top ballooning down to a voluminous skirt is an outfit that wouldn’t be out of place in 2022.
CONCERT IN LONDON, 1997
Here the singer wore a sheer take on the cheongsam, a traditional Chinese dress that became popular in the ’90s. The dress did not raise flags for cultural appropriation at the time, but today, the response may be different.
CANNES FILM FESTIVAL, 2000
For the premiere of “Dancer in the Dark,” she wore a pink dress made by Marjan Pejoski, the creator of her infamous “swan dress.” She was the star of the film, which won the Palme d’Or at the festival.
CONCERT IN SPAIN, 2001
Few of the typical sartorial rules apply to Björk’s idiosyncratic style, but red was still the power color for this Alexander McQueen ensemble.
VENICE FILM FESTIVAL, 2005
A pink chiffon midi dress is about as saccharine as it gets in the Björk stylebook. During this phase in the mid-aughts, she opted for pared-down shapes in softer silhouettes.
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, 2010
Celebrating the closing of Marina Abramović’s retrospective, “The Artist Is Present,” Björk is gilded in gold, wearing Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci.
‘BIOPHILIA’ TOUR, 2012
Björk’s connections with avant-garde designers run deep. Among the most notable is her friendship with the Dutch couturier Iris van Herpen, who designed this bulbous body-morphing piece for the tour.
CONCERT IN REYKJAVIK, 2021
Much of what Björk wears these days is custom-made, but she wore this Balenciaga summer 2020 ball gown while performing at Harpa concert hall in her native Iceland.
REYKJAVIK, 2022
Björk returned to the red carpet to celebrate this year’s film “The Northman.” At its premiere, she wore a blood-red J.W. Anderson Loewe maxi dress complete with a see-through chest-baring cutout.
