Fashion focus: Erykah Badu

Last week, I focused my column on the 2024 CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) Awards. I mentioned an array of designers who were celebrated for their exceptional contribution to fashion. However, I did not discuss the achievement of Erykah Badu, who was awarded the honorary award of 2024 CFDA ‘Fashion Icon’. Erykah Badu, an influential singer, songwriter, producer, and actress has been a major influence on pop culture in a multitude of ways – notably for her distinct, dynamic approach to fashion.

A ‘Fashion Icon’ is an innovator, someone capable of adding value in the process from pieces to outfit

The Chairman of the CFDA, Thom Browne, stated: “Erykah Badu and fashion are synonymous in many ways […] Erykah effortlessly exudes herself, her unique point of view, through the clothing she chooses to wear […] and each look she dreams up is so individual and true to herself”. Therefore, it is clear that individuality, originality, and authenticity as well as a strong understanding of style are the crucial elements of a ‘Fashion Icon’.

Badu similarly, when accepting the honour, confessed that she’s “always had a love for taking bits and pieces of the things I am attracted to, and creating something far more grand than the sum of those parts”. Thus, it is shown that a ‘Fashion Icon’ is an innovator, someone capable of adding value in the process from pieces to outfit – and in this sense someone who hinges upon their creativity and their artistic vision, as opposed to their wealth and resources.

Badu, on the red carpet, is known for sporting bold and colourful creations from predominantly Black designers. Her signature style – an avant-garde headpiece or headwrap – is often paired with vibrancy in colour or pattern, based around a major silhouette. Let’s look through her 2024 catalogue, as well as her archived looks, and focus on her strongest fashion choices on the red carpet making her worthy of the title of ‘Fashion Icon’.

For the 2024 GQ Creativity Awards in New York, Badu presented an ornate look by Marni. The garment, a black-and-white striped coatdress with red details, was accessorised with large grey gloves and a prominent fuzzy top hat in a correlating colour scheme and pattern. An additional accessory was a large, avant-garde bag with a tulle overlay with black and yellow stripes. The look was undeniably loud but impactful, and appropriate for an event dedicated to the most dynamic visionaries and creative pioneers.

For the Met Gala, with the dress code ‘The Garden of Time’, Badu showed up in an eclectic outfit, a bright dress with an array of floral prints – the third look from Comme Des Garcons’ Spring 2024 RTW Collection. The multi-dimensional garment was interesting in texture, pattern, colour, and shape. It was accessorized with a signature black headpiece, and black shoes – a darkness encapsulating the vivid nature of the dress. This interesting and subtle dichotomy was incredibly powerful.

Erykah Badu’s crucial qualities are her resilience and confidence in retaining her individuality and authenticity

During the entirety of her career, Badu was successful in portraying unique and effective outfits on the red carpet. For example, at the Oscars in 2000, Badu designed her own dress in collaboration with Charlene Sheppard, which brought brightness in shades of green and yellow in a halter-style dress, paired with a matching head wrap. This look was so distinct from her peers who stuck to colour schemes of purple, silver, black or red, demonstrating her ingenuity as a ‘Fashion Icon’. Similarly, in 2000, for the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Awards, she sported a bold sunshine yellow garment, and at the 1998 American Music Awards she was decked out in various shades of emerald, and green – both of which were completely striking.

Ultimately, Erykah Badu’s crucial qualities are her resilience and confidence in retaining her individuality and authenticity. This allowed her to have such an idiosyncratic and sensational image, which now allows her looks, and others, to be recognised as hers, or regarded as ‘something that Erykah Badu would wear.’ That is what truly determines a ‘Fashion Icon’, and what makes her more than worthy of the 2024 ‘Fashion Icon’ award.