Phoebe Bridgers | Behind The Looks | Who What Wear
Phoebe takes us through the fashion in her music videos from "Savior Complex" and "Motion Sickness" to her SNL performance and how it came to be a visual reality.
Transcript
00:00Hey Who What Wear, I'm Phoebe Bridgers and I'm going to take you behind the looks.
00:24So Motion Sickness was more of a costume because it's a character.
00:28I thought it was funny for like an androgynous person to dress up a lot to go sing karaoke in a dive bar
00:36and who only rode a scooter and wore a helmet.
00:39I had the concept for that video way before I wrote the song.
00:42I mean not even slightly, I'm going through a lot of the same places as Elliot's Miss Misery video
00:46so it's referencing that too, he wears a white suit.
00:59Love Phoebe Waller-Bridge, it was awesome working with her for the music video.
01:03We got in an argument about whether or not I was going to wear a skeleton costume for that video.
01:08I ended up going with her instinct and I'm so glad because it looks really cool in black and white.
01:13Nobody can tell but that turtleneck that I'm wearing at the end is actually like a bright red turtleneck
01:19and I'm usually so allergic to colors so she was like, dude it's in black and white, it's going to look black, you're fine.
01:26Phoebe and the stylist Aoife before I got there had collected all these different costumes
01:30so we picked our favorite bellhop and then they gave me the woman tag.
01:34I was kind of just along for the ride but it was really fun to be dressed by people you trust.
01:48I've always loved blondes in gray, I think it just is such a weird look.
01:54I was at St. Vincent de Paul, which is a thrift store here.
01:57I found the suit for like $10 and then I spent like $100 tailoring it.
02:01And I feel like that's my new secret with buying clothes, it's just it doesn't really matter what it is.
02:08If you like it, somebody talented can fit it to your body.
02:11So now I have tons of suits that I got for really cheap that I just tailor to me.
02:15We had to do the tiny desk from home so we had to come up with a concept that was funny or interesting
02:20and I thought the oval office was the coolest.
02:22We actually tried to get a real oval office because it's Los Angeles but everything was shut down.
02:27There were no sets that would allow us in so we had to green screen.
02:30But I knew exactly what I'd wear for that because I feel like I have a slightly Hillary Clinton vibe in it.
02:42My friend Olaf is an insanely talented photographer and musician.
02:47He's from Sweden, he came to town and he took me into the desert.
02:50He found this cool place like a couple hours away, I drove us out.
02:54It was just for fun, like we didn't even know what we'd use him for.
02:57And then we saw this one photo of the crazy mountains behind me and rock formations.
03:03I was wearing like a white dress and I remember thinking I wish there was something kind of more interesting about this.
03:09I had been at Skeleton for Halloween that year with my band and so we repeated the whole photo shoot.
03:15In the Skeleton costume, I made us drive out again.
03:18And yeah, and then we saw it and we're like that's definitely the cover.
03:21We literally drove there at like 4 o'clock in the morning so I was pretty delusional.
03:25How many Skeleton costumes do I have?
03:27As far as like different Skeleton costumes, I probably have like 10 at this point.
03:32Once again, Phoebe Bridgers.
03:34Woo!
03:43There's this designer, Amber Doyle, out of New York.
03:45And when I was supposed to go on tour at the beginning of the year of last year,
03:49she was going to make these immaculate suits for everybody.
03:53They weren't even going to be Skeleton suits, they were just going to be kind of sparkly and matching for the band.
03:58When I found out I was playing Cybernetic Live, I was like we should do some epic Skeleton costumes.
04:03So she's made a bunch of way more souped up Skeleton costumes in their reflective material
04:11so that when lights shine on them they look really cool.
04:13And then Gucci made a beautiful gown with ribs on it that I'm very excited about.
04:19I'm never taking it off.