Christina Aguilera Tapped Into Her ‘Dirrty’ Roots for L.A. Pride 2022
Christina Aguilera is no stranger to fashion risks. If you ask her, she’ll gladly tell you that in each of her style eras, from Stripped to Back to Basics, she’s always approached fashion with reinvention in mind. Her looks for L.A. Pride 2022 were no different—on June 11, 2022, the performer wore eight new looks, most of which were custom, and all of which surprised and delighted those who witnessed her hourlong show. From her Green Goblin-esque breast plate and matching sparkly strap-on, to her red Madonna-inspired cone bra which shot confetti at the crowd, Aguilera wanted to reference and embrace every color of the rainbow Pride flag.
“It’s always been so important to me that I’ve never been one to try and play it safe,” the performer told W after her L.A. Pride performance, where special guests Paris Hilton, Kim Petras, and Mya joined her onstage. “It’s really important that all of those outfits represent a mood, and every song calls for a different theme—coming out, feeling free, and embracing your sexuality and your power.”
With the help of her stylists, Anna Trevelyan and Chris Horan, who chose looks largely created by LGBTQ designers, Xtina celebrated the queer community in more ways than one. “Pride is the biggest representation of freedom, self-expression, living your best life out loud, unafraid, fearless. These are all things that truly mean the world to me and have always been a part of my message and my music,” she continued. “Me and pride, my fans, my fighters, we go hand in hand together. I’m so honored and grateful that I’ve had the support of the LGBTQ community, and that we’ve come 20-plus years together through my journey. This is what I live for!”
“We start out red and powerful and fiery with the messages of ‘Dirrty,’ ‘Fighter,’ ‘Can’t Hold Us Down,’” Aguilera said. To accomplish the look, Horan and Trevelyan secured Chris Habana custom sunglasses for the musician to wear in addition to her red Zigman trenchcoat and corset. “We went with sexy, S&M vibes for the start of the show to present Xtina in her most renowned, iconic look of chaps. Chris Habana made custom glasses with a crystal teardrop.”
“We collaborated with Luis De Javier, an iconic punk designer in London, to create a new version of extreme bionic tits. He 3D printed the horned boob corset.”
“Reuniting with Mya for this pride performance is so special to me. It was very nostalgic,” Aguilera said of her rendition of “Lady Marmalade” which brought her back together with one of her Moulin Rouge! soundtrack collaborators. “I walked into rehearsal and she was already singing and in the middle of ‘Lady M.’ I ran up to her and embraced her—it’s so wonderful when, after so many years, something amazing in your life comes back. As grown women who have survived this industry for so many years, it’s still magical when we’re able to come together,” the musician said.
She wore a Savage x Fenty ensemble “to create a yellow showgirl look” for the performance, with the added yellow feathers courtesy of Jessica Jade in New York.
“I’m used to singing her part in the first verse so it was just so cool, first of all, to give myself a break in the beginning, but to also hear her voice, that iconic voice that we all know from the record. That touched my heart,” Aguilera added.
A sketch of Aguilera’s embellished Savage x Fenty look.
Xtina’s feather accessory from Jessica Jade.
“Chaps have always been so fun to play with throughout my career, reinventing them for different eras and concerts,” Aguilera said. “This is all about giving them visuals; it’s visual after visual of fun. There are props and pieces that really take it to the next level. There’s a moment where we’re referencing [the artist] Tom of Finland, paying homage to his iconic work—to be free and expressive of sexuality and fantasy, which is all that I’m about,” she said of her Venus Prototype breastplate and sex toy accoutrement. “When I get to be expressive and free and live out my biggest, best fantasies is where I’m at my best.”
“It’s always fun to give a new version of the chaps look, but for this concert in particular, I’m actually working with an air confetti pump tank with a special button and an explosion for the look of ‘Car Wash,’ just completely going over the top using these cones in the orange family color tone,” Aguilera said of her Venus Prototype orange ensemble, with another set of exaggerated cone breasts to jump off of the first green pair. “It references another incredible, groundbreaking, iconic female: Madonna, who, in Gaultier, originally wore the cones. This whole show also pays homage to so many people that have been inspirations and icons in the gay community, advocates, allies...why not take cone boobs to the next level and have confetti just exploding out of them?”
For this sparkly Y2K throwback—which included a DJ set from Paris Hilton—Aguilera’s stylists dressed her in a denim micro mini and bodysuit by Sami Miro, along with an electric feather boa by Poster Girl, which took about a hundred hours to make. “I truly live in the moment. You can’t make mistakes with creativity and expression,” Aguilera said. “There are moments that I might not ever repeat, and that I might look back and laugh at, but it’s so self-expressive—how can we ever regret a mood or a moment? Some of the moments that I’ve gotten the most heat over, or have been the most controversial at the time, have become the most iconic looks. So you can’t really have regrets because you never know when something might be a faux pas at the time and then turn into something that everyone’s emulating in their own way for years to come.”
Queer artist Ben Evans called back to Aguilera’s Stripped era and her performance of “Beautiful,” which was always pared-down and simple. While channeling the vulnerability of that track, Evans made Aguilera a purple trench coat for that segment of her Pride performance.
“Creatively and conceptually, we always have to start with what we’re going to do and moving forward—it’s not just about a setlist and compiling songs. It has to tell its own story,” Aguilera said.
Clad in a Garo Sparo bodysuit and GCDS sequined Pride flag skirt, Aguilera continued to celebrate the LGBTQ community. “We just wanted the most celebratory, campy, and fab look to end this show. We love the massive train and how it feels like it could envelop the whole crowd and they can feel safe in this sparkly pride moment of love.”
“I wanted to reference everyone feeling like a child and feeling safe and what that feels like under the rainbow umbrella as a family, as a whole, as a community,” Aguilera said. “I come out in a huge skirt that is a gigantic rainbow flag, that has its own choreography considering it’s so huge and structurally needs the help of dancers just as its own showpiece.”
Aguilera’s GCDS rainbow Pride flag skirt.
“For Pride, we wanted to embrace the epic, iconic flag, and wave it proud!” Aguilera said. “We wanted to creatively do something fun where each section of the concert reflects a different color of the rainbow in the Pride flag, and then some.”
