When you hear the words “Britney,” “Spears,” “music,” “video,” and “outfit,”
what’s the very first image that pops into your mind? Is it the Catholic
schoolgirl uniform? The red latex catsuit? The flight attendant costume? The
pink bikini and low rise jeans? The white turtleneck crop top? I totally support
any of those answers. Every last one of those ensembles is totally iconic,
totally stunning, totally life-changing, etcetera. But let us not forget about a
certain underrated denim ensemble. The all-jean getup that should not be slept
on for a second. And no, I do not mean that all-jean getup. I am talking about
the embellished denim two-piece worn by Godney in the original “Overprotected”
music video.
In April of 2002, the music video for the non-remixed version of
"Overprotected" was released in the U.S. The Brian Friedman-choreographed, Bille
Woodruff-directed clip is peak Danceney: Spears shimmies, chaines, stomps, arm
dances, and body rolls all over the empty warehouse where "Overprotected" was
filmed. This video also happens to be peak Outfitney: "Overprotected" features
some of my very favorite Britney Spears music video looks (the denim two-piece
is just the tip of the early '00s iceberg).
This Entire Outfit
Go ahead and take a moment to bask in this outfit's glory. You may say this
is an embarrassment of denim riches, but I would have to disagree. It's just the
right amount of denim riches. This is a perfect outfit. I've only just begun
singing its praises.
First Of All, The Sleeves
Oh, what have we here? Sleeves made up of studded patchwork denim? We are not
worthy.
It would be easy to think that with all the crises in the world today –
economic stagnation, wars with ISIS, refugees from Syria to name three – that
there’d be some diminished enthusiasm over the just-ended Fashion Week in Paris.
But you’d be wrong on two counts.
First, there’s the French attitude towards fashion and beauty, succinctly put
by Gertrude Stein in her seminal work, Paris France, published on the eve of
World War 2, when she resided here with such other artistic ex-pats as Ernest
Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Note: the punctuation below is famously
Stein’s)…
Leading Export
And so it is interesting to note that the person whose shows are the most
coveted, whose fashion leadership is alive and well today is someone who has
been dead since January 10, 1971: Coco Chanel. Not to disparage 77-year-old Karl
Lagerfeld whose helmsmanship rescued the line from becoming moribund when he
took over the reins in 1983; but it was Chanel who led the revolution and set
the groundwork for the modern woman. She did it by creating the “look” for her
own life…and it is a life worth examining.