On Saturday, Lizzo performed at the 2023 BottleRock Napa Valley music festival in California wearing a black leather bodysuit covered in fringe and neon green details crisscrossed with lace designs, with a zipper up the front. The suit had wide legs and a halter neckline, and featured a belt covered in silver grommets and hardware that cinched at the waist.
Lizzo left her hair down in a silky curtain and was wearing large silver hoop earrings and a few small rings. Her makeup was simple aside from an eyeshadow design in darker green and silver.
Lizzo has been on her Special Tour and stopped in for day two of the festival at the annual Napa Valley concert weekend. She was joined on stage with her backup dancers in matching black vinyl outfits.
In an interview with Vanity Fair in October 2022, Lizzo talked about the conscious choices she makes about her wardrobe when performing despite the criticism she has occasionally received from trolls over her outfits being “sexual.”
“When it’s sexual, it’s mine,” she said. “When it’s sexualized, someone is doing it to me or taking it from me. Black women are hypersexualized all the time, and masculinized simultaneously. Because of the structure of racism, if you’re thinner and lighter, or your features are narrow, you’re closer to being a woman.”
She added that her on stage outfits are essentially dance uniforms that make it easier to move with her back up dancers.
“After [Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies’] it seemed like it became the industry standard for everyone[to dance],” Lizzo explained. “I wanted to be like a dancer and also, it was kind of political and feminist in my eyes to have me, a full-figured dancer, wearing leotards, showing and celebrating curves and being Olympian in strength, endurance, and flexibility.”
Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.