One of the strongest looks from Missy Elliott's wonderful comeback video for new song "WTF (Where They From,)" which dropped Thursday morning, is the one that Missy makes her entrance in—a mirrored disco ball-like suit that's paired with matching shiny lipstick, silver hoop earrings, and glimmering ski goggles.
The look was crafted by Kerin Rose Gold, the New York designer best known for her eyeglasses line A-Morir Eyewear. Gold's pieces are never short on drama or sparkle and have been worn by Grimes—in the video for “Flesh Without Blood/Life In The Vivid Dream”—and are a big favorite of Katy Perry’s.
In an interview with The FADER over email, Gold said that she created the look this September after being contacted by Missy’s stylist, Misa Hylton, and her assistant, Jai Hudson, an experience Gold said was wonderful. “Misa is a legend, and is the woman behind the iconic looks of Lil Kim and Mary J since the 90s, so getting to work with her is a huge honor,” Gold said.
The process for creating the disco ball outfit sounds incredibly intense, and is perhaps best told by Gold herself:
“From what I could discern it took the suit designer a few days to make the suit beforehand, and the embellishment took an additional 36 hours. You can’t get bulk mirror tiles in NYC so I had to go into it blindly. My first order was 15 pounds, but used closer to 30 pounds of mirror tiles once everything was done. The suit was fully covered on both front and back and she was HEAVY! The square mirror tiles were as small as half an inch, and as large as two inch squares, with diamonds and irregular rectangles mixed in. For special projects like this I am usually hands on for the whole project, but I was headed to Paris for market week for my eyewear line A-Morir, finishing an eyewear collaboration for Viktor Luna (releasing tomorrow!) and some final pieces for my collaboration with Chromat, while prepping this outfit. (Plug! Plug! Plug!) I passed the work on to my old intern Brian, who took the handoff seamlessly. It was an experience, reordering supplies while overseas and handling a project in a four-person group chat with a seven hour time difference.”
Gold and Missy's work together didn't stop there. Gold said she's crafted a few more creations for Missy. “I’ve had the honor of embellishing three stage outfits for her so far, but the most exciting thing I’ve worked on for her hasn’t seen the light of day yet. From a labor perspective it makes the disco suit look like a walk in the park.”
God BLESS.
