She has commanded stages in couture outfits from Jean Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano, but it is perhaps a pair of gold lamé hotpants that defines Kylie Minogue’s style.
Famously purchased from a London flea market and worn with a Stella McCartney halter top in her 2000 video for Spinning Around, the Australian pop star has always been known for head-turning fashion.
Returning to her hometome of Melbourne to headline the AFL Grand Final, the 58-year-old delivered a 19-minute set leaning heavily on her early 2000s hits including Love At First Sight, In Your Eyes, On A Night Like This and Slow.
To match the 2000s-led tracklist, Minogue took to the MCG in custom outfits by Italian luxury brand, Dolce & Gabbana.
Personally designed by founders Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the looks served as a sartorial retrospective of the pop queen’s style evolution over the years.
Clutching a gold microphone that matched her knee-high boots by Australian label Bared, Minogue’s Dolce & Gabbana outfits included a micro-mini dress made from a vintage T-shirt.
In a statement, the brand explained that the garment’s lace-up side detailing was constructed from leather piping and corsetry ribbon.
“The dress was customised with sport-inspired lettering in gold hotfix crystals,” Dolce & Gabbana said, adding that the look referenced an outfit Minogue wore in 2002.
Earlier, she had opened the set wearing a mesh tank top with ribbed trims, featuring a custom print of herself embellished with her name in red and clear hotfix crystals.
“The look was completed with a custom belt crafted from a safety belt, featuring the iconic lace-up detail and fringes made from ribbons, Swarovski crystals and shoelaces, with details referencing football,” the brand said in its show notes.
But it was her final outfit – worn as she was suspended mid-air above the MCG – that had a literal silver lining. The metallic dress was crafted from Chantilly lace and chiffon, featuring crystal mesh panelling and paired with Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses.
Minogue’s collaboration with the Italian brand has spanned three decades, including the outfits for her 2002 Fever tour, the 2011 Aphrodite Les Folies tour and some of the looks for her 2014 Kiss Me Once tour.
D&G famously designed the silver over-the-knee boots and white minidress Minogue wore to perform Can’t Get You Out Of My Head at the 2002 Brit Awards.
Of her GF outfits, Minogue said: “With Dolce & Gabbana, we paid homage to some of the iconic looks we have created together over the years and gave them … [a] twist.”
Days prior to her homecoming performance, the Melbourne born and raised singer spoke about the “emotions” she felt in the lead-up to the show.
“I was doing a soundcheck with my girls – the other singers. And it just struck me … I’m like, I’m singing centre stage at the MCG,” Minogue said. “I just had that little moment for myself.”
With the retrospective meaning behind her wardrobe now revealed, Minogue’s earlier comments about the performance being a full-circle moment take on deeper meaning.
“It just …makes a nice mention of me being a young girl going to Camberwell High School, and dreaming about pop music and what I might do in life,” Minogue said, as she addressed media on Thursday.
“Then the question of: what do you want to do? How are you going to live?
“And just how far I have come, I guess, and it’s led me back to centre stage at home.
“There’s so much about this moment … that is hard for me to grasp,” she added.
“So I am in awe and wonder, myself, at this moment.”