FKA Twigs on Fusing Style and Performance During Fashion Month

Twigs’s first performance of the month was at Vogue World: London in September, a special show held inside the Theater Royal Drury Lane. She performed a rendition of “It’s a Fine Day” by Opus III, and was joined by dancers from the revered Rambert Dance Company. “I spent two weeks with the Ballet Rembert in a huge studio, just sweating, singing, and laughing,” says Twigs. “I really wanted to create something that felt like a celebration—to give something that felt very joyous, and like a community.” 

Her black cut-out bodysuit by LaQuan Smith was the perfect look for the performance. “I loved how simple and striking it was,” she says. “I felt a synergy with the dancers—we were all wearing black and strong shapes. For me, I’ve definitely grown tired of everyone doing the most. It was challenging myself to strip it all back, and have the focus be on me and the dancer’s physicality.”

In Paris, meanwhile, Twigs pulled off her second creative collaboration with Valentino earlier this week. The artist directed a special musical performance—with all-female dancers from Rambert Dance Company—for designer Pierpaolo Piccioli’s spring 2024 collection. “We’ve been talking about doing something together for a while now—wanting to push art, fashion, and dance further,” she says. To do so, the pair riffed off of Piccioli’s new designs, which had a grounded sensibility. Twigs wanted to capture this emotion through the performance’s choreography and set—as well as the sounds made by the dancers’ movement. “Pierpaolo’s collection was about this woman who was very natural and raw, but extremely powerful,” says Twigs. “All I could see were these incredible dancers in my head, creating music with stones, sand, and the earth.”

Running out into the center of the crowd barefoot, Twigs and the dancerts kicked off the show by moving through a multi-leveled set filled with loud natural materials. “I wanted to create a calamity of rocks, earth, gravel, and sand,” says Twigs. “It was so exciting to enter a whole new world of sonic exploration, after many (years) of making music.” 

Choreographing the movement between herself and the dancers was another highlight for the artist. “I’ve always been really obsessed with the Ballet Rambert,” says Twigs. “When I grew up, I wanted to be a dancer. I was classically trained, but I never would’ve thought that somebody like me—that looks the way that I do, and has my economic background—would ever get into Rambert. Now as an adult, I’m dancing with Rambert dancers who look like me. It felt like such a family.”