Shania Twain Shared Facts About Her Most Iconic Looks: ‘I Was Always Contrasting the Glamor and the Down-Home Girl’
For 30 years, Shania Twain has been a legend. Her high-energy blend of country music and pop has broken records and won her legions of fans. But her musical style isn’t the only thing about her that draws on different influences. Her fashion looks throughout the years have also been a deliberate mix of comfort and glitz, and like her music, it works for her.
Shania Twain’s career and fashion
Twain’s self-titled debut album came out in 1993, and she was soon smashing records. Her third album, Come On Over, still stands as the highest-selling album by a solo female artist. Despite taking a brief hiatus during a battle with Lyme disease, Twain has been drawing crowds and putting out albums for three decades.
She recently performed at Coachella with Harry Styles and had a Las Vegas residency. She’s also been the subject of a touching Netflix documentary.
Along the way, Twain also demonstrated an enduring love for fashion. Country Living listed some of her best outfits through the years, such as her draped white gown for the 2013 Billboard Music Awards, her 2012 sequined bodysuit concert attire, and the sequined dress with white go-go boots for her concert with Styles.
Twain has an eye for what looks good, but her fashion philosophy runs deeper than how her clothes look.
A mix that works
In an interview with Capsule 98, Twain dug into her love of fashion. She explained that she’s collaborated with designer Marc Bauwer for more than 20 years. Over that time, she’s been able to collaborate with him on the looks more and more, rather than just wearing what he gives her. That’s been great for her because she has a lot of thoughts about what she wants to wear.
“I just love the aesthetics of fashion, and I think I’ve always felt that if you could combine aesthetics with comfort, then that is the ideal,” she said. “I’m one of those believers that you have to be able to wear it with confidence.” That commitment to comfort without sacrificing style goes all the way back to the beginning years of her career.
“Even at the very beginning before I had access to high end fashion designers, I was always contrasting the glamour and the down-home girl. If you watch the video for ‘Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under,’ you’ll see I pulled out jeans from my own closet!”
She explained that the red velvet dress she wears in the video for that song “set the tone” for what she wanted. “I could wear things that were sexy as long as they were comfortable. If I was comfortable, then I was uninhibited. I didn’t wear a bra in that video, and I was already gravitating to stretch velvets from the very beginning.”
Shania Twain today
Twain isn’t done with either fashion or her music career. She recently released a new album, Queen of Me, after a five-year hiatus from recording. According to The Boot, this is her sixth studio album, and the cover features a picture of her dressed in all black, sitting astride a glossy black horse.
She’s also embarking on a huge world tour, which kicks off on April 28. Her fans are lining up to watch her in action on the stage again. Two things are certain about this long-awaited return to the stage: she’s going to bring her trademark energy, and she’s going to do it all in outfits that she loves, and that love her back.
