@runwaytomusicvideo does the hard work so you don’t have to
Back in 2012, Mario Dodovski created a forum for ‘like-minded people’ upon which he’d share music video fashion moments – stating the look, the collection, the designer, and any other important details. “Early on in my high school years I realised I loved the thrill of spotting runway items in music videos,” he explains. “It all started with Gwen Stefani, when she wore one of those SS08 hand-painted Dolce & Gabbana gowns in the “Early Winter” video.”
This was long before the days of Instagram tagging and #sponcon, meaning tracking each look down took an intense knowledge of fashion and pop culture, and more than a little patience. “My favourite method of identifying clothes in music videos is by endlessly scrolling through photos of runway shows, even if it is massively time consuming,” says Dodovski. “This is what I do when trying to find out what someone wore in a video ten or twenty years ago without knowing who did the styling. It gives me such joy when I stumble upon a piece I've been looking for for a very long time.”
In the age of Instagram – the platform upon which Mario now maintains his archive under the handle @runwaytomusicvideo – it’s a much more lateral process. “Identifying what someone is wearing in a new music video goes something like this,” Dodovski advises: “I watch the video from start to finish and take notes on the outfits I immediately recognise or think might have appeared on a runway. Then I find out who styled the video and go to their Instagram page to see if they have credited the designers for those particular looks; if they haven't, I contact the stylist directly. Most of them get back to me within a day and are incredibly generous with their time and information.”
Of course, social media has undoubtedly changed the way we interact with pop stars, and, thanks to various platforms, we know much more about our faves, and much faster, than we ever did before. Whether fans or the media are posting about their comings and goings, or they themselves are documenting their lives in minute detail, the access we have gained to them over the course of the last decade has somewhat dissolved the mystique of the star – which is why, for us at least, Dodovski’s feed is at its best when it’s unpicking videos past: like the time Celine Dion wore an Alexander McQueen SS06 leather dress in the music video for “Tout près du Bonheur”, with Marc Dupré; when Eve wore Dsquared2 FW04 in the music video for Gwen Stefani’s hit single “Rich Girl”; or when Katy Perry wore Viktor & Rolf SS11 in the otherworldly music video for “ET”.
Dodovski also really enjoys the older, iconic videos: “The perfect post for me is when it highlights something from an iconic runway show being worn in an equally iconic music video, like Kylie Minogue in a single Balenciaga SS03 dress in “Slow”.
But the holy grail of music videos (for him at least) is probably Beyoncé’s “Déjà Vu”. “It is full of archival designer clothes from the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier, Roberto Cavalli, and Moschino, each more over the top than the last,” Dodovski gushes. “I remember there was a lot of controversy around the video and its high fashion styling back then, which only makes it more alluring. Honestly, I've spent more hours than I'd like to admit looking for the designers in this one – I just recently found the Rifat Ozbek AW99 dress worn in the last scene by accident, actually. Only two outfits left to identify!” Have any tips on this? You know where to head...