BEHIND THE STITCH: ALANI
June 21, 2024
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Amaarae’s style arc reads like a setlist with clean transitions. In 2019 she was the cool alté kid with a buzzcut and boyish silhouettes; by 2025 she’s a chrome-sharp futurist fronting a full-throttle pop era. The shift tracks closely with the music: “The Angel You Don’t Know” set the stage, “Fountain Baby” amped the sensuality, and this year’s “Black Star” sealed a new visual language to match a bigger, bolder sound.
Her foundation was androgyny. Years before the viral records, Vogue photographed Amaarae as one of the women defining the modern buzzcut, framing the shave as self-possession rather than shock value. Early press images and videos show loose shirts, slouchy trousers, small frames swallowed by skate-leaning proportions. The look was practical, defiant, and unmistakably hers.
Virality raised the stakes. When the “Sad Girlz Luv Money” remix detonated online in 2021–22, the styling levelled up. The Remi Laudat directed video arrived drenched in Mugler, Saint Laurent and Westwood, with custom pieces by Lagos creative Daniel Obasi, an important bridge between the alté scene and big-house fashion. That clip marks a hinge point: the tomboy codes remained, but the finish grew glossy, fetishy, and couture-curious.
By “Fountain Baby” in 2023, femininity was the brief. Teen Vogue’s cover treatment put her in precision-cut pieces and body-skimming knits; production notes credit stylist Karissa Mitchell, underscoring how intentional the era’s polish was. On the visuals, she favored tight creative direction and high sheen, see Lauren Dunn’s prismatic “Co-Star” and the icy, hyperreal “Angels in Tibet” roll-out led by director Yavez Anthonio. The sum total: skin, latex, micro-proportions and platform futurism, delivered with control.
The current “Black Star” phase is maximal and militant, a pop star uniform forged from rubberized textures, molded corsetry and moto boots. It’s also the most collaborative on the styling bench. Festival and performance fits across 2024–25 have been steered by stylists Marquise Miller and Aaron Christmon, whose credits span arena pop and sports-style crossovers, giving Amaarae a touring wardrobe that photographs like campaign imagery. The album’s press materials double down on the Ghanaian “Black Star” motif while keeping the silhouette razor-clean. statement. The 2018 Vogue feature captured why the buzzcut mattered to her, agency and clarity, ideas that still power the current lustrous lengths and chrome face pieces. Even when the palette turns glossier, the attitude traces back to that cut: autonomous, unsentimental, a little dangerous.
Call it an evolution from boyish ease to cyber siren. The references have widened, the resources have grown, the collaborators have rotated, yet the throughline is consistent: clothes as world-building for a sound that keeps outrunning genre. Whether she’s in a slouched tee and low-slung denim or a latex unitard on a flag-green backdrop, the styling reads like music direction, tight concept, strong hooks, no wasted bars.
Key collaborators referenced: Daniel Obasi (styling/custom pieces, “Sad Girlz Luv Money” video), Karissa Mitchell (Teen Vogue 2023 shoot), Marquise Miller and Aaron Christmon (live/tour looks), Lauren Dunn (“Co-Star” video), Yavez Anthonio (“Angels in Tibet” visual world).
