Pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo is back and promoting her new album but it’s not the music that’s caused a stir, it’s her clothes.
The Drop Dead singer, 23, sparked controversy when she wore a babydoll dress in a music video and then to perform at her Spotify Billion’s Club show in Barcelona.
She paired knee-high black Doc Martens with a floral pink and white dress, emulating legends like Courtney Love with her punk-inspired outfit.
However, Olivia was then hit with huge backlash, claiming she was ‘dressing like a toddler’ and adopting a hyper-sexualised but childish aesthetic.
‘What’s really disturbing is I feel like I have worn outfits that are maybe revealing on stage,’ the former Glastonbury headliner said in response on The New York Times’ podcast, Popcast.
She continued: ‘I’ve been on stage in a sparkly bra and little shorts, which is my right. That’s fun. I felt cool and comfortable in that. And that wasn’t inappropriate, but me fully covered up in a dress that people deemed to be childlike was inappropriate.’
Her last tour saw Olivia don glittering skirts and bra combinations, as well as hot pants and crop tops, without major controversy.
‘It just shows how we really normalise pedophilia in our culture,’ she added. ‘Also it’s just this rhetoric we’re fed as girls since we’re so little, which is, don’t wear that because then a man is going to sexualise your body and it’s your fault. It’s so weird.’
Although around since the 1910s, the babydoll dress was popularised in the 1940s by lingerie designer Sylvia Pedlar to tackle wartime fabric shortages while still making women’s nightwear.
In her Drop Dead music video, she ran around the empty Palace of Versailles in a blue and pink babydoll dress, with visible matching bloomers and knee socks.
Olivia joins the likes of Ariana Grande and Sydney Sweeney, whose looks have been accused of leaning into this ‘sexy baby’ aesthetic.
The Twilight Zone singer is known for her hyper-feminine look, facing criticisms that she was wearing ‘infantilising’ outfits – all paired with a high heel and a cheeky wink.
Meanwhile, the Euphoria star was criticised for a ‘vulgar’ scene in which she was actually dressed as a baby for her character’s explicit content.
Sydney, 28, has previously said she pushed back on scenes where her character Cassie is shirtless – but in the latest season, she posed on a couch with her legs spread, wearing her hair in pigtails, with a dummy in her mouth, and showing her breasts in a sheer top.
Viewers slammed the show’s creators for ‘crossing a line’, ‘sexualising children’, and ‘degrading’ Sweeney, with many also calling for a mass boycott.
It’s understandable then why fans of Olivia might feel she’s tiptoeing into this type of branding, especially when Euphoria is still fresh in our minds.
However, she insisted this was an homage to her inspirations, including Hole’s Courtney Love and Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna.
They led the riot grrrl aesthetic with ripped tights, chunky boots, smeared makeup, knee-high socks, and yes, babydoll dresses. It was a form of feminist protest in the 90s.
‘I didn’t think that I looked sexy in that at all,’ the Driver’s License singer said. ‘I was like, this is so cool.
‘I feel I look like Kathleen Hanna or Courtney Love, all these people who are my heroes, and I felt cool and comfortable in it. I just think if we start dressing in a way that’s like, “I don’t want some freak to think that I’m sexy like a baby” or some crazy thing like that, I think it’s losing the plot a little bit.
‘I’m just very protective of younger women, girls, and I don’t ever want them to be fed that rhetoric.’
Olivia’s third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, is due to be released on 12 June, so potentially the music could lean into that riot genre too.
So far, she’s released two tracks, Drop Dead and The Cure, the former of which peaked at number one on the UK charts.
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