Kid Cudi Wore a Wedding Dress For His Latest Kurt Cobain Tribute – GQ

When Kid Cudi posed for photos at the CFDA Fashion Awards last night in a custom bridal gown, he stood hand-in-hand with its designer, ERLs Eli Russell Linnetz, lace-gloved fingers interlocked, both wearing American Gothic expressions. On the red carpet, Linnetz lifted Cudis veil.

Be yourself, be free, baby, yeah, Cudi said into a teensy microphone, with a grin; hed paired the dress with a white tux jacket, crystal-covered sneakers, grungy eyeliner, an icy Black Jesus pendant, and Manic Panic-pink hair. This morning, he tweeted a picture of Kurt Cobain mugging in a white dress, wearing a sparkly necklace of his own.

This isnt even the first time Cudis worn a dress in homage to Cobain in the last yearhe wore a custom belle-skirted, floral gown designed by Off-Whites Virgil Abloh while performing on Saturday Night Live back in June. For me, it represents personal empowerment despite any social norm, Abloh told GQ at the time It vehemently represents confidence. Its Cudi knocking on your television screen saying, Hey! Be yourself. Sounds familiar!

For his part, Linnetzwho was nominated for American Emerging Designer of the Year last night for his work at ERL, the white-hot, Venice-based brand endorsed by the likes of Kanye West and Justin Bieberis making a habit of swathing famous men in fabric, lending them a sense of play and softness that menswears been missing for, well, a really long time. (Linnetz also sourced the ginormous quilt A$AP Rocky wore like a cape to the Met Galaa garment that takes on a sexy quality when you consider how Rocky and his girlfriend, Rihanna, also wrapped in a duvet-like Balenciaga gown, arrived impishly late to the function.) Cudis ever-evolving style has such cultural relevance to meit expresses how I view the world of ERL, which itself is an embodiment and celebration of the changing face of America, Linnetz said in a statement. The ease of celebration here is key. Its about gender, its about sex!but not in an I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry sort of way.

Its also, as Cudi and Abloh reiterated, about confidence. The image of seeing Kurt Cobain in a dress was very rock n roll to me, Cudi said on HBO Maxs The Shop: Uninterrupted after his SNL appearance. I want to be a disruptor, I want to fuck shit up. And its cool because Im also giving confidence to the kids and telling them to be themselves do what they want to do.

Cudi also wrote about Lil Nas X, who also wore a wedding gown complete with mascara tears in his recent THATS WHAT I WANT video, for Times 100 most influential people issue: To have a gay man in hip-hop doing his thing, crushing recordsthat is huge for us and for Black excellence. The way hes unafraid to make people uncomfortable is so rock n roll.

Weve come a ways since Dennis Rodman wore a whole bridal look back in 1996 (with a full Kevyn Aucoin face, horse-drawn carriage, and entourage of tuxedo-wearing women), declaring that he was marrying himself. Male-identifying people wearing dresses and skirts is becoming more and more of a bonafide move, rather than a stunt. Be free, baby.

Read more:

Kid Cudi Wore a Wedding Dress For His Latest Kurt Cobain Tribute - GQ