Shania Twain.Photo:Shania Twain/ Youtube
Shania Twain/ Youtube
Shania Twainis reflecting on her iconic wardrobe in the"Man! I Feel Like a Woman"music video 25 years after its release.
“We wanted to make something unexpected and the role reversal was the vision,” Twain wrote in her footnote.
The “You’re Still the One” singer wore a white button-down shirt and tie under a black trenchcoat in the video until she slowly undressed to reveal a black corset and skirt with fishnets and a choker. For part of the video, she also wore a black top hat with a veil attached to it.
Twain said her stylist for the video “dressed me in that amazing high women’s coat, the top hat, with the veil added for a touch of femininity in what was a ‘typically’ masculine outfit.”
“I wanted it to evolve with the peeling away layers of clothes, like layers of this person coming off and revealing a different side of my inner self,” she continued. “I wanted [the outfit] to show and say so much more than just man and woman — there’s a whole area in between.”
“Man! I Feel Like A Woman!".Shania Twain/ Youtube
The “That Don’t Impress Me Much” singer said that the country music industry gave her “flack” for the 1999 video.
“We were taking country music to a place it hadn’t been before and some people didn’t like that,” she said, adding that she and the team involved in the project were deliberate about every risk they were taking.
“I remember the art department saying ‘This is way too sexy! The women listeners are not going to like this! They’re going to feel threatened.” But Twain knew that her instincts were right and “women would totally get it.”
The criticism of the wardrobe for the video reinforced the message behind “Man! I Feel Like a Woman.”
Shania Twain in “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!".Shania Twain/ Youtube
“I was standing up for myself through the song. I wasn’t being apologetic for all of the things I had been criticized for in my life,” Twain said, adding that she was often told things like “….you can’t wear that, that’s too tight, that’s too short.”
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Ironically, Twain could fit in the video’s famous corset decades after its release. She wore it during a performance of herLet’s Go!residency in Las Vegas in 2021.
“I don’t do it as easily as I did before, but it feels awesome,” Twain said of wearing the outfit onPeople (the Show!).
Whenshe wore the iconic outfitduring a 2023 concert in New York City, Twain revealed that before she pulled it out of retirement, the outfit had been in a “museum, collecting dust.”
source: people.com
