A Few Runway Looks That Could Have Been on Tonight’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert Stage
Jesus Christ Superstar gallery
What would Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles wear in 2018? Tonight’s hard-rocking Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert special on NBC, starring John Legend, Sara Bareilles, and Alice Cooper, offers a pretty accurate portrait. Through photos released by NBC (and behind-the-scenes snaps on Instagram), we’ve discovered that Legend, who plays Jesus of Nazareth, isn’t going to wear the stereotypical tunic and sandals. Instead, his costumes are made up of clothes you’d likely find in a twentysomething’s closet in Williamsburg, where the show is being filmed. Legend wears mostly white in the form of motorcycle jeans, worn-in button-downs, and sneakers, often with a shawl-collar gray jacket on top. In fact, on The Tonight Show in January, Legend’s wife, Chrissy Teigen, joked about him being a “hip Jesus.” “I saw their fitting, and it was so funny, [he’s wearing] white Balmain jeans, a Rick Owens torn white shirt . . . Jesus is hot!”
There’s a good chance other guys in the production, like Judas (played by Hamilton star Brandon Victor Dixon) and the rest of the apostles, are wearing Rick Owens, too—or at least some Owens-inspired stuff. See: the leather vests, tough boots, and deconstructed, mostly black clothes. An Owens-ian mood makes sense for the show, considering his own history with religious codes; his artful drapery has been inspired in part by the vestments and religious art he saw in Catholic school. Then there’s the miters, veils, and flowing cloaks from his ritual-inspired Fall 2017 collection. The set design of Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert even mirrors the dark, Gothic undercurrents in Owens’s work—and while we aren’t expecting to see his new Birkenstocks onstage, wouldn’t those camel hair “Jesus sandals” be so perfect?
In a recent interview, the show’s costume designer Paul Tazewell said he was also looking at Ann Demeulemeester and Issey Miyake. Maybe it was Demeulemeester’s “punk priest” Fall 2013 menswear collection, which featured clerical white layers and monkish robes. And perhaps the black and white linen capes from Yusuke Takahashi’s Spring 2017 menswear collection for Issey Miyake piqued his interest, too. We’ve pulled those and more Jesus Christ Superstar–worthy looks in the slideshow above, including a Jacquemus dress that reminds us of the one Sara Bareilles wears to play Mary Magdalene. Watch the spectacle tonight on NBC to find more similarities—and if you’re into this fashion-meets-religion mash-up, just wait ’til you see the next Met Gala exhibition.
