“I Feel Like My Most Powerful Gay Self”: Olly Alexander’s Harris Reed Brit Awards Look Is Steeped In Queer Joy And History – British Vogue

“I have been dreaming of performing at the Brit Awards since I was a little kid,” Years and Years’s Olly Alexander excitedly told British Vogue hours before he stepped on-stage to perform the Pet Shop Boys hit “It’s A Sin” with Elton John to open the 2021 ceremony — one of the first live music events to have happened in Britain in the last 14 months.

For many, Alexander will be recognisable as Ritchie in Russell T Davies’s recent Channel 4 show, which borrows its name from the Pet Shop Boys’s song. The series explores the catastrophic impact of the AIDS crisis in 1980s London, a time that the Brit Awards performance honours in uniting Sir Elton – a fierce advocate for AIDS-related research, who founded his namesake foundation nearly 30 years ago – with Alexander, a key figure in Britain’s contemporary queer landscape and in the music charts.

It was John who first approached Alexander to join him on-stage. “And, of course, I said yes,” Alexander quips. “To me, this is such an iconic song – period. But it really highlights the gay experience, which the TV show did in bringing to light really important aspects of our shared history, especially queer history and bringing it into the national conversation. It was really important to me that we brought that to the stage with us.” John and Alexander were joined with a slew of performers under the instruction of the Theo Adams Company. “Our concept was liberation and queer spirit and queer joy, and to bring that energy to the great British public. I think they’re going to love it.”

With John’s invitation accepted, Alexander started to think of what he should wear. He knew it would be made by a queer designer and he “really wanted the drama” that could make its mark on Brit Awards history. Harris Reed, the American-British designer, whose tagline is “fighting for the beauty of fluidity”, fit the bill perfectly. “It’s a two-piece, with a halter-style crop top and trousers that flare at the bottom,” Alexander enthusiastically says of the look, which is part Britney, part Prince. “In black lace with crystal details. It’s skin-tight, but also stretchy so I can move. I’m wearing it with creepers. I just can’t go out on stage without a creeper! And I’m wearing a very large velvet cape. I really wanted glamour and to feel really powerful in the look, and I definitely do. I feel like my most powerful gay self. I wanted something that would make me feel really strong and sexy, but that was also beautiful and fluid – that’s what Harris’s work is for me.”