Refashioning Fame: Sabrina Carpenter’s Style Revolution
An Analysis of the Power of Fashion and Music Media in Transforming a Musician’s Image.
Refashioning fame. Is there a perfect formula?
When artists suddenly skyrocket to fame seemingly out of nowhere, is it merely luck, or is there a meticulously crafted formula behind their success?
In the dynamic world of music and entertainment, many artists employ a strategic blend of smart marketing tactics, a strong media presence, engaging storytelling through their music, and even their fashion endeavors to construct a well-defined personal brand that captivates a massive audience.
One artist, Sabrina Carpenter, serves as a perfect example of how all these elements intertwine to reshape a star's trajectory. Through meticulously curated fashion looks and authentic storytelling in her music, she is blossoming into a formidable pop sensation.
In this insightful article, Nyah Khan, a student guest writer from Drexel University’s Design & Merchandising program, delves into the various facets of Sabrina Carpenter's career that have molded her into the star she is today. Her exploration highlights the transformative power of fashion within the music industry, proving that it plays a pivotal role in the journey toward stardom.
Editor’s Note: Nyah is a participant in Fashion Talk's student writing program. Aligned with our mission to uplift young voices in the fashion industry, I had the pleasure of working closely with Nyah to craft this article. I’m excited to share her fresh and insightful perspective with our community.
Happy reading,
Amarissa
Editor-in-Chief, Fashion Talk
Singer and actress Sabrina Carpenter undeniably began making her mark as an emerging icon in the past couple of years, especially in recent months. However, despite being in the spotlight from an early age, her success had not reached nearly the magnitude that it holds today. From her fashion styling to her media presence, music, marketing tactics, and fashion merchandising, each element has played a crucial role in reshaping her newfound success. And while the drama surrounding a love triangle in 2021 might appear to be the catalyst for her elevation, it’s evident that her articulate fashion-related curations and decisions have also played a significant role in redefining her public image.
Sabrina Carpenter’s journey represents a harmonious fusion of passionate musical and fashion endeavors, prompting me to delve deeper into the reasons behind her success and uncover the answers to the following questions:
What does her style have to do with the dissolution of public animosity toward her?
How have her marketing and branding initiatives assisted with this same issue?
Are there intersections between these facets? Is this why she is so successful?
To unravel the factors behind her seemingly sudden revolution, let's take a step back and explore how the past couple of years have influenced diverse aspects of her image.
In today’s media-centric world, drama, gossip, and news often play a role in catapulting individuals into the limelight and kickstarting their careers. However, I have noticed a recurring trend of this type of “drama” significantly impacting the music industry.
One particular instance of “music gossip” that stands out is the past rumored love triangle involving Sabrina Carpenter, Joshua Bassett, and Olivia Rodrigo in 2021, which revolved around Olivia Rodrigo’s groundbreaking single “Driver’s License”. During that time, Rodrigo was depicted as the protagonist, leading to a surge of public animosity directed towards Sabrina and Joshua. As Sabrina expressed in one of her songs, “semi-trucks” worth of hate started to surround their two names, leading to serious death threats and backlash for both her and Joshua. However, this very drama also thrust their names into the spotlight, thus revitalizing their careers. But for Sabrina, this was merely the beginner of her transformative journey.
What is particularly intriguing is Sabrina Carpenter’s recent transformation into an absolute “it girl” on my side of the internet, despite the explosion of drama in 2021. She has successfully turned her image around, garnering admiration from many, including those who hopped on the hate train back in 2021– and this shift owes much less to the drama and far more to the seamless intersection between her music and fashion style.
Musical History and Current Impact
To comprehensively evaluate Sabrina Carpenter’s impressive revolution, it is essential to provide an overview of her career as both a musician and a public figure. Sabrina has been making music and acting since she was around 10 years old. She is not new to the scene in any capacity, which is why it is so intriguing that despite her longstanding presence, she is just now skyrocketing to mainstream fame.
While it takes time for success in these industries to flourish, Sabrina had already released four albums, starred in several popular series and movies, and embarked on three tours. Yet, it is her hit 2022 single "Nonsense" and her ongoing "Emails I Can't Send" World Tour that has propelled her to unparalleled recognition and success.
Before “Nonsense”, Sabrina’s top single was “On My Way” with Alan Walker and Farruko, which has amassed approximately 579 million Spotify streams over four years (kworb). “Nonsense” has rapidly achieved 345 million streams as of July 2023, just shy of its one-year release anniversary. Her current world tour for her 5th studio album, “Emails I Can’t Send” stands as one of the most significant factors propelling her career forward.
At the end of each show, she performs “Nonsense”, delivering a unique, funny, and witty outro tailored to the city she’s performing in. Clips of these outros have garnered substantial traction on platforms like TikTok and Twitter, introducing her and her music to a broader audience. What’s interesting is that these are the same platforms she received massive amounts of backlash on back in 2021. However, through her music, Sabrina skillfully presents herself as relatable and lighthearted, effectively winning over many fans and those who have previously criticized her.
The magnitude of her success is evident as she secured a spot as the opening act for the Latin American leg of Taylor Swift’s “Era’s Tour” later this summer and in the fall!
Impactful Styling and Collaborations
While Sabrina Carpenter’s musical success is quite notable, it is also crucial to evaluate the impact of her fashion endeavors that have worked to catapult her career even further. Throughout the past 3 years, Sabrina’s style has undergone a complete evolution, thanks to the brilliant work of stylists like Jason Bolden and Jared Ellner who have curated a look for her that is trendy, glamorous, and well… innocent. By employing dreamy silhouettes and pastel colors, her styling creates an image that is both sweet and chic.
Frequently styled in soft pink, blue, and white, colors that symbolize innocence and purity, Sabrina’s curated image effectively dissolves any past public animosity. An excellent example of this is the look that stylist Jason Bolden put together for Sabrina’s sold-out Greek Theater concert.
The breathtaking FROLOV ensemble just emanates dreaminess, featuring a beautiful pale pink base embellished with stunning sparkling rhinestones and the most darling lace detailing. Adding to its allure is a subtly sensual yet predominantly sweet heart cutout in the corseted upper portion of the dress.
Accompanied by a soft glam hair and makeup style, this look complements Sabrina’s image in several ways. It maintains a trendy appeal through the use of a corset and lace textures while elevating her style with a touch of luxury from a hot high-end designer. Additionally, it artfully juxtaposes mature and sweeter elements, transforming her image from that of a girl knocked down by drama to that of a stylish woman with captivating stories to be told and heard through her music. This examination underscores the pivotal role of Sabrina’s fashion styling choices, encompassing silhouettes, colors, and designer selections, in revolutionizing her image.
Likewise, the baby blue look by Blumarine, styled by Jared Ellner, exudes a similar image to the FROLOV outfit, showcasing the cohesiveness of her style and underscoring how she strategically brands herself as a musician and public figure. The dress's satin texture exudes delicate elegance, beautifully complemented by the dreamy blue color. The plunging neckline further accentuates a mature image of Sabrina, seamlessly marrying elegance and sweet glamour.
The interplay between her hair and makeup further contributes to the cohesive image that the styling has masterfully created.
Sabrina certainly portrays a sought-after look that endears her to fans. She has evolved into an aspirational figure, capturing the hearts of many, thanks to the seamless integration of her cohesive branding, styling, marketing, and media presence. This powerful combination demonstrates that the fashion and music industries play pivotal and intersecting roles in propelling careers when executed with precision and artistry.
Public Persona: Media Presence, Relatability, and Personal Style
As we’ve witnessed, not only is Sabrina’s music increasing her relatability and allure, but her style has transformed her into an “it girl”. Her charming, girly, and trendy fashion choices are uniquely captivating and challenging to replicate. Moreover, her style versatility shines through in both her tour performance looks, exuding a "popstar princess" vibe that resonates with admirers, and her everyday looks, which are attainable and on-trend for her audience, cementing her status as a style icon for many. Her Instagram feed, meticulously curated like a beautifully crafted Pinterest board, is yet another element that I believe has significantly contributed to her overall success.
In today’s world, Instagram has gone from a platform where people casually post snippets of their lives to one where people meticulously curate highlight reels of their experiences. However, there is also a movement towards embracing more casual posting, though still done artistically. The rise of "photo dumps" reflects this desire to "Make Instagram Casual Again", but even within these posts, a deliberate curation with an artistic touch remains prevalent.
Sabrina Carpenter’s Instagram perfectly combines breathtaking professional photography from her tour and press engagements with artistic and aesthetic photo dumps. This unique approach not only showcases her glamorous side but also increases her relatability as a person, allowing her followers to connect with her beyond her celebrity status. Many celebrity Instagram accounts are purely the former, which I believe limits their audience’s connection and creates a sense of unattainability.
While the A-List celebrity culture might have been the thing to follow in the early 2000s, in today’s social landscape it seems that more people yearn for greater transparency in the lives of celebrities. They want to see that these public figures are not vastly different from everyday people. Audiences find joy in relating to celebrities as it fosters a connection with someone they admire. Sabrina Carpenter has mastered the art of striking this balance, maintaining a relatable persona that makes her fans feel like they know her while still being the iconic figure that they aspire to be, particularly in the way she dresses and presents herself through her posts.
Within the context of relatability, it’s important to evaluate the success of “Nonsense” as a song in contrast to her previous, smaller hits. I firmly believe the reason behind the success of this song lies in its lighthearted and carefree nature. It’s quite literally nonsense. It’s just a fun tune that Sabrina seemingly enjoyed creating and performing, especially her personalized outros for each city, further contributing to her approachable and relatable persona as a celebrity, endearing her to her audience even more.
Music Merchandise and Fashion Marketing
Regarding branding, marketing, and merchandising, the same theme permeates significantly in Sabrina Carpenter’s career. Her marketing team seems to know her audience exceptionally well, creating some of the most innovative merchandise and marketing strategies I have seen from a musician in a while. The branding surrounding her album “Emails I Can’t Send” extends seamlessly to her website, designed to resemble an email inbox, where she shares updates about her tours, merchandise, and new music. The website's well-conceived layout also features a link to her merch shop, contributing to an overall cohesive and thought-out approach.
The standout merchandise in the collection is the “Slut” hoodie and shorts. To the uninformed, this might come across as surprising, but it directly addresses the 2021 drama where she was unjustly labeled with hurtful terms, including "slut." Sabrina even addresses this controversy in her song "Because I Liked a Boy," using music as a powerful medium to respond to the situation. In the song, she refers to herself as a "homewrecker" and a "slut," conveying the impact that the 2021 love triangle had on her.
The true brilliance of this merchandise lies in Sabrina’s masterful reclamation of the word, turning it into an endearing and empowering term for her and her fans. A clear testament to this transformation was when she proudly wore a sash labeled "Homewrecker" at a concert, a heartfelt gift from an adoring fan. This display of self-assurance proves that she cannot be silenced by past accusations. Turning a situation that could have potentially shattered her career into an opportunity to profit and gain power exemplifies how an intelligent fashion business can genuinely reshape one's trajectory, surpassing the impact of typical drama.
Furthermore, her merchandise is successful because it reinforces her “it girl” through its alignment with current trends. The “homewrecker” tee, for instance, features a baby tee style, which is a style of tee shirt that is currently dominating her audience’s Pinterest boards and closets. The witty text on this merchandise caters precisely to her audience's preferences, embracing the trend of ironic tees that pay homage to icons from the 90s and 2000s, reminiscent of Paris Hilton's iconic and ironic text tees that have recently resurfaced. Sabrina's adept incorporation of this trendiness into both her personal style and merchandise further solidifies her position as an emerging icon.
Sabrina Carpenter is undeniably a force in the music industry. She possesses a remarkable talent and entrepreneurial acumen and is rapidly emerging as a style icon, all while maintaining a down-to-earth relatability that endears her to many. Beyond her individual qualities, this analysis makes it clear that she is also setting a profound example for other musicians and public figures regarding the transformative potential of fashion within the music industry.
Sabrina reclaimed and reshaped the narrative surrounding a highly challenging situation. By skillfully harmonizing carefully curated styling, media presence, and musical content, she turned the drama in her favor, showcasing the transformative potential of these interconnected industries. As she continues to pave the way for herself and others, it becomes evident that success knows no bounds when these passions intertwine.
The need for fashion professionals in the music industry has never been greater, especially in the age of expanding media and the capacity for curating public image through these efforts. Sabrina Carpenter's journey serves as a compelling case study, demonstrating the undeniable intersections between fashion and media choices in shaping a successful career.
Final oversight & edits by , Founder & Editor in Chief of Fashion Talk
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