“I’m not even sure where I am right now,” Jahleel Weaver says. “… Bath?” The 37-year-old stylist—who moved from suburban Maryland to New York aged 18 before going on to travel the world as Rihanna’s right-hand man—has, in a remarkable twist of events, never set foot in the rural British county of Somerset. “I’m so down to check out what the real British people are wearing,” he adds. “I’ll call it research.” (He will be disappointed.) There are also more urgent tasks at hand—chief among them styling Dua Lipa for her career-defining slot on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage on Friday night—than exploring the lesser-known fashion capital that is the West Country. “I’m super, super excited. But it’s been a real whirlwind.”
It all started three months ago, when Lipa and her longtime stylist, Lorenzo Posocco, parted ways. “I was also entering a transitional period,” Weaver says. “I basically went from being Rihanna’s full-time employee for 13 years to starting my own creative studio, which honestly stemmed from seeing Rih become a mother. I felt like I needed to build something of my own, and she’s given me the full support and motivation to do that.” He still provides creative direction for Rihanna—and her various Fenty businesses—but the freedom to become his own boss has been a prodigious shake-up. “It was a natural and fast introduction to Dua,” he continues. “And I always thought she had great style. To have become a real name in fashion with such an identifiable look is an incredible achievement. But her life is evolving and there’s an ease and effortlessness to how she presents. It’s less ‘in your face.’”
It was an immediate baptism of fire: an SNL appearance, an album release, the Met Gala. A glimpse at Lipa’s Radical Optimism tourdrobe—she’s so far completed five out 24 dates that will take her from Berlin to Seoul—reveals Weaver’s subtle but significant influence. (The neon bodysuits of Future Nostalgia have been replaced with second-hand Sonic Youth T-shirts, hot pants, and studded belts.) “The red hair is so distinct from her past eras, for example, and that’s always been considered such a liberating thing for a female artist to do. It immediately made me think of some of the famous redheads from the past—Poison Ivy from The Cramps and Nina Hagen—who Dua and I have started pulling from.” Weaver understands the significance of Lipa’s hot-headed metamorphosis more than most: his 13-year-long career as Rihanna’s stylist began when she switched her own hair color from the Rated R blonde to a culture-shifting shade of scarlet with Loud. “It symbolizes a coming of age.”
Weaver says he’s had about a month to create five looks for a stage no less daunting than the Super Bowl. “This will be such an important moment in Dua’s life and she is putting on an intense, four-act spectacle, so everything has been custom-made,” he adds. “There has been no compromise.” It will be the stylist’s first time attending Glastonbury and his costumes will lean into the… erm, undone glamour that he will doubtless witness among tonight’s 150,000-strong British crowd. “I love the Brits,” he says. “I literally grew up watching Ab Fab. That’s how I learnt who Christian Lacroix was.” There is an appropriate champagne deshabillé to just about everything Lipa will perform in: imitation shirts draped at the waist, vintage band tees, raw-edged minidresses, shin-trailing belts. “This isn’t Coachella! But Dua Lipa is still one of the biggest popstars in the world and so we had to make sure the looks felt just as ‘stage appropriate’. It was easy to pull off because she’s so open, so fun, and will try anything.”
Scroll down to discover the secrets behind the five special looks Jahleel Weaver masterminded for Dua Lipa’s headline performance.