It is common knowledge by now that a famous woman isn’t allowed to both “exist” and “do things” without having a handy catchphrase to use in Instagram captions. Crow Girl Summer, a very real thing I didn’t just make up 20 minutes ago for the purpose of this article, is the gift I am giving to FKA twigs. Inspired by my colleague James Greig’s insatiable need to crown a new summer trend (see: BFI Girl Summer), it all came to me when I realised that twigs is currently on a promo run for new film The Crow, she is a girl, and it is summer – so Crow Girl Summer it was!
On the press tour for the new film – a reboot of the cult 90s franchise – twigs is clearly taking cues from the movie’s supernatural protagonist (see also: method dressing), arriving to the premier in a black vintage Armani gown and a spiny metal headpiece. Documenting her quick change on TikTok, she then headed to the loo to slip into another look, a second black gown with a lace bodice and Marc Jacobs Kiki boots. While both outfits were appropriately premiere-ready, they also communicated some sort of menacing bird-like allure, as if twigs might just grab us by her talons and eat us up for lunch! Armani dresses cannot speak, but if this one could it would say I am an omen of death unafraid to scavenge for carrion by the roadside, sentiment we’ve all come to expect from Crow Girl Summer.
Before the premiere, twigs was also showcasing her aptitude for fashion as she arrived at the Sirius XM radio station in New York. In red leather pants, a strappy white top and a super green smoothie in hand, the singer-stroke-actor floated into the studio like she meant business, huge wraparound sunglasses shrouding her face. A night before, on the way to a listening party for her new album EUSEXUA, she also hit the streets of New York in a burgundy leather corset, see-through short shorts, hoof-like boots and clutching a big, hairy purse.
Though neither of those looks incorporated the colour black or have any bird-like qualities whatsoever, Crow Girl Summer isn’t about looking like an actual crow, and I have no idea where you would’ve got that idea from. Crow Girl Summer is about being in the movie The Crow, and also about fashion. It’s about being your unapologetic self, whether you decide to dress like a crow or not. It’s also about foraging for mealworms in the undergrowth, and perching atop a broken tree limb in a spooky graveyard. But – most importantly – it’s about hanging out with Julia Fox. Hope that clears things up.