Working with his stylist Hodo Musa, he took to the stage to perform “Sun Goes Down” in a sleek white suit—a classic crooner look perfectly in keeping with the song’s gentler, heartfelt balladry. This being Lil Nas X, however, there was a more meaningful, even quietly political twist in store. A look from London-based Nigerian designer Mowalola Ogunlesi’s spring 2020 “Coming for Blood” collection, the jacket features two bleeding bullet wounds, a detail which Ogunlesi has previously described as a reference to her “lived experience as a Black person.” (If the look feels familiar at all, that’s because it stirred up a little controversy in the tabloids after Naomi Campbell wore a dress with the same design to attend her Fashion for Relief runway show back in 2019.)
Finally, to perform his Billboard Hot 100 number one hit “Montero,” Lil Nas X slipped into another, even more dramatic, Mowalola look: an ab-baring cropped leather jacket and leather trousers with lace-up details and painted flames licking up the inner thigh and across the shoulders. Performing an impressive (and delightfully risqué) routine with his troupe of shirtless backing dancers, while also taking the time to show off the pole-dancing moves he learned specifically for the “Montero” video, he channeled his devilish instincts to the full, offering up full-throttle petrolhead glamour with a distinctly sinful twist.
And while a particularly vigorous move on the pole might have led to his trousers splitting at the end of the performance, being the true professional is, he styled it out with an appropriately racy crotch grab. (Besides, only real icons have wardrobe malfunctions, right?) Keep giving ’em hell, Lil Nas X.
