How Björk’s Swan dress transcended public ridicule to icon status

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00:00The girl should be put into an asylum, screeched Joan Rivers.

00:03Probably one of the dumbest things I've ever seen, said TV fashion pundit Stephen Kojikaru.

00:08It's hard to believe how aggressive people were towards Bjork's swan dress,

00:12when her look has been so widely imitated in pop culture.

00:15People mocked and parodied her on everything from The Ellen Show,

00:18White Chicks, My Big Fat Independent Movie, Kim Possible, Hannah Montana, to name a mere few.

00:23The thing is, eventually the public had to accept that when you copy something enough,

00:27it goes from mockery into adoration.

00:30And we can definitely say that Bjork's look developed a huge fan club,

00:33at least by the time a swan dress appeared on RuPaul's Drag Race Season 7.

00:37And it most certainly did when it went on display at the 2019 Met Gala Camp Notes on Fashion.

00:43By then, the world was finally ready for her.

00:45Although it took them long enough.

00:47Anna Pavlova in 1905 and Marlene Dietrich in 1935 actually wore a swan dress before Bjork.

00:54The look references a Greek myth of the Spartan queen Leda being pursued by Zeus,

00:59who has taken the form of a swan.

01:00So why was it Bjork who made such a splash?

01:03Maybe because her accessories included a trail of eggs that she dropped as she walked the red carpet.

01:08If we're following the Greek myth, one of those eggs would have laid Helen of Troy.

01:11It might also have something to do with the culture in which Bjork wore this outfit.

01:15Historian and curator Valerie Steele said that at this point,

01:19actors had started being hyper careful.

01:21Perhaps fearing sticking their necks out and ending up on the worst dress list.

01:25The designer Marjan Pajewski made the dress for his autumn-winter 2001 show.

01:30He said the whole narrative that season was inspired by the motion of a merry-go-round

01:34with all these different animals.

01:35He told Vogue that it was a very nice surprise seeing Bjork on the red carpet in his dress.

01:40The eggs were all her idea.

01:41So rebellious at a traditional occasion like the Oscars.

01:44I respect tradition, of course.

01:46But everybody and everything deserves to be laughed at from time to time.