“Being thrown into the Katseye world, there’s just a lot to learn because there’s so many girls and a lot of creatives involved. It’s been really fun developing that aesthetic for them,” Qian tells Refinery29. “Humberto and I connected and we were really excited to work together in the ‘Gnarly’ era,” Qian says.
This era, or musical chapter, includes singles like “Gnarly” and “Gabriela” along with The Beautiful Chaos Tour. At the time, the girls were styled in bold black ‘fits. “‘Gnarly’ was a lot of dark tones, a lot of leather, and hardware. I would say it’s more of a dark and edgy era,” Qian adds. Think: black leather sets, lots of plaid, animal prints and fur, grommets, pinstripe suits, denim, and fiery reds.
But there’s a big distinction for Qian when styling for a tour versus a music video versus a red carpet. “For tour, there’s just a lot more to consider when we are creating the looks. These girls are dancing, doing insane choreography, they’re doing stunts. So when we’re creating the tour looks, it’s really functionality first and it needs to be really performance-friendly,” Qian explains. “And the looks also need to withstand the test of time if they’re dancing for two hours every single night for a few months.”
