On Sunday evening, Mary J. Blige surprised audiences at the Super Bowl by taking the stage in a bodysuit adorned with 10,000 Swarovski crystals.
The R&B singer wore the white and silver attire while performing her 2001 songs "Family Affair" and "No More Drama" at the SoFi Stadium, which was turned into a California house party for a hip-hop-themed halftime show.
Norwegian fashion designer Peter Dundas created the ensemble, which included matching gloves and thigh-high boots. Blige wore it with other artists Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar to cap the event, which included a long-sleeve crop top with lace details and a silver fedora hat.
Dundas, who worked as the creative director for Italian label Roberto Cavalli before founding his own namesake line in 2017, created a shimmering animal-print appearance with laser-cut mirror embellishments, pearl beading, and crystals.
Dundas told Women's Wear Daily that Blige looked like a "snow leopard" in the dress.
"I felt (the mirrors) worked really well with Mary since she sings about things that you can relate to," he told the fashion newspaper. "She virtually becomes a mirror image of the audience."
Blige, who is known as the "Queen of Hip-Hop Soul," received accolades not just for her performance but also for her wardrobe, particularly her boots, on social media, with numerous admirers saying that she had "won" the Super Bowl.
One Twitter user wrote, "Mary J. Blige's outfit and hair is absolutely everything I am obsessed with," while another said, "Mary J. Blige should have her own line of thigh boots at this point."
Dundas' label announced shortly after the performance that a virtual replica of the costume will be available as a non-fungible currency, or NFT, via the digital fashion platform DressX. The digital outfits, which will be sold with a virtual duplicate of what she'll wear to the afterparties as well as the designer's original designs, will allow fans to "participate and envision themselves in the looks," according to a press statement from Dundas.
Daria Shapovalova and Natalia Modenova, the founders of DressX, claimed in a news release that customers may "test on the performance looks in augmented reality anytime and anywhere in the globe — something that could practically never be done in the actual world."
Dundas designed the dazzling gold gown she wore to last year's Met Gala, so this isn't the first time he's dressed the celebrity for a big event. It's also not his first Super Bowl design: in 2020, he created the crystal-encrusted crimson dress worn by Shakira during her halftime show.
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