Olivia Rodrigo Kicks Off Her “Guts” Era With a Stylish Bang
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It’s a big day for teenage 20-something-year-old girls. Olivia Rodrigo’s highly anticipated sophomore album, Guts, has finally been unleashed unto the public, and she’ll have to answer for the feminine chaos that ragers like “All-American Bitch” and “Get Him Back” will no doubt induce. But first, Rodrigo made a surprise visit at an exclusive preview of Spotify x American Express’s Guts gallery pop-up experience in New York City last night.
Fans decked out in purple (Rodrigo’s favorite color and, notably, the common thread uniting the aesthetic branding of Guts and Sour, the debut album that preceded it) crowded the space, which was designed as your prototypical suburban house with a pop-punk twist. You enter through a crushed Solo cup–littered front lawn, loop by a bedroom fit for any early-’00s Lindsay Lohan rom-com, mosey past a kitchen serving purple lemonade and sparkling water, and arrive at a living room covered in metallic violet streamers.
The 20-year-old Grammy winner made her grand arrival in the living room, kicking off her Guts era to the frenzied cheers of hordes of fans with their iPhone cameras dutifully pointed toward her every movement. Though the Sour version of Rodrigo might have attended the event in something like a cotton-candy plaid pleated skirt, this Rodrigo came dressed in a vintage black slipdress (’90s Betsey Johnson, of course) embroidered with delicate red flowers on the bust, straps, and skirt. For good measure, she added a pair of cherry-red kitten heels from Maile.
It’s a sartorial turning point that can also be interpreted as the physical embodiment of her own artistic evolution, a former Disney Channel kid turned rock star coming into her own. She’s a bit more sophisticated, a bit more self-assured, and a bit more—well—gutsy.
“I’m a big believer in just taking a step in any direction. Even if you’re not sure where it’s gonna lead,” Rodrigo said during a fan Q&A session with Instagram’s Eva Chen. “The only way you’re gonna gain confidence is through experience. This record was sort of like that for me. It was kind of just me grappling with mistakes I’ve made in my life or things that I wish I didn’t do and things that I thought were really embarrassing in hindsight. But growing from things like that is the only way you’re gonna figure out who you are in this world.”
The Guts Gallery Pop-Up Experience presented by Spotify x American Express will be open to the public from now until September 10.
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