This is the meaning behind the statement-making outfit Lupita Nyong'o just wore to the Tony Awards

"An act of resistance and celebration."

Lupita Nyong'o wears a molded body cast to the 2023 Tony Awards.
(Image credit: Getty)

The 2023 Tony Awards ceremony took place in New York overnight with stars including Jodie Comer, Jessica Chastain and more, arriving at the event in their best and brightest. 

Jodie Comer won the Tony for best leading actress, while Ariana DeBose hosted the event. Though undoubtedly one of the moments which captured people's attention was Lupita Nyong'o's red-carpet arrival. 

Nyong'o arrived at the event wearing a black tuxedo jacket and matching trousers, alongside a statement-making silver breastplate. 

Lupita Nyong'o wears a molded body cast to the 2023 Tony Awards.

(Image credit: Getty)

The pièce de résistance of Lupita's look was created in partnership with Pakistani artist and fashion designer, Misha Japanwala. The actress took to Instagram to explain the outfit, revealing that the breastplate was, in fact, cast and moulded from her own body. 

"Honored, humbled, strengthened and energized to don this breastplate created by @mishajapanwala," Nyong'o said in her caption. 

"Misha Japanwala is a Pakistani artist and fashion designer, whose work is rooted in the rejection and deconstruction of external shame attached to one’s body," she continued.  "In her artistic process, she creates a realistic and true record of a person’s body as an act of resistance and celebration, and an insistence on being allowed to exist freely in our bodies." 

Lupita Nyong'o wears a molded body cast to the 2023 Tony Awards.

(Image credit: Getty)

The actress explained that Japanwala's work has often been associated with the word shame, though as Nyong'o reiterated in her caption, the artist is reclaiming the word and recategorising its definition in a message of empowerment. 

“The word ‘beghairat’ (translation: shameless) has become an anchor in my practice; thousands of people have used it to describe me and the work I create, in an effort to insult and shame me into silence," Lupita shared of Japanwala's writing. "In reclaiming the word and understanding that the rejection of others’ narrow definitions of shame is one of the most powerful tools for liberation, I’ve come to deeply appreciate and respect what living a life of shamelessness truly means." 

Zendaya wears magenta, Pantone's colour of the year 2023

(Image credit: Getty)

Lupita is not the first celebrity to don a breastplate on the red carpet, in fact, Zendaya wore a Tom Ford creation to the Critic's Choice Awards back in 2020. Similarly, Rihanna opted for a custom-made Loewe iteration while performing in this year's Superbowl half-time show. 

Rihanna

(Image credit: Gregory Shamus / Getty)
Zoe Anastasiou
Fashion Editor

Zoe Anastasiou is a Fashion Editor with over eight years of experience working across digital publications in New York, London and Australia. She has contributed to publications including Harper’s BAZAAR and ELLE Australia, and was the Fashion and Social Media Editor at Who What Wear UK before joining Marie Claire.