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Pop superstar Ariana Grande has created something of a cultural phenomenon around her music videos. Each new single sees Grande embrace an entirely new aesthetic, creating a frenzy amongst fans as they eat up her every costume change and cinematic reference.
For her latest track 34+35, the singer disregards the highly sexual lyrics altogether, instead playing the part of a mad scientist in an old-school lab who brings a sexy cyborg to life (also played by Grande).
The clip, directed by Director X, sees Grande’s scientist struggle to mobilise her robot doppelgänger before a lab mishap transforms the team into Austin Powers-esque Fembots.
The looks are as detailed as we’ve come to expect from Grande, with her scientist get-up consisting of skyscraper platform heels, a high-neck sweater and patent leather lab coat, and a sleek silver bustier and skirt with graphic eye jewels for her turn as the robot. Sixties-style hair and makeup is employed throughout, lending a retro feel to the futuristic film clip.
But the most talked-about look from the film clip is undeniably the army of Fembots that materialise when Grande’s robot character shoots lazerbeams out of her metallic fingers at the lab staff.
The look, which was conceptualised by Grande’s long-time stylist Mimi Cuttrell, is reminiscent of the Austin Powers films, which feature cyborg seductresses that shoot bullets from their babydoll-adorned busts.
Grande’s Fembots pay homage, from the maramou-lined dresses to their long velvet gloves, exaggerated bouffants and metallic platform heels. Grande even gives a nod to one of the Austin Powers characters, Dr. Evil, by employing his signature pinky gesture and winking down the camera lens.
It’s the second time in as many months that Grande has channelled a sixties aesthetic, with her last film clip for Positions sending up a female president in the White House.
