Who Designed Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet Wardrobe?
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Please please please – tell us everything you know about Sabrina Carpenter's glittery new tour outfits
Sabrina Carpenter knows how to put on a show. Whether it’s re-energising festival-goers with a shot of ‘Espresso’, sparking relationship drama onstage with ‘Please Please Please’ or scandalising British audiences with a rendition of ‘Bed Chem’, there’s always a flurry of excitement when the pint-sized pop star gets on stage. And with the European leg of Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet tour now fully underway, fans are turning their attention to the singer’s latest string of charismatic performances – as well as her fun and flirty tour outfits.
Breaking Down Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet Tour Outfits
Corsets, opera gloves, go-go boots and hundreds (and we mean hundreds) of sequins – these are the sartorial hallmarks of a Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet wardrobe. The singer, who kicked off her tour back in September, is at the forefront of a new type of pop star: the unapologetic, yet playful, femme fatale.
Carpenter embraces her freely feminine era (and all the horniness that comes with it) quite literally, with outfits that play on fun, girly and sexy notes. We’re talking lipstick-stained lingerie, lace catsuits and sparkling two-piece sets (with a disappearing skirt, for good measure).
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Does She Have A Stylist?
Yes, Sabrina Carpenter does have a stylist: Jared Ellner. The A-list celebrity stylist, whose other clients include Emma Chamberlain and Camila Cabelloe, has been working with Carpenter since 2023 – playing a pivotal role in finetuning her Short n’ Sweet aesthetic.
Ellner and Carpenter worked together to create a 60s-inspired image for the tour, drawing on images of babydoll dresses from era-paced musicals like Grease and Bye Bye Birdie, catsuits worn by Marilyn Monroe in There’s No Business Like Show Business and glittering stage outfits worn by ABBA.
What Is The Inspiration Behind Sabrina Carpenter’s Tour Wardrobe?
Feminine freedom seems to be the driving force behind many of Carpenter’s looks for this era of her career, with the singer telling Time: ‘Femininity is something that I’ve always embraced. And if right now that means corsets and garter belts and fuzzy robes or whatever the f*ck, then that’s what that means.’
The show itself also gives a little insight into what inspired the overall look and feel of her wardrobe. Every Short n’ Sweet show is built around what looks like a 1960s penthouse – complete with glossy white interiors, a round bed and heart-shaped conversation pit.
A backdrop to the late night variety show narrative running throughout the performance (hence the giant cameras sat either side of the stage), this setup plays on the vintage star/pin-up girl aesthetic that has become so closely associated with Carpenter’s stage wardrobe.
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‘We started working on tour looks in the summer, in July after Coachella,’ noted Ellner in a conversation with Carpenter for Vogue. ‘I think that was the perfect amount of time… The nice thing is that very early on we agreed that we wanted the looks to be exactly the same for each act, but change the colours throughout the shows.’
‘The way we change it up is through colours and details and accessories – little things here and there,’ added Carpenter. ‘So that way, I always know what I’m getting into each night, but the audience can feel like they’re seeing something new.’
The singer also noted that her onstage style ethos draws on three main pillars: comfort, uniqueness and something ‘for the girls’. (Think tights emblazoned with song lyrics, lipstick marks and heart-studded shoes.)
Who Makes Sabrina Carpenter’s Tour Outfits?
Ellner revealed that they keep each show’s wardrobe very consistent, with one designer or brand tapped to create a custom look for each act:
Act I: Corset & Babydoll By Victoria’s Secret
Carpenter’s first outfit of the show has a slightly unconventional introduction, thanks to the addition of the (now famous) towel prop. ‘The towel was a thing,’ Ellner told Vogue. ‘She opens the show in a bathtub, doesn’t know that the show’s happening and is in a towel,’ explains Ellner. ‘And the vibe is like, “oh my god, I have nothing to wear.” But then she opens it and looks amazing.’
‘We found an old reference of someone doing it with a jacket,’ added Sabrina. ‘She basically reveals that the inside the jacket is the same colour as the dress. And once we started to create the introduction for the show, I really wanted to be in a towel, but I was like, “Oh, that means I got to be naked under there.” And I didn’t want to be naked. It’s a lot of work. Then we thought about doing a strapless corset of body suit, and then the towel is the reveal of the show.’ (Her most recent reveal in London saw the rhinestone inner lining of her towel transformed into a Union Jack, for example.)
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The corset itself, a Victoria’s Secret creation, is teamed up with tights and heels, before being layered with a babydoll coverup midway through the act. ‘I needed to wear a baby doll on stage, because it feels like pajamas, like it’s so comfortable,’ Sabrina explained. ‘So when I throw that on over the corset, I have no insecurities, no, like, thoughts about anything, because I’m just so comfortable in those little dresses.’
‘That motif has been here throughout the album,’ added Ellner. ‘Brigitte Bardot – she’s a great reference for the babydolls we were looking at. And it’s kind of like girlies getting ready.’
‘It’s like Grease in the bedroom while the girls are getting ready,’ added Carpenter. ‘I think it was really inspired by Bye, Bye Birdie too, when she’s, like, dancing around her room.’
Act II: Black Catsuit By Patou
If the first act was all about getting ready, the second is the party itself. ‘Act Two is the cocktail hour, and it’s where things are starting to heat up,’ explained Carpenter. ‘Everyone’s like, a little tipsy, not too crazy, but like, you know, the band starts to get a little more jazzy.’
And with the party in full swing, the singer needed to be in an outfit that would stand the test of several dance numbers. ‘This is where I’m doing the bulk of the movement in the show. So having the catsuit in that act has been really helpful for movement.’
‘We were looking at Marilyn Monroe,’ noted Ellner. ‘She wears a good amount of catsuits. We were thinking There’s No Business Like Show Business, [the black catsuit] she’s wearing with the little teal sash.’
The sash sadly didn’t make the final cut, although Carpenter and her team did experiment with feather boas near the start of the Short n’ Sweet tour. The final look that debuted on the American leg of the tour consisted of a lace black catsuit by Patou, teamed up with matching opera gloves and bedazzled Mary Janes. (But more recent outings of the look have swapped out the lace for full sequins and rhinestones.)
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Act III: Liquid Two-Piece By Ludovic de Saint Sernin
For the final act of the show, Carpenter cited a more modern muse. ‘We went to the ABBA Voyage show in London,’ she told Vogue. ‘There was this one fabric that one of the girls was wearing. It was so gorgeous, and it was liquidy, and it just moved. But it was a hologram. I was like, “I need that goddamn outfit.” It was so beautiful, but it wasn’t real. So we had to do our own version.’
The look is also the subject of another major onstage outfit transformation. Starting out as a top and long skirt, the latter Ludovic de Saint Sernin creation is falls off Carpenter’s body as part of a gag during which she arrests someone in the audience for being ‘too hot’.
This change leaves the singer in the aforementioned top and a miniskirt version of the old maxi – and reveals a bedazzled pair of boots decorated in either cut-out or contrasting hearts. Carpenter rounds off the show in this outfit, performing the likes of ‘Juno’ and ‘Espresso’ in the two-piece.
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What Do Fans Wear To Her Shows?
Sabrina Carpenter might be ‘for the girls’, but the girls are just as much for her. You’ll catch fans of all ages attending the Short n’ Sweet tour in babydolls and corsets, honing in on heart-shaped cut-outs and rhinestone kisses or just straight-up decorated head-to-toe in glitter. The joyful celebration of girlhood at Carpenter’s shows is simply contagious – and, if the numerous GRWM TikToks are anything to go by, lots of fun to take part in.
Featured image: Universal Music Group
