Music and fashion icon Erykah Badu was honored with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)’s Fashion Icon award last night in New York at a ceremony that took place at the picturesque Museum of Natural History.
For the occasion, Badu wore a Thom Browne look from the designer’s fall 2024 collection, adorned with an intricate headpiece and septum ring by New York-based designer Chrishabana.
We had an email exchange with designer Chris Habana about creating the show-stopping headpiece with his Chrishabana studio team. Check it below.
Snobette:How did the creation of the headpiece come about?
Chrishabana: “As always with Erykah, this was a true collaboration in every sense. Erykah sent me an AI-image that was essentially a collage of cultures and asked me to reinterpret that. The image called to mind this nomadic global traveler, global citizen character who was avidly collecting treasures from around the world. The treasures would be a blend of intricate pieces from the various peoples they interacted with, bits of discarded metal hardware, as well as a variety of real and synthetic gems. This informed the materials we used to create the physical piece.”
Snobette:How long did it take to create the headpiece, and what materials were used to build it? Chrishabana: “It was a challenge to execute this within a week, but Erykah and her team were so kind and gracious to give us full creative reign to interpret what this look could be from our perspective. For materials we used Thom Browne’s fabric to construct a hood, the team stitched hand carved sterling silver charms, colorful semi precious stones and lab grown diamonds, and decorative sterling silver and steel chain.”
