Pop star Kesha was almost left dress-less for her new Praying music video when the shoot's director noted it was too similar to the gown Beyonce wore in her Lemonade mini-movie.
Jonas Akerlund directed a segment of the film that accompanied Bey's 2016 album, and when he went to work on Kesha's comeback promo, a fashion conflict arose that he feared could derail a key scene.
Kesha's initial gown was too similar to Beyonce's yellow Lemonade gown
"There was a Cavalli dress we loved from the resort collection that was sort of our reference, and she (Kesha) really wanted that specific dress," the singer's stylist Samantha Burkhart, who also dresses Sia, explained to Racked.
"Jonas was like, 'Just as long as it doesn't veer into, you know, the yellow Cavalli dress I recently used in another music video...' Obviously, I didn't want that either; (Lemonade) was such an iconic moment. So we were like, 'OK, how can we change this?'"
The original Cavalli number Kesha wanted had to be scrapped in favour of another gown, which arrived on the Southern California desert set at the last minute.
Kesha's new single is called Praying
"There was a lot of back-and-forth about that dress," Samantha recalled. "It was made by an L.A. designer, Olima, and it was so much work; I don't think he stopped for three days!
"I literally had to have an assistant wait in L.A. the day we were shooting to drive the dress out (on location) to the Salton Sea. What's funny is that (the Lemonade) dress actually has a similar story - it didn't show up until an hour before they shot that video. They had another dress they were going to use, and Cavalli got it to them just in time!"
Fortunately, the frilly rainbow frock Olima designed turned out to be perfect.
"I mean, she (Kesha) loves rainbows," the fashion professional revealed. "That's kind of what she identifies with on a core level - literally being a rainbow. Anytime we can incorporate anything with rainbows (into her clothing), we do."
