Another key point of entry for Ackie was the remarkably meticulous wardrobe assembled by Charlese Antoinette Jones, the costume designer who had a breakout moment last year (and earned a handful of award nominations) for her work onJudas and the Black Messiah.Delving into Houston’s outfits over the decades, they were able to identify—and understand more deeply—the dichotomy between her private and public lives. “After looking more closely we saw those two very different sides to Whitney,” Ackie explains. “There’s what her friends and family called Nippy, her nickname when she was out of the public eye, which was a lot more chilled and down-to-earth: jeans and a tracksuit, all of that. And then you have Whitney Houston on television screens and on stage, in these beautiful, sleek dresses and sequins.”
It was the latter persona that also ended up offering Ackie and Jones a lesson in fashion history. “It was fascinating, everything from the fashion to the hairstyles to the makeup trends—even the eyebrow trends!” Ackie recalls. “It all kind of helped me to place her in a specific time and at a specific moment in her journey.” Indeed, the more Ackie and the costume team considered Houston’s place in pop-culture history, the more they realized just how much influence she’d had on fashion. “A lot of her outfits look really classic for the time that they were in, but that’s partly because so many people dressed like her,” Ackie explains. “Bringing to the forefront Whitney as a fashion icon was definitely a goal.” As for Ackie’s personal favorite Houston looks? Those would be her classic formula of a leather jacket, white tank top, and high-waisted jeans during her days as an ’80s ingénue, or the golden Marc Bouwer gown and bejeweled turban she wore to her 1994 performances in South Africa honoring Nelson Mandela. “She just looked so regal and beautiful,” Ackie sighs of the latter look.
It makes sense, then, that for theI Wanna Dance with Somebodypremiere tonight in New York, Ackie and her stylist Nicky Yates turned to one of fashion’s most extravagant (and offbeat) purveyors of high glamour and glitz:Daniel Roseberry ofSchiaparelli. But there’s also a sentimental link to the house of Schiaparelli for Ackie, who studied textiles at college and even considered a career as a dressmaker if acting fell through. “My first ever fashion show in Paris was the Schiaparelli couture show just before lockdown, and I was so nervous, as I’d never been on the front row of anything before,” she says. “I was so aware of the history of Schiaparelli, and when I got there and the models began walking down the runway, I got really emotional because of the music and the clothes, and I started crying.”
When Ackie and Yates began their usual process of putting together separate Pinterest mood boards and then coming together to share notes, they realized that they’d both earmarked look 21 from Roseberry’sfall 2022 couture collection for the house: namely, a gown made entirely of strands of Swarovski crystals and silver glass bugle beads that required nearly 5,000 hours of hand embroidery work, topped with a breathtaking metal corset crafted into floral shapes and encrusted with rhinestones. “I was talking to Nicky about the idea of liquid metal, because I was thinking about the ‘Queen of the Night’ look inThe Bodyguard,” says Ackie. “It’s that balance of femininity and a kind of toughness too, especially with the flowers crafted from metal. It just felt very womanly and sexy, but also like being protected—a kind of armor.”
A quick call from Yates to Schiaparelli later, and the look was theirs. Heading to Paris in November to visit the Schiaparelli headquarters in the former apartment of its founder,Elsa Schiaparelli, on Place Vendôme—where Ackie was then fitted with a custom version of the skirt—felt like a pilgrimage for Ackie. (She notes that her love for couture runs in the family, recalling lively discussions about fashion with both her sister and her late mother.) “There’s almost a church-like feeling entering that space, there was just so much history,” Ackie says, effusively recounting the thrill of seeing the seamstresses and atelier workers tweak the garments up close. “It was absolutely incredible, I just felt giddy the entire time.”
Besides being an ode to Houston, however, the look also reflected an important milestone for Ackie. WithI Wanna Dance with Somebody marking her first leading role in a major studio film, it only made sense to gobig. “I don’t think I’ll get many opportunities to wear something so beautiful, you know,” she says. “You can’t go to Tesco wearing this!” Moreover, it signaled how far Ackie has come—and the excitement of finally sending her biggest project yet out into the world. “I think there’s something about owning the moment and making sure that in this time, I have as much fun as possible and express myself as much as possible,” she adds.
