Like Eva Longoria said, "This is not a moment. This is a movement." And tonight at the 60th annual Grammy Awards, the music industry continues to represent the Time's Up initiative that started at this year's Golden Globe Awards. But instead of an all-black dress code, the Grammys found singers, producers, and songwriters using white roses to symbolize the movement's mission, more specifically to pay homage to the suffragettes, who, led by Susan B. Anthony, fought to get (only) white women the right to vote. One star, in addition to her floral boutonnière, opted to use a headpiece to continue the dialogue — one you probably didn't even notice.
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Normally, if we saw Lana Del Rey wearing a diamond-encrusted halo, we'd thinking nothing of it — she's just being Lana. But tonight, her red carpet moment ignited some major déjà vu for fans on Twitter because this star-studded crown looked eerily familiar. After a little social media sleuthing, one fan @eeeeeeeeeehhh called out exactly what the rest of us missed: That crown is a nod to famous Austrian-born actress Hedy Lamarr, who passed away in 2000.
Lana is channeling Hedy Lamarr and I’m crying ?????? this is my aesthetic ??? that headpiece matches my favorite earrings ??? pic.twitter.com/AIfULlalYS
— ? (@eeeeeeeeeehhh) January 28, 2018
Look at her ??? @TabloidArtHist pic.twitter.com/RPZhBmdB0h
— ? (@eeeeeeeeeehhh) January 28, 2018
That celestial headpiece that Del Rey took inspiration from is straight from Lamarr's role as Sandra Kolter in 1941's Ziegfeld Girl. It's an iconic look, and although the singer's crown is much smaller than Lamarr's, the meaning behind it isn't.
Lamarr may have starred alongside Hollywood's biggest actors in the '30s to the late '50s, but she died being largely unacknowledged for her accomplishments that reached far beyond the movie industry. Not only did she help her Jewish mother escape a Nazi-run Austria, but after starring in several films, she went on to become an inventor. (Yes, you can thank Lamarr for your Bluetooth Beats.) After Vanity Fair reported that the documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story would finally tell the narrative Lamarr always deserved, it had fans everywhere wondering about everything we thought we knew of the star. It's high time we learned more about the real, extraordinary life of the woman who, like most at the time, was given film roles that purely existed to emphasize her physical beauty and sexuality.
Although Del Rey hasn't confirmed Lamarr is exactly who her hairstylist looked to for Grammy-night inspiration, the parallels are uncanny and undeniably meaningful. Even if Lamarr left us before she was recognized for her inventive feats, now — with a little help from Del Rey — we're making sure that women doing the most don't go unnoticed again.
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