Olivia Rodrigo Carries the Torch in a Babydoll Dress

by Alivia Stonier

Olivia Rodrigo has become one of the most influential pop-rock artists of Gen Z. The artist quickly rose beyond the fame of her roots in childhood as a Disney star in both Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, instead transitioning to storytelling her real life.

Quickly, the artist became known for her purple aesthetics, at first wearing light colors and butterfly clips that became a signifier of her brand. One of her most notable looks during this time was during the Sour prom when the artist wore a pink dress, playing into the bubbly pop styles that fans associated with her during this time. Having released her early music at just 17 years old, Rodrigo was able to represent the style of teenagehood and how it was evolving.

It's upon her second release that things begin to get a little bit more of an edge, not only in her music but also in the way that she is spotted on stage. Swapping out the purple for black and red influences, Olivia Rodrigo would go on to be associated with the likes of the Riot Girl era, with artists like Bikini Kill and Hole becoming a guide. 

A couple of her most standout looks include a silver two-piece bodysuit that was completely glittered out and, of course, her Coachella outfit from 2025 that was a fully red bodysuit and arguably more revealing than her current looks that are getting backlash, but more on that in a moment.

Despite the aesthetic changes, the artist did still support a deeper purple for many moments, and even in her current style, there are still iterations of that purple that you can find layered within her merch drops. 

The same edginess remains true across the rest of her tour prior to the era of "You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl so in Love," as it was later found out that each night her different tops that were sported in the same dark colors or more grunge fonts were actually hints to the lyrics for her upcoming music. All under the audience's noses, which takes her fashion beyond the typical reach and into close examination for future hints of artistry. 

As we enter the newest era of Olivia's music with the release of her third album, however, there is a soft pivot into a sort of middle ground between the already established styles that Rodrigo has become known for.

Swapping back to the soft pinks that were sometimes featured during the Sour era, Olivia allows for a softness to creep into the bitterness that was featured on her album Guts. Trading out the angry breakup songs for more nuanced layers of right and wrong and the feelings of leaving somebody when you're deeply in love. Rodrigo finds a way to allow the color palettes and fashion that she wears in every era to reflect the emotional landscape that she has painted across her musical world by translating it to its visual manifestation.

With this complexity, on the latest record came a gentler palette, swapping out the rhinestones for baby doll dresses and soft cotton tops.

Despite the popularity of baby doll dresses in our current culture, they can be found on any clothing rack in popular stores like Hollister and Urban Outfitters, as well as being sported by other artists within the industry in this current moment. Olivia Rodrigo received backlash for dressing "inappropriately" for wearing this style of outfit.

The artist recently took to The New York Times podcast to talk about her frustration with this issue after she wore a floral baby doll dress during a performance in Spain on May 8th of this year.

“What’s really disturbing is I feel like I have worn outfits that are revealing on stage. Like, I’ve been on stage in, like, a sparkly bra and little shorts, which is my right. That’s fun. I felt cool and comfortable in that. And that wasn’t "inappropriate"—but me fully covered up in a dress that people deem to be childlike was inappropriate.”

The artist is right that she has worn more revealing clothes without an issue, instead being praised for the evolution of her work and how much she is leaning into a rock side of her musical abilities in a way that transcends to the stage. Many were mesmerized by her showmanship without batting an eye.

When talking about the baby doll dresses, however, she spoke about the very influences that align with this rock image while still performing in something more comfortable. “I didn’t think I looked sexy in that at all,” Rodrigo said. “I was like, ‘This is so cool. I feel like I look like Kathleen Hanna or Courtney Love, all these people who are my heroes.”

Despite baby doll dresses having many different iterations of style and history, including going back to the 1940s as nightwear for women, it's undeniable that during the 1990s they became a staple of grunge culture, with Courtney Love becoming one of the most prominent for this look, as Olivia Rodrigo echoed within her interview.

Love wore it as a sort of contradiction, wanting the use of this clothing to take on a whole new meaning. She wanted to be able to call into question the infantilization of women wearing these types of clothing while being able to scream out rock lyrics and ballads of frustration. A complete paradox of one another. 

In this context during the 1990s, the baby doll dress was also inherently political, as it signified to women the emancipation of their own bodies. Serving as a symbol of liberation, it has even been described as “an armor against conservatism for women," according to Mrs. Prada.

“I think it shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture,” the singer added. “And also it’s just this rhetoric that we’re fed as girls since we’re so little, which is like, ‘Don’t wear that because then a man is going to sexualize your body and it’s your fault.’ Like, it’s so weird.”

“But how long will we punish young women for the popularization of these crimes for simply being comfortable in their work environment? “

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys in the U.S. experience sexual abuse during childhood.

But how long will we punish young women for the popularization of these crimes for simply being comfortable in their work environment? If someone’s mind travels to something inappropriate because an artist is dressed innocently, it highlights a deeper issue within our culture.

Rodrigo wearing this clothing carries the torch of conversations related to expectations for virgins versus the label of being a whore, something that Courtney Love directly set out to do.

The uproar calls into question why people feel the need to police a woman's body and how that has become even more on the rise as conservatism rises with it. It’s important to recognize how much of a symbol for freedom that baby doll dresses have been for women across history since the grunge political movement. 

It's no doubt that Olivia Rodrigo will continue to kill it on stage in her future looks as she embarks on her world tour for the current album.