This is the meaning behind the statement-making outfit Lupita Nyong'o just wore to the Tony Awards

The 2023 Tony Awards ceremony took place in New York overnight with stars including Jodie Comer, Jessica Chastain and more, arriving at the event in their best and brightest. 

Jodie Comer won the Tony for best leading actress, while Ariana DeBose hosted the event. Though undoubtedly one of the moments which captured people's attention was Lupita Nyong'o's red-carpet arrival. 

Nyong'o arrived at the event wearing a black tuxedo jacket and matching trousers, alongside a statement-making silver breastplate. 

The pièce de résistance of Lupita's look was created in partnership with Pakistani artist and fashion designer, Misha Japanwala. The actress took to Instagram to explain the outfit, revealing that the breastplate was, in fact, cast and moulded from her own body. 

"Honored, humbled, strengthened and energized to don this breastplate created by @mishajapanwala," Nyong'o said in her caption. 

"Misha Japanwala is a Pakistani artist and fashion designer, whose work is rooted in the rejection and deconstruction of external shame attached to one’s body," she continued.  "In her artistic process, she creates a realistic and true record of a person’s body as an act of resistance and celebration, and an insistence on being allowed to exist freely in our bodies." 

The actress explained that Japanwala's work has often been associated with the word shame, though as Nyong'o reiterated in her caption, the artist is reclaiming the word and recategorising its definition in a message of empowerment. 

“The word ‘beghairat’ (translation: shameless) has become an anchor in my practice; thousands of people have used it to describe me and the work I create, in an effort to insult and shame me into silence," Lupita shared of Japanwala's writing. "In reclaiming the word and understanding that the rejection of others’ narrow definitions of shame is one of the most powerful tools for liberation, I’ve come to deeply appreciate and respect what living a life of shamelessness truly means." 

Lupita is not the first celebrity to don a breastplate on the red carpet, in fact, Zendaya wore a Tom Ford creation to the Critic's Choice Awards back in 2020. Similarly, Rihanna opted for a custom-made Loewe iteration while performing in this year's Superbowl half-time show.