The role of the costumes in Melanie Martinez’s visual album: K-12 (2024)

In her newest surrealist visual album K-12 Melanie Martinez, gives us a new macabre pastel-colored critic on current society. Following her first album Cry Baby with critics on mostly personal issues such as a negligent family and how it affects her inner thoughts as a kid, we now follow CryBaby’s journey in the big K-12 boarding school that is life. In this album, we get an even broader range of issues in today’s society that affects even more kids’ development, from issues such as bullying to sexual abuse, and even some double meanings about the entertainment industry.

With clear references to Martinez surrealist idols such as Mark Ryden with his disturbing pastel paintings, Nicoletta Ceccoli with her lowbrow representation of little girls and specially Tim Burton with the clear surrealist parallel reality. And we can even point out a Wes Anderson influence in the costumes and color pallet and the baroque and rococo aesthetic filmed in Budapest. Plus, the clothes play an exceptional part in this with references from Sleeping Beauty to David Bowie. We can also point out the fact that Martinez wanted to cover her tattoos to separate her from her character CryBaby.

The film starts with a clear assigned role of the garments in this new school. CryBaby wakes up and talks to herself about this new school in which girls must wear pink dresses and boys blue pants, subsequently she says “I dyed my uniform and embroidered flowers on the sleeves”, making it clear that she will not follow the gender assignments made by the school which is an obvious allusion to our current gender roles expectations.

Heading in to the bus to the school, we can see all the boys wearing blue pants which assign their male role that includes bullying insecure girls for their own ego and girls wearing pink dresses which the ones who embrace their roles join the male in this ego fight to assure their place as women in society ,or , as the popular girls at school in this case.

Opening the album, is the first song “Wheels On The Bus”. Here, she talks about the early loss of innocence and how it is normalized and even romanticized. Martinez makes it clear that they are kids through the baby-like clothes and hairdos. The kids are kissing and passing joints. The driver, the only adult in the situation, sees it as a normal kid behavior and even gets excited about it, and CryBaby seems to be the only one who realize that that is not an appropriate kid behavior.

Continuing the story, CryBaby and Angelita get in late in class where we find the wicked teacher Ms. Daphne sniffing cocaine. She is wearing a suit with very elongated and sharp shoulders besides the usual elements of a usual old rude teacher look: Sharp glasses, gold earrings and broch as a manifestation of her economic power and a pencil skirt following the accepted skirt lenght for teachers. The big dramatic shoulders suggest that the teacher is very rigorous and oppressive as broad shoulders used to be a sign of status of men in the army and the curvy shapes made like horns propose her image as of a demon.

The next song “Class Fight” starts when CryBaby’s rival Kelly threatens to fight her at recess because they have the same love interest. This highlights the female rivalry encouraged by society. Kelly is a clear example of the women who embrace society’s impositions and believe in women’s competition. (“Mommy, why do I feel sad?/Should I give him away or feel this bad?/No, no, no, don’t you choke/Daddy chimed in: Go for the throat” )

We now find ourselves in the principal’s office after the fight between CryBaby and Kelly. While they wait, the principal and the satanic teacher are firing a transgender teacher due to their gender identity. The trans teacher has blue short wavy hair and a blue and pink suit suggesting their gender duality. The Principal, breaking the school’s aesthetic is wearing a fully dark green velvet outfit composed by a sharp pointy suit with a sharp pointy shirt reinforcing this demonic horn image referring to him as Satan himself.

Entering the next song “The Principal”, Martinez will talk about this “sneaky greedy money seeking” image of a powerful man who abuses his power on “inferior” people that in fact reflects his inner unloved child that put out his anger on others (specially women). In the dance sequence, CryBaby is in a court-like environment in which the judges are watching her and other girls dancing, as if the women are asking for justice in the way they are treated.

We identify their position of judges due to their judge-like pastel-colored overalls. The dancers are wearing 19th century inspired outfits with elements such like the corsets, the crinoline, the crinolette, the bustle, along with the frills and laces. Which symbolizes the time when woman started questioning the abusive male authority and fighting for their rights.

Coming now to “Show & Tell”, we find the teacher (with a less powerful, but still robust outfit) controlling CryBaby as a puppet, and thus with a doll outfit. Martinez is exposing how she feels like she’s constantly on display for other people’s entertainment and everyone loves the pretty dancing and singing, but when she shows her guts, which represents what’s in the inside like her emotions and thoughts, in the end everyone is disgusted by it and don’t care about her anymore.

Heading into “Nurse’s office” we find nurses wearing lilac dresses with very pointy shoulders and headpieces, again referencing the powerful and demonic archetype. But as all of them are wearing the same outfits, it gives an idea that they only have the power to execute what they have been told to. This alludes to the people that are made to feel like they have the authority to punish people when in fact they are only blindly following orders and don’t think about why they’re doing what they’re doing.

At the end of the song, we briefly meet Lilith, the angel from CryBaby’s dreams who comes to save her and Angelita from the evil nurses and advise them on their suffering in this school. Lilith is portrayed very much like an Athenian goddess with a golden halo and hair wraps along with earrings and a gold ornament in her white dress. By that, we perceive Lilith as a guiding spiritual image instead of a demonic influence like she is constantly portrayed.

Advancing to the “Drama Club”, CryBaby enters her drama class, where we see another teacher in an all-black suit. After CryBaby complaint her domestic role in the play, the teacher forces her to act in the role she has been assigned. Then, we see her again in a Victorian-inspired costume with brocade fabrics and pastel colors following the film’s aesthetics. In the play, it seems like an 18th century interpretation in which they are acting the accepted gender roles of the time, 3 heterosexual couples in a choreographed proposal sequence, subsequently, the three women are ironing the men’s clothes when CryBaby breaks her character and tells the spectators that they are being brainwashed. Once released from this trance, the students run out to kill the person who’s been brain-washing them; the principal.

Jumping in to women’s body issues in “Strawberry Shortcake”, CryBaby finds herself in the locker room, where the critics about expectations of how girls’ bodies should look like appear in the lyrics (“Feeling unsure of my naked body/Stand by watch it taking shape/Wondering why I don’t look like Barbie/They say boys like girls with a tiny waist.”). Consequently, her and the dancers in this scene are wearing pink skin-showing outfits. In a simultaneous shot, CryBaby has a naked torso and a big skirt made of cake. Here, she denounces how men see how women dress as an open invitation for them to do whatever they want to women and how this is constantly accepted as the women’s fault.

In the following scene, CryBaby is lying on what seems to be a garden wearing a pink glittery bodysuit. This take reminds us of David Bowie’s aesthethics and his beliefs about different forms of life and dimensions such as from the outfit as from the conversation she has with Lilith about her suffering in this world.

After criticizing the fakeness in superficial female friendships in “Lunchbox Friends”, CryBaby and her friends realize that there is one girl in the plastic girls’ group that doesn’t fit in and find a way to become friends with her. When CryBaby follows her to the bathroom, she is vomiting orange juice which gives name to the following song that will talk about bulimia and body acceptance.

In this beautiful empowering sequence set in an orange orchard, CryBaby and the dancers are wearing once again Victorian-inspired articles of clothing such as bustles, corsets and a crinoline which also are related with body-shaping methods. In the lyrics, Martinez reinforces that health is more important than following a societal expectation on body image. “Your body is imperfectly perfect/Everyone wants what the other one’s working.”

Arriving in “Detention”, Martinez is going to talk about how she feels forced to keep a smile on her face when no one actually cares about how she feels inside like she has to maintain this character that wears pretty clothes and make pretty moves for people’s entertainment. Here, we see a very modern outfit in the dance sequence. CryBaby is wearing an ABBA-inspired lilac ensemble with bell pants with frills and a top with bouffant sleeves, and the dancers in the back are wearing matching chemises which reinforces this idealized performance with matching outfits and suggestive moves as this is what is said to be a formula for success in the music industry.

Getting on to a more delicate issue in “Teacher’s Pet”, Martinez explicitly points out the romanticization of a teacher-student relation. Here, the teacher is wearing a vest with pointy shoulders giving him this demonic seducer aspect in relation to the student he is seducing. In the first chance he gets, the teacher drugs her and she becomes a little version of herself as if to represent him as the superior male figure and her as simply his pet. But thankfully, CryBaby gets in the room to save her friend from the pedophile teacher. This song is very important and present in society and the way Martinez tells this story is a great explanation for little girls about people’s (usually men’s) hidden intentions.

As the sequence of “Highschool Sweethearts” starts, CryBaby is lying in a bed dressed in a Sleeping Beauty-inspired ensemble when she is going to start commenting about how in today’s society men feel like they are deserving of any woman they want, and now Martinez is talking about the requirements for actually getting a chance with her and the consequences if he doesn’t actually have romantic intentions like boys are constantly told to specially by the music industry. The Sleeping Beauty outfit composed by a yellow shining corset and shorts with roses as buttons is a clear allusion to the fairytale ideal put into little girl’s minds about true love.

We then get a dance sequel of CryBaby in a rosé ensemble composed by a top with bouffant sleeves giving a performative aspect with a panty with frills in the back and suspenders with bell pants, making this outfit mostly as a fun romantic performative look in this continuous upbeat dance sequence.

The next stage is the school dance, where everyone is wearing prom-like outfits such as the girls with bell dresses in pastel colors, with laces, frills and flowers and the boys in victorian suits with ties, vests and pointy blazers. Here begins the last song put on by the principal’s son to force the students to dance all night. In “Recess” we follow a beautiful waltz sequence where Martinez is going to talk about all she learned from this experience and how she was too young to see how she was being manipulated and gives us advice in the lyrics in “People gonna say/If you need a break, someone’ll take your place/People gonna try/To tell you that you’re fine with dollars in their eyes”.

After CryBaby is able to save the students from the hypnotizing waltz and evacuate the school, she is finally able to destroy this indoctrinating school. The destruction of the school represents the revolt against the patriarchal brain-washing capitalist society we live in and her hopes of the end of societal impositions on gender roles, body image, sexual orientation, beauty standards, hierarchy, nepotism, abuse, and many other important issues. Martinez succeeds to spread her message in this masterpiece.

From this analysis, we can observe the impact clothes have on our perception of life and the semiotic meaning of colors, fabrics, cuts, accessories, adornments, laces, frills and everything that involves the world of fashion. This film is an example of how clothes can be more than capitalistic products of the current state of society, but a part of artistic expression and manifestation of thoughts and opinions in am elaborated way. K-12 helps set a standard of the thought process that should be put into fashion’s production process.