Sam Smith’s upsetting people again for wearing whatever they want

“Unholy” singer Sam Smith has once again expressed themself with an iconic outfit – this time on the runway for Vivienne Westwood’s show for Paris Fashion Week – and, unsurprisingly, certain corners of the internet have taken issue with the artist wearing whatever the heck they want to wear.

Smith donned two outfits for the runway – the second being a floor-length gown with a cut-out pattern, complete with a black hat and halterneck top – but it was the first, made up of a wooden walking stick, shorts, platform boots and deconstructed tartan, which has got social media talking.

Westwood’s fashion brand is now managed by husband Kronthaler, who took full creative control following Dame Vivienne’s passing in 2022.

The 31-year-old has long experimented with fashion over the years, and in 2019 shared that they were now using they/them pronouns after coming out as non-binary.

However, responses to Smith’s outfit was predictable.

“Is there a way of banning images of Sam Smith,” one fumed.

Another complained: “And they laughed at me when I said Sam Smith’s performance at the Grammy’s was demonic.”

One even went as far as to claim the outfit was an “attempt by [the] deep state and MSM [mainstream media] to try to make us fancy” the singer.

We’re not joking.

Some – respectfully – criticised and memed the outfit in general, rather than take aim at Smith:

While others have rushed to defend the star amid a fresh wave of criticism and abuse:

It isn’t the first time that Smith’s outfits have got people talking on social media, as the musician sported a horned hat to perform their track “Unholy” with Kim Petras at the Grammy Awards in February last year, which caused upset conservatives to brand the performance “satanic”.

In the same month, images were released of their photoshoot for Perfect Magazine, which saw them wearing a revealing outfit made up of pink tape and pink gloves.

Then, when last year’s Brit Awards came around, they took to the red carpet with an inflatable latex outfit, sparking memes online.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Follow Indy100 for the latest updates – from trending headlines to the most talked about memes.