Lupita Nyong'o Shares the Meaningful Message Behind Her Tony's Look

Academy Award-winner Lupita Nyong'o hit the red carpet last night at the 76th annual Tony Awards! 

Nyong'o took to Instagram to share the meaning behind her look: 

A SHAMELESS OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE | Tony Awards 2023

Honored, humbled, strengthened and energized to don this breastplate created by @mishajapanwala, which she cast and molded of my body.

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. 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.

She writes, “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. 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. My craft pertains to documenting our existence in the most truthful way I possibly can — I change nothing about the body and how it looks.I think that act of surrendering and allowing our bodies to simply be, is such a beautiful and powerful thing.”

Misha, thank you for this special opportunity to BE EXACTLY HERE, IN THIS BODY NOW. Follow her (@MishaJapanwala ) to learn more. Her extraordinary work, Beghairati Ki Nishaani: Traces of Shamelessness, is on view now at @hannahtraoregallery in New York City until July 30th.