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Four years ago, Addison Rae was “just” a TikTok phenomenon with a brand-new single called “Obsessed” and the hope that it might parlay her way into being a pop star. And while she might have been invited to perform on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon even “back then,” it didn’t do much to change the mostly negative reviews of her first musical effort, both critically and at the “average listener” level. Such eviscerating comments also extended to her appearance on Jimmy Fallon in 2021. This included such YouTube replies to the performance as, “The worst part about this ‘influencer’ thing is that they’re [spelled in the original comment as ‘their’] handed EVERYTHING but they all act like it’s the hardest job in the world, literally sit down, like please,” “The fact she isn’t trained and isn’t out of breath and isn’t even wearing an earpiece or A MIC PACK IS SO INSANE TO ME!!! Lip syncing shouldn’t be this obvious!” and “The dancers saved this. lmao imagine if it was just her on the stage.”
As of now, during her post-Addison release era, there’s no need to imagine it. For, almost as if seeing that specific comment, Addison did appear alone onstage for her October 2, 2025 performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. More to the point, she chose to appear in one of Gypsy Rose Lee’s original dresses. And yes, that’s a pop culture reference that few in her typical audience would know “offhand.” But since Addison Rae is lately all about reminding people (namely, Zane Lowe) that her “taste” is primo (which is part of what’s helped her hone her craft and aesthetic for a pop music pivot), she chose this highly specific piece to sing (not lip sync) “Diet Pepsi” for the first time on TV. And while she’s had other singles come out since this one (namely, “Aquamarine,” “High Fashion,” “Headphones On,” “Fame Is a Gun” and “Times Like These”), which was released back in August of 2024, “Diet Pepsi” remains something of her “signature.” Not only that, but it’s also her most “accessible” song on Addison, readily “appealable” to what Jay Leno would call (at least in Pam & Tommy) “Uncle Jim and Aunt Susie in Duluth.” Such a demographic might even appreciate her “modest” look while on the show. Having no awareness that Lee was entirely responsible for it—since strippers a.k.a. burlesque dancers during her “heyday” (though she performed her act from the 1930s to the 1950s) dressed much more conservatively.
While some subpar celebrities with no talent other than “influencer” cachet have worn iconic dresses before (*cough cough* Kim Kardashian pillaging Marilyn Monroe’s Jean Louis gown), there generally hasn’t been a “poetic” or “full circle” kind of angle to it. More often than not, the famous ilk wear such pieces solely because it’s “iconic,” de facto, they think they’re also going to soak up some that iconicness by wearing the garment. And not because it correlates in any real way to what they’re “about” (and even Sabrina Carpenter was kind of pushing it by wearing a replica of Madonna’s 1991 Oscars dress). Instead, it’s done as an attempt at seeming “knowledgeable” or “with it” vis-à-vis the past and all the women who paved the way for the current crop to have it slightly less shitty than they did. Particularly with regard to being able to expose their flesh so freely.
Incidentally, it was Lee who said of her act, “Bare flesh bores men.” Hence, wearing the type of fare that the audience saw Addison Rae sporting while singing “Diet Pepsi” on Fallon. That Rae is more known for her flesh-baring tendencies than her covering up ones also added to the “intention” behind the frock. Something she reiterated when, after the show, she posted a quote from Lee’s memoir, Gypsy (which would go on to birth the famed musical of the same name), to her Instagram. The one that goes, “I could be a star without any talent at all!” (in the musical, that’s paraphrased as, “I’ll get famous with no talent”). An extremely prescient statement for a woman who made her stage debut in 1929. Long before Kim Kardashian would goadingly pronounce of her financial success, “Not bad for a girl with no talent.” But Addison Rae actually did start out with a specific talent: dancing. It’s only because of the medium that she became a “star” on—TikTok—that said talent has often been called into question, with her influencer status still frequently outshining her potential clout as a pop star.
To that point, this “Diet Pepsi” performance was all about putting such tongue-wagging to rest. In addition to learning from the mistakes she made the first time she appeared on the show. Indeed, during the singing portion of her performance, AR was much less “choreo-heavy” than she was the first time around, instead devoting the first part of the song to actually singing, and the second part, around the two-minute, twenty-six-second mark, to bursting into the kind of choreography that Lee herself would most definitely commend (obviously, Addison Rae must have studied some of her moves). And as lights strobe around her, elements of the first track on her album, “New York,” play as she does everything in her power to channel the burlesque stylings of Lee.
This is in no small part thanks to the dress, bedecked in all those tassels and shimmering sequins, beads and rhinestones, which helped her easily “do the trick.” Courtesy of every celebrity’s favorite place to roundaboutly unearth such a piece: The Way We Wore. In fact, AR’s stylist, Dara (that’s right, just Dara), pointed out to Vogue that she and Addison have been in possession of the dress for almost a full year, having reached out to The Way We Wore founder Doris Raymond before the making of the “High Fashion” video, during which AR appears in the dress for the first few scenes (eating a powdery confection in it, no less). Dara had requested a gold beaded dress for the scene, and Raymond came up with this kismet offer, which she herself had bought thirty-five years ago at auction.
Upon passing it along to AR, Dara immediately realized that “it felt like it was made for her” (though Dita Von Teese, who owns another “sister” dress in the trio, might beg to differ). And also made for this particular show-stopping performance, which just so happened to coincide with Taylor Swift releasing The Life of a Showgirl the day after. Which was probably a good thing since Addison had more to reveal in the way of being a showgirl than that album does.
What’s more, the connection between AR and Gypsy is clear. Lee was often called an “intelligent stripper”—like this combination couldn’t possibly go hand in hand. By the same token, so, too, could AR be called an “intelligent influencer”—and now, an “intelligent pop star.” Wielding her taste and penchant for carefully-curated references to her semiotic advantage at every turn.
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Genna Rivieccio
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