Sugar never, ever was as sweet as Mariah Carey's "Honey". Released 25 years ago today as the lead single of her deeply personal sixth studio album Butterfly, "Honey" was a redefining song in Carey's career – one that saw her lean further into hip hop–and in her personal life, as she was going through her divorce from music executive Tommy Mottola at the time.
Acclaimed by critics, "Honey" was Carey's third single to debut at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, staying at number one for three consecutive weeks and earning two Grammy nominations. It's also a fan favorite, or make that Lamb favorite (Lamb being the word used for Carey's many devotees, which, if you haven't already guessed, I most definitely am). The accompanying music video, released the following month, is one of the best examples of the Y2K era's high-budget music productions.
Shot on a private island in Puerto Rico (which Carey rented for the shoot) and directed by Paul Hunter, "Honey" channels the high-octane glamour of James Bond films. In it, Carey indulges her kitschy sense of humor with Frank Sivero playing a gangster (in a possible reference to her ex-husband) who is holding her secret agent character captive. Model David Fumero plays her very steamy love interest.
In the kidnapping scene, Carey wears a little black dress by Dolce & Gabbana styled with a pair of Gucci pumps by Tom Ford. So memorable is her look that the shoes, originally from the fall 1997 collection, are now known as the "Mariah stilettos" – if you need confirmation, just take a look at any resale site. "At the time we were filming there was no, 'oh, let's do a close up of the shoe'," says Joe Zee, the fashion stylist and editor that styled the music video, "but I had just been in Europe at all the shows, and I remember seeing that Gucci show and I was like those are killer, I need those for Mariah, so we got them and they turned into such an iconic part of the video."
After that scene, Mariah is seen jumping off a balcony into a pool, tearing away her dress under water to reveal a bathing suit. This part of the video was performed by stunt women. "I had to have dresses that were similar to the Dolce, but they also had to have the tear away," Zee reminisces, "the front of those dresses was completely velcro, so they could remove it as they dove into the pool. There was a lot of fashion smoke and mirrors in the way we did that," he adds with a laugh. "Betsey Johnson helped me make those dresses. It was just a lot of fashion fantasy."
"Honey' was the first time I felt I had full creative license in making a video," Carey wrote in her memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey. "My look was inspired by Ursula Andress in the 1970s 007 movies. I wanted to look glamorous, dangerous, and badass, like a Bond girl." Indeed, the video showcased Carey in a new light–the world got to see the superstar as her own self, perhaps for the very first time, and fashion was the pivotal tool to achieve that. "The whole message in the Honey video was that I was breaking free – although no one understood the insanity, toxicity, and abuse I was living inside. They had no clue," she wrote in reference to her marriage to Mottola.
Zee, who also styled the album's Michael Thompson-lensed cover photograph after meeting Carey at a shoot for W Magazine, says that "Honey" and Butterfly were a rebirth for Carey. "She was coming out of her marriage, so it was the awakening," he says. "We wanted to do that in a very elevated and simple way." Thus the bandeau tops and simple but high-glam pieces he put her in.
With a $2 million budget, the video is, to this day, one of the most expensive ever made. But, as with most things that are now part of fashion and pop culture canon, Carey and Zee didn't go into it with the intention of making history. "We just wanted to do something really cool," Zee says. If the Y2K trends she's wearing are relevant now, he adds, "it's also because those trends are on Mariah. The people that I've worked with, the assistants that help me, that are all obsessed with that era are obsessed with her. It has to do with the fact that Mariah is completely unwavering in who she is. She has such strong confidence, she is always exactly who she is. You see that in the video, that's why it's so relevant to so many people, especially a whole different generation."
It's true. 25 years later, Carey's "Honey" tastes just as sweet. Take this from a devoted Lamb.
(Vogue)
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