Fergie Premieres Her Visual Album ‘Double Dutchess: Seeing Double’ At iPic Theaters

At the premiere of her visual album, Double Dutchess: Seeing Double, Fergie posed on the red carpet holding a “Milf $hake,” one of the Fergie-themed cocktails featured at the event (created by mixologist Adam Seger of The Tuck Room), and wearing a glittery dress with 80s inspired shoulder pads.

She exuded the poised yet playful energy she has communicated through her music and image since she rose to fame with the The Black Eyed Peas, yet the Fergie we know today is a markedly different woman. In the 11 years that have passed since the release of her chart-topping debut solo album, The Dutchess, Fergie has come out as bisexual, founded her own record label, given birth to her now 4-year-old son, Axl Jack, and married actor Josh Duhamel, from whom she separated earlier this year.

In this new chapter of her life, in which she grows as a businesswoman, mother, and mentor to younger queer or female artists, Fergie takes her “boss” status to a new level, and on Double Dutchess, she works with other certified “bosses” in the industry like Nicki Minaj and Rick Ross. But despite her role as a global superstar and “shero,” as model Carmen Carrera puts it, Fergie shows a relatable side; as she states in her hit single “Glamorous,” “I’m still real, no matter how many records I sell.” For Fergie, while the premiere of her visual album at iPic Theatres is a dream because of the artistic feat she’s accomplished, it’s also a dream because iPic Theatres is she and Axl’s mommy-and-me “date spot,” where she and her son love to play with the recliners and order food. The duality of larger than life and down-to-earth themes in Fergie’s life has always been reflected in her music, and it is certainly present in the visual experience of Double Dutchess, which vacillates between conveying her confident independence and emotional vulnerability.

Double Dutchess: Seeing Double is not a chronological narrative but a series of music videos, which were compiled and strung together with creative transitions as a visual partner to Fergie’s sophomore album. As the film resulted from Fergie’s collaborations with different artists from around the world for each music video, the film is diverse not only thematically but also stylistically. Some parts of the film were sensual, black and white shots, while others, like the segment featuring Kendall Jenner, were colorful and chaotically edited. The compilation of visuals shows all the different sides of Fergie, who is an artist, a boss, a sex symbol, a fashion icon, a lover, and a mom. It even features a few monologues in which Fergie pensively divulges her feelings and realizations she’s come to as she’s grown up and become a single mom. During an especially poignant shot where she is holding hands with her son, she voices over, “I realized that I finally needed to honor myself, and that really is still a challenging place I often have to work on to this day.”

Other music videos in the film take a more playful approach, such as the one for her single “M.I.L.F. $,” which features appearances by other famous moms like Kim Kardashian, Kelly Osbourne, and Ciara, whose looks boggle the minds of younger men in a made-up town called “Milfville.” A moment that epitomizes the duality of Fergie’s personality, as well as the stylistic diversity of the film, is the transition from “Love is Blind,” a humorously macabre claymation tale in which a woman kills the men who slight her, to “Love is Pain,” an elegant video in which Fergie passionately expresses heartbreak. Double Dutchess: Seeing Double tells a story of the Fergie we know in all her multifaceted glory while capturing the process of how the singer has empowered herself throughout her life and career.