Björk is no stranger to an extravagant fashion dive. Having donned any number of metallic bird suits, white-swan tutus and latex catsuits as a true patron of the arts, previous album eras have seen the star decked out in cutting-edge pieces from Hussein Chalayan, Alexander McQueen, Olivier Rousteing and Pierpaolo Piccioli for Moncler. Even her most recent single shows an eye for the zeitgeist: wearing a showstopping piece of fungi-influenced custom Burberry pageantry devised by Riccardo Tisci for her lead single video.

This week, the Icelandic singer is back with another single from her bassy, gabber and clarinet-fuelled album, Fossora, titled Ovule’. The song is a meditation about Björk and her listeners, envisioning the pair as two lovers sedately wandering the world before being tailed by two spheres, “One above us that represents ideal love,” she shared in an Instagram caption, “[and] one below us representing the shadows of love and we ourselves walk around in the third sphere of real love. Where the every day, Monday-morning meet-in-the-kitchen-love lives in.”

For the typically zany video, Gucci’s Alessandro Michele collaborated with the visionary artist on an elaborate costume constructed from spirals of pleated organza. In shades of burgundy and crimson, the look is edged with resplendent crystals and cascading sequin fringe, nestled in curled rivets atop a latex catsuit. Once settled on the floor, the look becomes its own bloodied and blooming flower, with Björk acting as the entrancing and whimsical life force at its core.

The collaboration follows in the footsteps of another major Michele moment, directly referencing the lavish, holographic masterpiece the designer and his team laboured over for the singer’s 2017 single The Gate (which coincidentally celebrates its fifth anniversary today). Inspired by the classic pleated gowns of Roberto Capucci, the original dress took a total of 850 hours to create – 320 of which were spent on the embroidery alone – using countless panels of concertina-pleated fabric to form a pair of grand, oil-slicked wings, hallucinogenic and heavenly in equal measure.

Take a peak behind the scenes of the creative process below and stream ‘Ovule’ here