Jade hadn’t planned to cry in the final shot of her new cinematic music video for ‘Church’. But as the freezing air hit her translucent paper gown, and Maximilian Raynor – who designed every look and co-shaped the film’s creative vision – stood just off-camera, fanning her with a giant polyboard to mimic the gown going up in flames, she experienced a sense of relief.
“It was the end of the day; I was really tired, really cold, but I also felt like I was being sacrificed in this look,” she says. “That’s why I’ve got a little tear in my eye at the end, we never planned that.” Director Billy King immediately knew it was the perfect final frame – an unscripted and emotional moment for the last chapter of Jade’s That’s Showbiz Baby! era.
Released today, That’s Showbiz Baby! The Encore deluxe album offers eight new tracks, including a striking cover of Madonna’s ‘Frozen’. Jade’s debut solo album has already proven to be a defining launchpad for her solo career: it entered the UK charts with the biggest opening week of any debut album in 2025, debuting in the Top 3 on the Official Albums Chart and claiming the No.1 spot on the Official Record Store Chart.
Its singles, from the explosive ‘Angel of My Dreams’ to the dancefloor-ready ‘FUFN’ and ‘Plastic Box’, have driven more than 300 million streams globally, earned her a BRIT Award for Pop Act, and established her as one of the year’s most critically and commercially celebrated new solo voices. Now, the deluxe edition expands that world even further, closing the era with the same ambition and theatricality that have come to define her rebirth.
Jade had always imagined ‘Church’ taking the visual form of a gothic narrative, and approached the directors with the idea of a “cult-like fan base, and witchy cult vibes”. “Billy and Maximilian came back with their treatment, and I was just gagged straight away,” she recalls. “I felt like a match made in heaven.”
For Maximilian, the story really did begin in heaven – or at least in Woolwich, where he and Billy first mapped out the world. “Billy came round for dinner, and we opened some champagne that I had leftover from my London Fashion Week on-schedule debut, and we cracked on,” he shares. Their first instinct was to build a non-Christian church, an atmosphere more akin to a queer ritual space, and a tongue-in-cheek nod to the cult of pop.
It’s a spoof on the anger I feel towards religious conversion camps, so it’s our playful take on that. In our world, we convert to the Church of Pop, and we don’t tell anyone what to do with their lives. We welcome everyone in, who they are, and who they want to be.
Maximilian Raynor
This visual language quickly expanded into a camp-folk-horror universe of forest rituals and initiation ceremonies inspired by everything from Eyes Wide Shut to Midsommar. “It’s a spoof on the anger I feel towards religious conversion camps, so it’s our playful take on that. In our world, we convert to the Church of Pop, and we don’t tell anyone what to do with their lives. We welcome everyone in, who they are, and who they want to be.”
That heightened aesthetic is what excited Jade most; the idea that this wasn’t just another video, but a fully realised fashion film. She had worked with Maximilian once before, wearing one of his looks in the ‘Plastic Box’ music video, but stepping into his studio for ‘Church’ was something else entirely. “He had rails and rails of all his work,” she says. “And he said: take your pick. It felt like a dream.” From the first fitting, she felt the two of them were aligned. “I think Max’s designs are so perfect for this concept – a lot of his work is theatrical, and he loves to tell a story with his fashion shows, which we are on the same page about.”
Maximilian felt the spark just as intensely. Describing the project as the “highlight of his year”, he says: “Jade was an absolute gem during fittings. She was just so confident in me and put a lot of faith in me that she wanted to wear the brand exclusively. She’s a true embodiment of the Maximilian Raynor muse.”
Their fittings became a playground, with Jade experimenting with silhouettes she’d never worn before, and Maximilian pushing his own aesthetic through the lens of character. The black gown worn in the video’s opening shot, constructed from hundreds of stitched ribbons, struck her immediately. “It was such a gag, because it’s so maximalist, and that’s very much my vibe,” she says. Wearing it made her feel like a cult leader, equal parts maternal and militant.
Depending on what you’re wearing, it can make you feel differently, I became the character through Maximilian’s clothes.
JADE
Every look came from Maximilian’s extensive archive, with many looks pulled from his AW25 and SS26 collections – a structural yellow polka-dot gown was adapted from his most recent collection, “I’ll Cry If I Want To”, while an architectural white dress gave her a “very ethereal and regal” presence. A fiery red gown became the visual anchor of the “rebirth scene” – where Jade sits in a barn surrounded by an esteemed cast of outfitted extras including Bel Priestley, Bolly-Illusion, Daniel Lismore, Harriet Rose, and Sekou. Each look shaped the way she moved and performed, heightening the inhabitation of each character. “Depending on what you’re wearing, it can make you feel differently,” she says. “I became the character through Maximilian’s clothes.”
But nothing tested the designer creatively, or emotionally, quite like the final custom gown. Its original concept was simple: a Midsommar-style silhouette built from fan letters. But the first attempt, made from newspaper, fell flat. “It was feeling a little bit school-play, harvest-festival-costume vibe,” Maximilian admits. So he pivoted toward something even more unusual – tracing paper covered in scribbled text, each piece resembling a fragment of obsessive fan-mail. “We went down the route of this sort of more translucent, eerie tracing paper demonic fan mail that felt like it had been scribbled by an absolutely insane fan of Jade or a wannabe cult member.”
Building it required a small army. “Many fashion students from across London offered their help, and they really were the reason we were able to do it,” he says, crediting his team: Mathilde Ludvigsen, Honore Thorn, Em McBallAntine, Ella Ruthven, Simone Tempel, Nela Tyborowicz, Elea Evangelista, Shuo Sun, Sophie Casamonti, Aidan Thompson, Suki da Silva, Rita Bell, and Noga Shenhav. Together, they spent hours writing on paper sheets, sewing them onto a base, and hand-cutting hundreds of trembling paper “feathers.” The fragility of it, and the raw, make-do spirit, breathed life into the garment.
Jade remembers seeing it come together with awe. “It’s always a gag when you get something custom-made, but we didn’t know how it was going to turn out,” she laughs, with the quiet confidence of having pulled off an implausible creative concept. “It matches the theme perfectly; the idea of creating this fandom, a cult, and wearing all of their letters for the final hurrah.”
This grand finale marked not just the end of the video shoot, but the end of an era. From the moment Jade began her solo career, she committed to expanding her designer connections. Working with fashion editor Edward Enninful, as well as a campaign with Fendi for the relaunch of the iconic Mamma Baguette bag, saw this dream come to life. Ending this era with a project this theatrical, elevated, and otherworldly is the culmination of this evolution. “Chef’s kiss,” she says.
For Maximilian too, ‘Church’ is a statement of intent, and a testament to the way his work moves between fashion, cinema and performance. “The video for me was about showing the intersectionality between all the art forms,” he says. “I do not want to be pigeonholed as a fashion designer. I am more than that, even standing with a big sheet and wafting the wind onto Jade’s face for the final frame.”
If this is how she chooses to end an era, it’s hard not to wonder what she’ll dare to do when she starts the next one.
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