In a sea of deeply boring and safe red carpet fashions, the Grammys is one glittering event where the stars seem to step slightly out of their comfort zones: historically, it’s where Britney Spears channelled Marilyn Monroe, Dua Lipa transformed into Donatella, and J. Lo herself basically invented Google Images when she stepped out in that jungle print Versace dress. After a lacklustre start to the year when it comes to red carpet fashions (looking at you, the Emmys), last night saw the music industry descend on Los Angeles for the 66th annual Grammy Awards, and importantly, the looks were actually giving.
A standout from the night came via first-time Grammy Award winner Miley Cyrus, who stepped out in three mega hot couture looks by Gucci, vintage Bob Mackie, and Maison Margiela, which came together using thousands of tiny gold safety pins and seemed to reference a similar style created by John Galliano for Milla Jovovich in 1997. Fresh from serving an ostentatious wide-shouldered look last week, Caroline Polachek went for archive Olivier Theyskens, and honestly, get more of this underrated designer on the red carpet. Also digging into the back catalogues, this time at Comme des Garçons, was Laverne Cox, who slipped on an avant-garde scarlet look from Rei Kawakubo’s SS15 collection.
Keeping their feet more firmly in the present were Doja Cat and Christina Aguilera: our former cover star looked to Turkish-born, London-based designer Dilara Findikoglu to kit her out in pale pink satin, while Xtina, who’s long championed rising British talent, went for Fashion East standout Standing Ground. Elsewhere, Ice Spice unsurprisingly went off-piste in a custom look by cult 00s label Baby Phat, Coi Leray looked like she’d just stepped out of a Helmut Newton photograph in Saint Laurent, Dua Lipa went for glittering silver custom Courrèges care of Nicolas Di Felice, and Boygenius came in matching Thom Browne, which was… interesting!
Best of all, though, was Lana Del Rey, who showed up in a black floral 50s-style dress with matching silk gloves and fresh new bangs, looking like she was heading not for an awards ceremony but a funeral – which, since she was snubbed by the Grammys yet again, made perfect sense.