Once a reliably outrageous red carpet with plenty of fashion to gawk and squawk about, the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards were a style snooze. But there are plenty of clothes to lift the spirits as Milan Fashion Week ends and Paris begins. Plus, The Horror Show opens at the Academy Museum and Rolex keeps time at the New York Film Festival.
MTV VMAs Fashion: Where’s the Meat?
Lady Gaga’s meat dress. Lil’ Kim’s matching purple jumpsuit, wig and pasties. Lil Nas X’s black feathered hoop skirt and headdress. The MTV Video Music Awards used to be a reliably outrageous red carpet, with plenty to gawk—and squawk—about.
Not so much this year.
The 2026 VMAs were light on major stars and surprisingly tepid in the style department, with few of fashion’s biggest brands appearing particularly invested—even when it came to dressing their own global ambassadors. There wasn’t much risk-taking, either, or the kind of gloriously bad taste that has historically made the VMAs so much fun.
Lisa of Blackpink, a global brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton, bypassed the house for the red carpet, wearing a corseted red dress by The Attico under a crimson faux-fur coat by Chinese designer Quine Li. Sabrina Carpenter, who has collaborated closely with Dior on everything from her Coachella stage wardrobe to the Met Gala, also went elsewhere, in a vintage blush Dolce & Gabbana gown to collect her Best Collaboration award with Madonna for Bring Your Love.
Even some of the evening’s loveliest looks underscored how far the VMAs had drifted toward conventional awards-show glamour. Raye shimmered in a crystal-encrusted, draped Georges Hobeika couture gown, channeling the retro Hollywood glamour that has become her signature. She looked great. But where was the fashion that made you wonder what on earth you were looking at?
MTV debuted a new award, the Artist Director Honors, with Taylor Swift as its inaugural recipient — a move that gave the superstar a reason to show up. She looked downright demure by VMA standards in a black velvet and crystal-mesh halter gown by Tamara Ralph, with just a hint of seduction in the sheer back.
Teyana Taylor brought a bit more heat in sheer black, feather-trimmed Zuhair Murad couture, while Normani flirted with spectacle in Robert Wun couture, with a liquid-metallic bodice and gloves, an enormous sculptural flower and a pleated black mermaid skirt.
And then there was Sombr, one of the few who actually seemed to understand the assignment. A global Valentino ambassador, he instead dared to bare his chest in a glam-rock, faux-skunk coat and flared deadstock leather pants by homegrown L.A. luxury brand ERL, designed by Venice-based Eli Russell Linnetz, who has become an increasingly potent red-carpet force.
I love that Linnetz tapped fellow Venice creative Tom Binns to collaborate on the jewelry. The crystal-studded “SEX” belt buckle was apparently Sombr’s idea and had a wonderfully sleazy, MTV-era quality to it, hearkening back to Madonna’s infamous early 1990s Sex era, while also bringing to mind the “Boy Toy” belt buckle from her 1984 VMAs Like a Virgin look.
Sombr kept the ERL look for his cameo during Madonna’s show opener, before changing things up for the evening’s George Michael tribute. There, he sang Faith and Father Figure wearing the studded leather motorcycle jacket Michael himself wore on his 1988 Faith tour — a piece of pop history that turned out to be one of the night’s better fashion moments.
Madonna was the undisputed star of the evening, opening the show in Saint Laurent — one of the few mega brands with a significant presence on the red carpet — with a black satin mini trench, corset, bodysuit and thigh-high boots. Her relationship with creative director Anthony Vaccarello goes way back. In 2022, Saint Laurent reissued her 1992 Sex book and staged an exhibition and party around it at Art Basel Miami, and this past June, Madonna and Vaccarello co-hosted Club Confessions/Club Saint Laurent following his Saint Laurent men’s show. Madonna dominated the night with seven wins, including Artist of the Year.
Charli XCX was another of the evening’s Saint Laurent women, wearing Vaccarello’s gothy-looking sheer black tulle bandeau and black velvet skirt on the red carpet before changing into a tiny Dsquared2 LBD, fishnets and platforms to join Madonna onstage.
Despite the lackluster fashion (and largely lackluster show), viewers found reasons to tune in. The VMAs drew 8.43 million viewers across CBS and MTV, up 51% from last year and marking the show’s biggest same-day audience since 2015, as reported by Variety. Viewership actually peaked above 15 million during Madonna’s opening act.
So perhaps luxury fashion should take another look. The VMAs may no longer be the anything-goes style circus of the meat-dress days, but with audiences growing again, there’s an opportunity for designers to help make them provocative — or at least deliciously tacky — again.
Spring 2027: Clothes to Lift the Spirits
With Milan Fashion Week wrapped and Paris in full swing, Spring 2027 fashion is coming into focus with clothes to lift the spirits, including more color, more embellishment and, thankfully, more personality.
Even the practical pieces have punch (and there are plenty of practical pieces), with sporty windbreakers, rugby shirts and bombers turning up alongside bra tops (so many bra tops) and other lingerie touches, fringe, big earrings and an increasingly persuasive argument that the statement skirt is the piece to build a wardrobe around next spring.
At Gucci, Demna continued to refine his vision, abandoning some of the weirdness that’s bogged down his previous collections for something that felt more accessible. He transformed the convention center into a vast Gucci store for his runway to underscore what is perhaps the biggest trend of the season: commercialism, as the luxury industry tries to climb out of its slump.
He sent out a cast of wealthy eccentrics (no, not Tom Brady this time) that ranged from ladies who lunch to private school rebels à la The Shards, with rugby shirts, tartan kilts, chunky bombers and giant, low-slung horse-bit belts combined with sharp tailoring and slinky evening dresses that nodded to the Tom Ford years.
Maria Grazia Chiuri loosened up at Fendi, too, adding a bit of color and a streak of rock ’n’ roll bohemian decadence to her sophomore outing, with leopard prints, lace-edged romper shorts and bralettes, beaded fringe and long black dresses with grommet details.
Milan’s only major creative-director debut was at Moschino, where Sunnei designers Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo took over after Adrian Appiolaza’s departure. The pair staged their first show on the rooftop of a parking garage, sending people dressed in everyday clothes streaming in the opposite direction of the models in a clever bit of fashion theater that suggested Moschino belongs on the street, not just the runway. There was some Franco Moschino-worthy humor in the exaggerated proportions (that padded muscle tee) and arty prints, but also surprisingly real clothes in amazing color combos.
At Bottega Veneta, Louise Trotter moved away from some of the heaviness of her first seasons into soft balloon pants and gossamer shirts, openwork crochet and lace knits, and gorgeous dresses and skirts made from fine strips of fringe, all in a beautiful palette of lilac, butter yellow, electric purple and red. And the more wearable pieces still spoke to the extraordinary handwork the house can do.
Bottega also delivered Milan’s biggest celebrity moment: Jacob Elordi, a brand ambassador, sitting front row to watch his girlfriend Kendall Jenner close the show. Awww!
The final word belonged to Armani, as it always does in Milan. A year after Giorgio Armani’s death, his niece Silvana Armani titled her second Giorgio Armani collection Evolution, bringing slightly stronger shoulders and a hint of sex appeal into the house’s famously relaxed tailoring. There was sporty suiting, including Bermuda shorts, tuxedos and tuxedo dresses, along with fringe and flat shoes, moving the house codes forward without abandoning the man who created them. (Indeed, Armani was immortalized in the portrait print on a black-and-white sequined bomber.)
Then it was on to Paris, where Anthony Vaccarello had his golden moment at Saint Laurent.
For Spring 2027, he staged the kind of cinematic spectacle you might expect from the man who also heads Saint Laurent Productions, with three enormous chandeliers suspended over a glossy black runway, the Eiffel Tower sparkling behind it, Charlotte Gainsbourg singing for a finale and a collection that progressed through shade after shade of gold before fading to black.
The clothes were equally decadent, with gold safari jackets and bombers; coat dresses with power shoulders and jeweled buttons; ethereal black gowns; gilt brocade and lamé; and snake-shaped heels. With speculation swirling that Vaccarello may be nearing the end of his decade-long tenure at Saint Laurent, the whole thing had the look of a spectacular final scene.
Jonathan Anderson went in a far more casual, everyday direction at Dior, toning down some of his more sculptural experiments in favor of lighter, softer chiffon tailoring and floaty skirts, easy knitwear, striped shirting and sporty pieces, like a khaki barn jacket edged in lace. It was a convincing answer to what the archetypal femininity of Dior’s 1947 New Look might mean to women nearly 80 years later — and in a warming world.
At Dries Van Noten, Julian Klausner offered another iteration of the upbeat, slightly retro, eclectic femininity that has been gathering steam. He incorporated vintage movie-poster prints, striped polos, paper-bag-waist skirts and loads of brooches and beads into clothes that felt glamorous without being precious. Great shoes, too — seems like the brand is intent on growing that category.
So far, the throughline from Milan to Paris has been optimism and clothes that make it fun to get dressed. But Paris Fashion Week isn’t over yet, with more of the season’s biggest shows still to come next week.
Horror Gets Its Close-Up at the Academy Museum
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is getting into the spirit of the spooky season with The Horror Show, an immersive crowd-pleaser of an exhibition that explores how things that go bump in the night — and keep us up at night — are portrayed on the silver screen.
The exhibition sets the tone — literally — at the outset with an aural presentation of some of the haunting strains and sound effects that create the mood for horror films. From there, six chambers branch off a dark hallway lined with vintage horror movie posters from Nosferatu to Sinners, each room dedicated to exploring a horror theme through props, costumes, production materials and movie clips, with occasional nods to the historical context and societal anxieties reflected in horror films.
The crypt-like Gothic chamber unpacks the vampire mythos by serving up Gary Oldman’s sinewy Vlad the Impaler armor from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, designed by Eiko Ishioka, and the richly embroidered crushed velvet outfits designed by Sandy Powell for Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire. Also here is what is perhaps the hero piece of the whole exhibition: the cape Bela Lugosi wore in Universal Pictures’ 1931 Dracula, which the actor kept after production wrapped and continued to wear in public appearances until his 1956 death. It is displayed for the first time after an extensive restoration.
In the psychological chamber, a room as stark as a hospital hallway, the horrors begin with Hermann Warm’s almost Edvard Munch-like concept art for the 1920 German film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which gave visual form to the disorientation that permeated Germany after World War I. Nearby is a selfie op with Mrs. Bates from Psycho, reflecting the tension in the exhibition between the serious and the silly.
More psychological horrors are illustrated by costumes like Jack Nicholson’s Milena Canonero-designed plaid shirt from The Shining (the red accent color, it turns out, portends bloodshed); Anthony Hopkins’ terrifying Hannibal Lecter look from The Silence of the Lambs, strapped to a hand truck and conceived by the brilliant Colleen Atwood, complete with a taut-skin-like hockey mask by Ed Cubberly; the Nino Cerruti suit Christian Bale wore in American Psycho; and Kathy Bates’ Misery looks by Gloria Gresham. The latter two are made all the more terrifying because of how ordinary they seem and how easily they cloaked the monsters beneath.
The Science Lab is a prop-heavy, costume-light exploration of technology-induced horror, the centerpiece of which is an impressively towering (and drooling) Xenomorph from Alien: Romulus. (There’s also a prop operating table from Young Frankenstein and the iconic lightning-white-streaked wig worn by Elsa Lanchester in the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein.)
Over in the clapboarded Slasher chamber, an amusing cabinet of weapons and masks ranges from Michael Myers to Ghostface, while Freddy Krueger’s fedora, red-and-black striped sweater and razor hand are on display nearby.
The Religion chamber, like the Gothic one, is heavy on the high-style costumes carrying narratives both pure and possessed, including a Ruth E. Carter-designed dance hall costume worn by Wunmi Mosaku in Sinners, displayed next to the expansive flower dress Florence Pugh wore at the climax of Midsommar, designed by Andrea Flesch.
The room right next door showcases all things Ghost, including the single creepiest set piece of all time on display — the grinning prop toy clown from Carol Anne’s closet in Poltergeist.
An old-school computer console is set up for visitors to explore the genius website created to promote 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, complete with realistic crime photos and police reports. It’s a fun touch, marking the entrance of the horror genre into the Information Age. It’s quite an advance from the marketing tactic featured in Weegee’s famous black-and-white photo of a full movie theater watching House on Haunted Hill in 1959. An innovative promoter in his own time, filmmaker William Castle devised a stunt called “Emergo,” in which a plastic skeleton flew above the audience on a wire during the film’s climax.
“The Horror Show” at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., through July 27, 2027.
Rolex Keeps Time At NYFF
Rolex has long been part of Hollywood, both on-screen (Sean Connery’s Submariner in Dr. No and other Bond films, and Paul Newman’s Daytona in the racing film Winning, to name two notable appearances) and off, with its high-profile presence at the Oscars.
The watchmaker has also deepened its relationship with the film community as presenting partner of the 64th New York Film Festival, where this year it is backing everything from the opening-night premiere of Paper Tiger to the Filmmaker Lounge overlooking Lincoln Center.
Among the directors represented at this year’s festival are Martin Scorsese and Jia Zhang-Ke, both Rolex “Testimonees” (the company’s term for its ambassadors). They are part of a roster that also includes James Cameron, Leonardo DiCaprio and Zendaya.
At the festival, Rolex is also presenting the world premiere of a new 4K restoration of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1950 Gone to Earth. The project came to life through The Film Foundation, the nonprofit Scorsese founded in 1990 to preserve important films, which Rolex has supported since 2017.
NYFF is just the latest addition to Rolex’s roster of film partnerships. The brand has supported the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2017, including as a sponsor of the Oscars, where it hosts the Greenroom, and is a founding supporter of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
The 64th New York Film Festival runs through Oct. 12 with 119 films — 75 features and 44 shorts — from 46 countries.
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