It was never a question that Chappell Roan would decimate the red carpet at the 2024 VMAs with something truly unforgettable. Still, I was unprepared for just how theatrical and avant-garde the pop star would go. Lesson learned!
To mark her first time attending and performing at the awards show—where she's also nominated for best new artist, song of the summer, and best trending video—Chappell Roan pulled out all the stops. She arrived in full Joan of Arc regalia wearing a Y/Project gauzy brownish plum naked dress, chainmail gloves, and an oversized cross necklace.
She even had a helpful knight in leather to carry her sword and help her pose for pictures. I can certainly imagine needing such assistance when you have silver dagger nails and a tiny beaded bag to carry. The over-accessorizing also extended to Roan's long red hair, which was wrapped with chains and pearls.
Roan got somewhat into character on the carpet, telling a photographer to shut the f–ck up when they instructed her how to pose. When she dressed for battle, she meant it.
Roan recently told Rolling Stone that when she's not on stage or in front of the camera, she tends to wear very little color. “I wear gray and black IRL because I can’t handle the shit that I wear,” she explained. But the pop star is revered for her campy, character-driven costuming on the festival circuit. The looks she dreamt up for her record-breaking Lollapalooza set cemented her status as a fashion and beauty icon in the making. The first was a take on Marie Antionette drag, complete with towering wig, reminiscent of the glass doll runway makeup Pat McGrath devised for Maison Margiela’s Spring 2024 runway. The second was an Wrestlemania beat worthy of Hulk Hogan himself.
In a profile interview with Vulture, Roan's beloved stylist Genesis Webb told the outlet she and the singer quickly bonded as collaborators because they "both have a trashy, less defined sense of fashion than high fashion," a shared love of drag, and a mutual interest in a “sharp meets soft” aesthetic.
“When I was dressing her, we immediately went into this mode of, ‘Eh, who cares about the label and politics—I just want you to look sick,’” the stylist recalled in the interview.
To date, Webb has assisted Roan with more than fifty elaborate looks.
"It’s why I love being a stylist, especially someone who doesn’t just do full looks from the runway," she concluded. "We start with a theme and then go, ‘Okay, how can we make it campier, bigger?’”
