What do recent owners of cowboy boots, slime-green shirting, and pin-up corsets have in common? Their purchases were probably more informed by their Spotify Wrapped than the runway.
The nominees for the most competitive trophies at the 2025 Grammy Awards—including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year—worked just as diligently to dress for their current album eras as they did to write the music behind it. Their aesthetics were a 24/7/365 commitment. They didn't just dedicate their tours or official merch to mixing their sound and their wardrobe. They made every single appearance an ode to their album.
Sabrina Carpenter "Who, me?!" -ed her way through Short 'N Sweet Tour parties and press in ultra-mini dresses and rich-girl vintage furs: a version of her Victoria's Secret pin-up lingerie costumes she could wear offstage. Charli XCX, whose neon-hued album "brat" spawned the "brat green" color trend, proved she's a "365 party girl" in mussed-up Penny Lane coats, scuffed boots, and sunglasses at all hours of the day. One look at her, and you trust she knows what a "club classic" sounds like. And long before Beyoncé's Christmas Day NFL performance, fans got near-daily Instagram updates of the Cowboy Carter singer in her rodeo queen best.
Linking music and fashion isn't unique to the TikTok generation. There's a decades-spanning tradition of big acts crafting an entire persona to advertise their sound before anyone hits "Play," including wardrobe.
"Historically, musicians have always infused the themes of their music into their style onstage and off-stage," says Emil Wilbekin, assistant professor of Marketing Communications at FIT. From The Beatles' British Invasion in the 1960s to the rhinestone-coated rise of Diana Ross and Dolly Parton a decade later, "there was a 'cult of personality' in the way artists dressed that was aligned with their music, their lifestyle, and their genre."
For women in music over the past half-century, Wilbekin notes, clothing has functioned as a crucial part of branding, marketing, and packaging artists. No one is ever merely listening to a song: "As a fan, you [are] buying into the sound and the style of these artists."
One major difference between the 2020s and the 1960s, '70s, or even early aughts, however, is the frequency at which we can see our favorite stars in the act of creating (and advertising) their work. Every major nominee also has a major social media presence; they're photographed almost every time they leave the house. With millions of eyes on them daily, this year's Grammy slate can't help but treat personal style the same way they treat dressing for a formal performance. Staying consistent makes them memorable; being memorable might help them stick out in all-important voters' minds because they're shaping playlists and wardrobes.
"I believe today’s music artists understand the power of social media and cater to an image-driven audience," Professor Wilbekin says. And considering all the short attention spans they're competing for online, they're also unbothered about changing their look to keep their followers engaged.
Perhaps no Grammy nominee is a bigger fashion chameleon than Taylor Swift, who has switched up her preferred designers and color palette with every album since 2012's Red. Before formally announcing The Tortured Poets Department onstage at last year's Grammys, she hinted at its imminent reveal in her street style: committing to moodier designers like The Row and Khaite in muted tones. It doesn't manage to read as disingenuous when she doesn't stray from her dress code (even on date nights with Travis Kelce).
Which brings us to the second shift in Grammys personal style: the shopping. Several of this year's big nominees have sold as many clothing items as they have albums—and I don't mean from their online merch stores. Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter release led to a rise in cowboy boot and Levi's jeans sales, per CNN. Victoria's Secret's return to favor was helped along, in part, by all the custom lingerie Sabrina Carpenter wore each night on her tour. Taylor Swift's dark academia pleated skirts and corset tops frequently sell out alongside her go-to Pat McGrath lipstick—and looks from all her past "eras" drove entire regional economies while she toured through the fall. "Brat" green was just neon before Charli XCX, and it wasn't flying off shelves or leading fashion magazines' color trend reports.
A few 2025 Grammy favorites, like Chappell Roan, still follow the onstage-persona-only model. She and her stylists go all-out on inventive, deeply-researched drag outfits for performances, allowing the singer to escape into her real-life identity when she's off the mic. While her looks haven't been monetized quite yet, they still serve the same purpose: setting her apart in looks and in sound.
Warring fandoms will no doubt meltdown over the perceived injustice of this Sunday's AOTY winner. But this year, every music faction can agree on one thing: The reigning queens of pop, rap, and dance music rule with looks that started all their own—and then became all ours.
