Celebrities Who Turned Outrageous Fashion Into an Art Form

Some celebrities dress to look good, others dress to impress, and then there are those who want to cause a cultural incident. And thank goodness for that. Imagine if everyone just dressed to blend in. There’d be hardly anything to see. It would be just an endless parade of tasteful gowns on the red carpet, and we’d all slowly fall asleep to the comments of “Oh, isn’t that elegant?”

The real fun begins when celebs want to stand out and show up dressed as a swan, a disco ball, an oversized flower arrangement, or, in the case of Lady Gaga, an actual steak dinner. Outrageous outfits like that aren’t about being the best dressed, it’s about performance, about creating a moment, or being the moment. Sometimes it’s about politics, sometimes it’s about ego, but the point is they’re all we can talk about the next day, and that’s exactly what they wanted. So let’s take a look at the stars who didn’t just wear crazy outfits, they made it part of their legacy.

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga is a master of creating a moment. And before she became the polished Old Hollywood queen she is now, she was known for making the red carpet her personal performance art piece.

She’s had quite a lot of insane-looking outfits, but her most outrageous one has to be the meat dress at the 2010 MTV VMAs. I mean, it was literally made of raw plant steaks fashioned into a dress. It looked truly shocking and we don’t really want to think about how it smelled. Gaga later explained that the point of the dress was to encourage people to fight for their rights before they end up as just “the meat on the bones.”

Another memorable outfit (if we can even call it that) happened in 2014 when Gaga essentially dressed up as a huge inflatable glittery sea urchin. The inflatable spikes that protruded from her dress were so long and so big that they gave the phrase “personal space” a whole new level. But that seems to be Gaga’s fashion philosophy: to leave you outraged, shocked, amazed, or wondering how in the world she goes to the bathroom in that.

Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian is also very good at making her dress into a headline. What else do you expect from a reality show star. Her most famous and stylish look was probably the 2019 Met Gala nude Mugler dress that made her look like she just came out of the sea dripping in jewels. In 2021, she went the opposite way and wore a black Balenciaga outfit that covered her entirely, including her face. The fabric was so dark it looked like she was gonna absorb all the lights on that red carpet.

For the 2022 Met Gala Kim wore the Jean Louis gown. It’s the one Marilyn Monroe wore in 1962 to sing “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy. The dress is owned by Ripley’s, which bought it for $4.8 million in 2016. That is not so much “getting dressed” as “borrowing a national pop-culture artifact and hoping nothing bad happens.”

Julia Fox

Julia Fox likes her fashion choices as strange, barely practical, and potentially designed with the sole purpose of making the internet stop scrolling.

Her most controversial look has to be the time when she dressed in a pink Jackie Kennedy suit and pillbox hat in 2025. What aspects of her style are revealing or unusual? No, but it did have blood stains and a reference to the JFK assassination. Fox said it was “not as a costume, but as a statement.” Well, it definitely triggered a lot of people, including JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg.

But that’s what Julia does. She wears latex like it’s office wear, shows up to Good Morning America with a punk-inspired outfit strapped to her chest instead of wearing it, and generally enjoys pushing the limits to the point where we’re left wondering if her next look will cause some legal issues.

Lil Nas X

Lil Nas X treats red carpets like mini music videos, and honestly, more celebrities should. His whole style identity has always been colorful, theatrical, and proudly extra, going all the way back to the cowboy-glam energy of “Old Town Road.”

He wore a purple Versace pantsuit with a long, dramatic skirt for the 2021 VMA’s, proving there isn’t a silhouette he can’t rock. For the 2021 Met Gala, he wore a three-part golden outfit consisting of a dramatic cape, golden armour, and a crystal-covered bodysuit underneath. It was one of those huge spectacles reveals perfectly suited for such an event. At the 2023 Met Gala he went even further wearing silver body paint, crystals, and a barely-there metallic look. He kind of became a human disco statue for the night.

Jared Leto

Jared Leto dresses like a maximalist on steroids when it comes to red carpet events. His most famous look is probably the time he wore a royal Gucci outfit to the Met Gala and carried a creepy replica of his own head. He loves bold colours, loud patterns, and we’ve definitely seen him rock floral suits and way too many capes to justify. And of course we can’t forget that on time he came dressed as a literal cat.