Sofia Carson in Carolina Herrera
This is evocative of a mantilla, which I didn't expect from Carolina Herrera. All I know is, I want to watch a show about this person IMMEDIATELY. Like, she is hexed so that every time she meets a new person, someone in their extended circle drops dead, so she tries to make other things in their lives right instead. It's like... Quantum Leap meets Pushing Daisies meets God Friended Me meets Six Feet Under, and it's probably terrible so Sofia should develop something juicier and better.
Lili Reinhart in Fendi
There is a role for Lili on that show. She's clearly a junior editor at a fashion magazine and the challenging editrix was one of Sofia's unwitting victims. I am pretty sure Lili becomes evil.
Ashley Graham in Houghton
This is like a very low-energy homage to the Versace safety-pin dresses.
Maneskin in Gucci
Do The Avengers have an in-house musical group? Asking for four friends.
Blackpink: Lisa in Celine, Jisoo in Dior, Jennie in Chanel, and Rosé in Saint Laurent
I think I like Jisoo's Dior the best? I do like that each woman is in her own thing, rather than all being dressed in the same designer. They don't look like distractingly unrelated aesthetics but they also don't look too uniform.
Conan Gray in Harris Reed
Harris Reed has designed for Harry Styles, and this absolutely does feel like someone trying to break off a piece of that action. I am not even sure if Harry's considerable charisma could have carried this off, though. (I also think Conan could rework this into a great Dua Lipa Halloween costume, as he appears to be her doppelganger.)
Billy Eichner
It's always nice to eyeroll a sheer and have it be on a guy.
Avril
This is sort of sedate for Avril. There's no plaid.
Camille Kostek
That "jacket" is, I believe, actually just the shirt. I don't know why people have to keep doing denim dirty like this (and later today, we'll have someone who literally is in dirty denim, so that's neat). But the PANTS, Marty. Something's gotta be done about those pants.
Even worse, they have the surprise fake thong attachment.
Joel Madden
Okay. But next time please bring Cameron Diaz! I miss her.
Bebe Rexha in Vivienne Westwood
Once again, it strikes me that Bebe Rexha looks slightly different every time we see her. I once opined that maybe there are three or four similar -- but not identical -- versions of her that get deployed to conserve her energy, and I'm sticking to it. Perhaps this was tailored around one of the other ones.
Sarah Ramos in vintage Chanel
This is cute. I like seeing people dig out the vintage (this one is from Tab Vintage), and while she is a top hat and cane away from breaking into her tap routine, I am not upset by that.
Rachel Lindsay in Randi Rahm
She looks good, but I find myself wishing the feathers either covered the whole thing, or started at her waist, rather than this empire situation.
Jack Harlow in Hermes
It seems this may be brown, not black, but we're here now. I made an assumption and now I have to live with it.
Kaycee Clark and Nany Gonzalez
Kaycee won Big Brother a few seasons ago, which seemed like a really random person to invite until I Googled it and learned that she's on The Challenge right now. A LOT of random-seeming reality TV people showed up to this, and I have since learned MTV is employing them now.
Johnny Middlebrooks
Like Love Island Johnny, who -- despite being a dog to Cely on/from season two -- is really incredibly handsome, and is on All-Star Shore. Which is basically a marriage between Love Island and Jersey Shore, except that it literally has NOTHING to do with the latter other than the word "shore" and Pauly D narrating it. So really, it's Paramount Plus's attempt to recreate Love Island after they lost it to Peacock. Credit to Paramount: They at least shelled out for a villa in Spain. Love Island is "somewhere on the coast of California." So, not an island.
J Balvin in Louis Vuitton
This was shown on the runway with one of those full-face Phantom masks (that are a very weird marketing choice for that musical, given that it is inaccurate!), and if one cannot show up in THAT at the VMAs, then where CAN one?!? Come on, J.
Offset
This is a better white suit. The green shoe trim is a good touch.
Kane Brown
Speaking of green accents. Apparently Kane Brown is the first male country singer to perform at the VMAs, which... what the??? Good for him, but that is surprising to me. Garth Brooks has been right there for 100 years.
Mae Muller in Rick Owens
Mae is serving "I have a Pinterest board dedicated to Julia Fox."
Peppermint
SURPRISE, this dress is overalls.
Blackbear
From another angle I saw a bit more of his shirt and really had a moment where I thought it said PENCE. It does not. It's Givenchy. Parenthetically, Givenchy continues to bewilder me.
Betty Who
However, this is classic and great.
LL Cool J in Dapper Dan x Rock The Bells
We got a press release about this which said, "LL reminded everyone why ladies love Cool James." This PR angle made me giggle.