Fashion Lessons from 2025’s Grammy Winners

Apparently, it’s not enough to write an entire album and have the cover art to match. Now, dressing the part is half a battle won and at this year’s Grammys, the winning artists quite literally wore their albums on their sleeves. Call it method dressing: Beyoncé’s gone full Cowboy Carter, Charli XCX looks permanently trapped in a 5AM afterparty haze, and Chappell Roan just crawled out of a Midwestern pageant fever dream. Each of their outfits are a way to sell the fantasy. Here’s what their style choices tell us, and what we can borrow from their closets.

Sabrina Carpenter: Baby Doll Who Bites

Sabrina Carpenter has perfected the art of looking like a vintage doll you’d never hand to a child. Her aesthetic is all sugared up—bows, ribbons, lace, corsets—but the cut is sharper, hemlines dangerously cropped. It’s pin-up glamour rebranded for the TikTok age, always a knowing wink behind the wardrobe. Think 1960s ingénue who’s fully aware of her cultural cachet. The takeaway? If you’re going to commit to a theme, make sure there’s a twist. A baby-doll dress is cute. A baby-doll dress that could ruin your life? Much better.

Chappell Roan: Midwestern Drag Fever Dream

Chappell Roan is what happens when you cross Renaissance faire camp with drag maximalism and let it marinate in Midwestern pageantry. It’s a mouthful indeed. She’s working with stylist Genesis Webb, meaning every look is a high-stakes gamble. Chainmail one day, ruffled nightmares the next. Her lessons are mostly in irony. Lean into excess. If people can’t immediately tell whether you’re serious, you’re doing it right.

Beyoncé Knowles Carter: The Billionaire Cowboy

The cowboy hats came first. Then the bolo ties. Then diamond-studded Stetsons. And, finally the whole Cowboy Carter universe, sealed with a Grammy win and a reminder that Beyoncé can bend entire genres to her will. It’s Western wear stripped of its rustic sincerity (certainly not a “yeehaw” in sight), and rebuilt for a woman who probably has a $20,000 saddle somewhere in her house.

Doechii: School Girl Hip

The plaid skirts, the collared shirts, the ties and blazers—on paper, Doechii’s wardrobe reads like a school uniform. But in execution, it’s something else entirely. Nowhere near the sexualised or preppy school girl archetypes, Doechii’s staples come across like a rap diploma. She’s been vocal about studying the greats—Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, the architects of hip-hop’s most iconic eras—so she’s likely dressing the scholarly part. Lesson learned. Academia looks better with a power stance.

Charli xcx: I (Literally) Woke Up Like This

Indie sleaze is back, and Charli XCX is its patron saint. She’s been dressing like she just woke up in a stranger’s apartment after a particularly good night and threw on whatever was lying around. With Brat era, she’s writing a love letter to grunge in all its smudged-eyeliner, ripped-tights, greasy-hair glory. The devil, as always, is in the details with her favourite white tank top, boots that have seen better days, and the perfect 5AM black jacket.

SZA: Couture Chaos Theory

SZA makes you wonder if even she knows what she’s going to wear until five minutes before she walks out the door. One moment, she’s in an Iris van Herpen sci-fi fantasy; the next, she’s in an oversized jersey that looks stolen from a 2002 rap video. The common thread is cultural fluency—she wears fashion the way she makes music, with fluidity, intention, and an intuitive grasp of contrast. Unpredictable and studied in equal parts.

Lady Gaga: The One You Can’t Out-Camp

Lady Gaga exists in a permanent state of theatre. She was camp before camp, in an infamous meat dress, a feathered monstrosity and a Met Gala entrance that required a five-person entourage. While most celebrities pivot to “quiet luxury” the moment they hit a certain tax bracket, Gaga remains the industry’s most dedicated surrealist. If we are accused of living in a “society of the spectacle”, she’s the culprit they’re looking for.