The MTV VMAs returned to Los Angeles for the first time in nine years, bringing with them some of the most unexpected fashion choices of red carpet season, as tends to happen when musicians, rather than actors, are calling the sartorial shots.
Packed with artists at every level of fame and a healthy dose of reality TV stars, the VMAs red carpet opened outside the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles hours before the ceremony, delivering an explosion of black textures, unexpected patterns, and enough maximalism to suggest that the clean, quiet-luxury era may finally have a nail in its coffin.
