From Kim Kardashian to Harry Styles: Wild and wacky star style of 2021

Visible thongs, fetish-style masks, Gucci feather boas, and a chain mail dress – celebrity fashion has well and truly found its way back to form.

Visible thongs, leather fetish-style masks, Gucci feather boas, and a chain mail dress – celebrity style has well and truly found its way back to form.

After multiple dull awards seasons and the postponement of the Met Gala due to the pandemic, Hollywood red carpets finally returned in-real-life this year, with stars and their stylists bringing their A-game, in a big way.

It was the year dressing up made its long-awaited return, with wild and wacky fashion replacing the blah outfits once worn over Zoom.

Perhaps the most talked-about ensemble was Kim Kardashian faceless, all-black Balenciaga outfit worn to the Met Gala in September.

Kim Kardashian wearing Balenciaga at the Met Gala. Picture: AFP

The Skims billionaire wore a series of bizarre Balenciaga outfits. Picture: BACKGRID

There, the vanilla-coloured carpet at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art was anything but vanilla.

Attending with Balenciaga creative director Demna Gvasalia, Kardashian’s look – worn to the Anna Wintour-hosted gala which celebrated American fashion via the theme “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” – was credited with rewriting red carpet rules.

“Kardashian’s stark black Balenciaga haute couture gown with matching mask and train was unlike anything Kardashian — or anyone else — has worn to the Met before,” US Vogue wrote at the time.

Kardashian even wore a full face of makeup under the veil, by makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic, which was never removed.

Bird of a feather. Kim Kardashian, wearing Balenciaga, in New York. Picture: Gotham/GC images

The Skims founder did not feel the need to over-explain the intention of it, simply saying: “What’s more American that a T-shirt head to toe?!”

Vogue Australia’s fashion features director Alice Birrell said it was a history-making outfit.

“Sparking no end of commentary, a custom Balenciaga-clad, (or is it cocooned?) Kim Kardashian made her way down the Met Gala red carpet and into the style history books this year,” Birrell said.

“Putting aside the negative readings, Kardashian’s choice, to obscure her face, could be seen as a wry comment on the currency that is a celebrity’s image.

“Whether it won your vote or note, it started a conversation which reinforces the power fashion can have.”

This, of course, was not the only time Kardashian turned heads in 2021 – she sported eye-popping Balenciaga looks elsewhere, from a masked leather ensemble to several hot pink catsuits.

Zoe Kravitz in Saint Laurent. Picture: Taylor Hill/WireImage

Dua Lipa channels the sheer trend in Versace. Picture: Getty Images

Megan Fox in Mugler. Picture: Getty Images

Dressed in a silver chain mail dress and exposed G-string, Zoe Kravitz served up one of the looks of the year, in head-to-toe Saint Laurent.

And wearing Ralph Lauren, Jennifer Lopez doubled as a cowgirl complete with a hat that wouldn’t have looked out of place at a rodeo.

Also at the Met Gala, Kim Petras put on a show in a horse-inspired outfit by Hillary Taymour, of Collina Strada.

“She just really wanted to make a statement, and I think we are making a statement for sure,” Taymour said, of the animal inspo.

Elsewhere, Hollywood embraced the sheer trend, which is about as far from leggings and sweaters as one can get.

Horsing around! Kim Petras at the Met Gala. Picture: Getty Images

Where’s the rodeo, JLo? Picture: John Shearer/WireImage

Wearing a see-through Thierry Mugler dress and a nude thong, Megan Fox turned heads on the red carpet, in an outfit selected by her boyfriend, Machine Gun Kelly.

“He was like, ‘You’re gonna be naked tonight,’” Fox said.

“I was like, ‘Whatever you say, daddy!’”

Fox’s barely-there dress was the latest in a string of “naked” dresses that has been a near-constant on the red carpet of late, Birrell said, noting the trend had also been worn by Rihanna, Zendaya and Beyoncé among others.

“With complete confidence, Fox’s whisper of a dress by Mugler is in step with a broader desire to get back to showing some skin as an antidote to being shut inside – though we’ll leave the ultra-sheer sheaths and visible underwear to the red carpet regulars,” Birrell said.

Then there was Harry Styles, who continued his Gucci-fuelled campaign to shatter gender stereotypes, one feathered accessory at a time, including at the Grammys where he wore a leather suit and green scarf.

Harry Styles in Gucci. Picture: Getty Images

Searches for “feather boas” had a massive spike (up 1500 per cent) in the 48 hours after the awards, according to fashion search engine Lyst.

The most-searched piece was Gucci’s purple feather boa, while for the accessory have increased by 111 per cent since the start of Styles’ Love On Tour in the US in September.

Searches for men’s leather pants were up by 100 per cent in less than 24 hours after Styles wore them onstage.

His stylist Harry Lambert described the outfit as a “little bit rock ‘n’ roll and a little bit camp”.

“I hope we did this with the mix of the tweed and the boa, (which is) Britishness, rock’n’roll, and camp all rolled into one,” Lambert said, per Vogue.

“It was also important to us all that the silhouette for the stage was the same as the red carpet but that the actual looks felt polar opposites.”

Is there actually anything more rock and roll than a Gucci feather boa?

“Perhaps three in one evening, especially when they’re luxuriating across the shoulders of the singular Harry Styles,” Birrell said.

The Watermelon Sugar singer rotated between soft purple, sage green, and black versions by Gucci at the music awards, evoking the boundary breaking style “of David Bowie for the 21st century and cementing his place as style icon with true, contemporary flair”, Birrell added.

In fact, genderless dressing was a dominant theme of the year in celebrity style.

Lil Nas X and his purple reign. Picture: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Lil Nas X channelled Prince at the VMAs, where he basically embodied the song Purple Rain through his off-the-shoulder lilac Versace jacket and matching train.

At the Met, he sported three Versace outfits in one, including a gold suit of armor, complete with an in-built six-pack.

“We wanted to start with, like, royalty, you know. Or like, a cloak … like we’re in our shell,” Lil Nas X said.

“It’s like I built this shield around myself … I came out, and this year, I feel like I really came out.”

At the Met Gala in Verace. Picture: John Shearer/WireImage

Before the big reveal. Picture: John Shearer/WireImage

Pete Davidson in an ‘cool dress’. Picture: Getty Images

Kardashian’s now-rumoured boyfriend, Staten Island-bred comedian Pete Davidson, sported a skirt and blazer – or as he called it, a “cool dress” – to the Met Gala, designed by Thom Browne.

Later, on Saturday Night Live, Davidson brutally roasted his own look during the show’s Weekend Update segment.

“I don’t know why (people were commenting on my outfit),” Davidson said.

“That’s a cool dress. I look like James Bond at his quinceañera.

“I look like Tilda Swinton on casual Friday.”

And if Davidson keeps dating Kardashian, surely a face-concealing Balenciaga balaclava isn’t too far off.

Originally published as From Kim Kardashian to Harry Styles: Wild and wacky star style of 2021