Does bad taste make for good style? At the 2026 Grammy Awards, a number of celebrities opted for garments that had been a little odd and a little ugly. Arguably they had been additionally probably the most memorable.
Amid a few of the more conventionally tasteful outfits — see Hailey Bieber in a black strapless Aläia gown, or Madison Beer dolled up in an Andrew Kwon robe — an abundance of head-scratching seems to be saved us glued to the occasion.
Cher on stage in a leather-based and lace look, with a shredded leather-based skirt that gave the distinct impression it was falling down. Amy Taylor, frontwoman of Australian pub rock band Amyl and the Sniffers, wore a flesh-toned catsuit with sizzling pink lace cut-outs, overlaid with a fluffy pink bolero and a cascading floor-length fringe. Jon Batiste in a completely rhinestone army jacket. That’s with out mentioning the purple carpet mainstays: Chappell Roan in a customized Mugler nipple-clasped gown, a remake of the unique salacious gown from 1998, reissued with prosthetic areolas; Bad Bunny in Schiaparelli’s first ever customized menswear look — a velvet tuxedo with plunging lapels and a kinky, corset lace-up that ran alongside his complete again; Lola Young in a sweater and tracksuit pants from Vivienne Westwood, smartened up with a stripey tie; whereas Shaboozey totally dedicated to an outfit of wacky halves: a Ralph Lauren tuxedo jacket and vest paired with belted denims, additionally by the model.
While the definition of bad taste is subjective, it doesn’t all the time need to be as ostentatious as Batiste’s rhinestones, or Roan’s nipple-hanging robe. Billie Eilish, sporting the area of interest Swedish model Hodakova, examined the boundaries of judgment with an outfit that was intentionally frumpy. Eilish’s jacket and skirt had been comprised of reworked males’s trousers, with each unique pocket, belt loop and seam from the pant’s earlier type made seen within the new look. Her lengthy white socks fell slightly below the knee, making her sock suspenders — the eternally unflattering male equal to the much-fetishized feminine stocking suspenders — redundant. From the attitude of wanting stunning within the conventional Valentino Garavani way, Eilish’s outfit was ineffectively “wrong.” But there was one thing deeply engrossing about it — the abundance of ineffective straps, the socks and pointed stilettos, the Nineteen Fifties British grandma coin purse — that made you need to look more intently.
“Ugly is attractive, ugly is exciting. Maybe because it is newer,” Prada informed T Magazine in 2013. “The investigation of ugliness is, to me, more interesting than the bourgeois idea of beauty. And why? Because ugly is human. It touches the bad and the dirty side of people.” On the runways for each Prada and Miu Miu, the designer has made a level of challenging our sartorial prejudices in the name of newness. Prada’s Spring-Summer 1996 assortment “Banal Eccentricity” (famously dubbed as “Ugly Chic”) used patterns usually discovered on Nineteen Fifties curtains and desk garments and made them into dowdy knee-length shirts, polo-shirts and attire modelled with chunky sandals. Over twenty years later, Prada has continued together with her distinct, typically paradoxical method that challenges standard magnificence. Why?
Like studying a lengthy and tough ebook, we solely develop from what challenges us. Prada understands that, as do designers like Jean Paul Gaultier, Demna and Marc Jacobs. Uncomfortable issues spark dialog, require more consideration, ask you to look and linger for longer — all potential indicators of worth. In actuality, bad taste has all the time been good for the style enterprise. The trade hinges on novelty to be able to survive, and requires a fixed roster of revolving concepts which may entice prospects to replace their wardrobes and reinvent themselves in new methods. Ugliness subsequently may be a by no means ending wellspring of inspiration for designers.
We like what we all know — which is why what we regularly think about to be good is merely a reflection of the present pattern cycle, or a garment so timeless it feels always in alignment with the current. Arguably, one thing deemed as bad taste could merely be forward of its time. Shapes, silhouettes and concepts appear improper till instantly at some point, they give the impression of being proper.
“Bad taste is what entertainment is all about,” wrote “Hairspray” and “Cry-Baby” movie director John Waters in “Shock Value: A Tasteful Book about Bad Taste,” first printed in 1981. “To understand bad taste one must have very good taste,” he stated. There is one thing rebellious too within the pursuit of unusual garments. It refuses a repetitive definition of magnificence fed to us by way of algorithms. In immediately’s mass produced, digitally curated world, it takes a lot more work to look a little bizarre.