All the Bad Outfits of the iHeartRadio Music Awards
BYJoan SummersApr 02, 2024
Celebrities skin the zeitgeist and don said skin at the c-tier awards show of the week, inflaming onlookers. They shed their disguises at the end of the night, though, leaving the carcasses for the fashion press to find in the morning. Vultures, the lot of us, and we descend on the scraps, eager to pick at whatever meat might still cling to the polyester fishnets and satin monstrosities, the menswear usually saved for the digestif.
The iHeartRadio Music Awards, along with the People’s Choice Awards and their lesser brethren, nakedly traffic this fashion refuse. To say that the attendees of these so-called iHeartRadio Music Awards wore, by my estimation, the most brazen outfits of the year would be an understatement of enormous magnitude. It would also be the plainest admission of my career as a red carpet critic, and would call into question my ability to form complex thoughts about the subjects of reports like this one. The badness is the entire point.
In that way, I find the undertaking rather quaint. Beyond the pomp and circumstance of loftier red carpets, seedy ambition is the frontrunner for Best in Show. For what other reason would JoJo Siwa dress like a WWE heel, or Katy Perry cheat off the homework of her contemporaries. That Ice Spice wore a jacket at all was the most modest of choices, Rachel Leviss’ corset dress the norm, Big Time Rush’s ripped denim and wolf t-shirts the expected level of hedonism.
T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach
Still, I’m fascinated by the myriad ways last night’s yellow carpet moved me — even an inch. Embattled relationship exhibitionists T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach were in attendance, dressed like the guest of honor at a college alumni event and his new wife. He wore a mildew colored suit, complete with tie clip and suede loafers. The daytime talk show never quite leaves the system. Amy, meanwhile, wore a barely-mint dress I’d pick up off the sale rack at Nordstrom and think, "Cute for a night out, if it was in a different color." Her beige strappy heels proved, at least to me, that the pair dressed themselves. Congrats to the happy couple. I’m sure something on this press junket of love and loss will stick one day.
Rachel Leviss
Rachel Leviss, briefly the most famous woman in the world, likewise made a rare public appearance. In a comic twist, she and Amy both had corset top dresses on, although Leviss opted for a black, satin-y number. Since being unceremoniously outed as Tom Sandoval’s mistress last year, she was ritually sacrificed on the decrepit altar of SUR West Hollywood — her blood nourishing at least a few more seasons of Vanderpump Rules. Since then, she’s completed a stint of in-patient treatment and “gone rogue” on her iHeartRadio podcast. Her appearance on the carpet, despite the precarity of her place in the grander pop culture landscape, was an obvious mandate of her fealty to those new employers — however willfully exploitative the entire operation feels. Going rogue, in my estimation, doesn’t seem to include an expansive vision of red carpet possibilities.
Tori Spelling, Chris Olsen and Meghan Trainor
Tori Spelling, meanwhile, rounded out the night alongside cringe compatriots Chris Olsen and Meghan Trainor. Spelling wore dastardly low-rise plaid pants and a cotton crop top. A delectably bad choice, even for Spelling, and one which amplified TikToker Olsen's decision to wear a cotton tank top himself. Trainor, not one to be outdone on the worst-dressed list, wore a Pepto Bismol pink and opaque black tights. See, though, how she matched the platform peep toes as best she could to the gloved, collared, shirt and skirt. Look closely, and notice how the shirt has imitation corset boning.
Katy Perry
Katy Perry was also around. When I showed this photo to PAPER editor-in-chief Justin Moran, he told me, “I appreciate that she’s attempting to amp things up.” I appreciate that he found the grace inside himself to say that. While the attempt might leave much to be desired, the direct sunlight of a daytime awards show against a dog-piss yellow carpet is, in many ways, a succinct kicker for my thoughts about the outfits on display. Against the banality of her peers, there Perry goes, still kicking like a bug caught in a trap.
Photos via Getty Images
