Taylor Swift’s 2024 VMAs Look Goes All-On The Brit Punk Revival

Believe it or not, the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards marks Taylor Swift’s 11th appearance at the legendary ceremony. It’s old hat for the megastar at this point, but this year is actually a pretty important one — she could become the event’s most-awarded honoree of all time. Naturally, with stakes this high, Swift was determined to shake things up aesthetically, both with her outfit and her beauty look. The result might be Swift’s most daring red carpet moment of all time, a British punk-inspired ensemble with edgy hair, makeup, and nails to match. Her fans have turned predicting her event ensembles into a legitimate spectator sport, but no one predicted she’d take this route at the VMAs.

In classic fashion, Swift showed up on the red carpet just moments before it closed. She came sweeping in a truly unexpected blur of leather and yellow-and-black tartan, her iconic bangs long, voluminous, and brushed to the side. The sweeping plaid corset and cape come courtesy of Christian Dior’s 2025 cruise collection, the runway show for which was set in Scotland — hence all that tartan. Think of the prototypical punk rocker from the mid-’70s and early ‘80s and you’ll likely think of Swift’s look: plaid, leather gloves, smoked-out makeup, and big, borderline teased hair.

She even added a set of extra-long black nails into the mix, a far cry from the shorter, rounded extensions she only just started wearing last year — before that, she typically just painted her own natural nails, even for the biggest events.

In a lot of ways, Swift’s look makes sense. She’s in a corset, which has been an aesthetic through-line consistent during the course of her The Tortured Poets Department album cycle. Her eye makeup’s gotten increasingly bold — who could forget the smoked-out wings she wore to last year’s event, or the crystal cat-eye from the year before? — and she’s increasingly traded out her signature crimson lipstick for more muted, rust-colored tones.

One thing you can always count on from Swift? She’s a master of the bait-and-switch. Just when you think you’ve got her style nailed down, trust her to reemerge in something radically different the very next week. Keep that in mind for when fans catch sight of her after-party look — there’s no telling what she’ll do.