Fashion Flashback: 15 of Taylor Swift’s Past VMAs Looks
With 11 Video Music Award nods, Taylor Swift is the most nominated artist at the 2023 VMAs and could very well break her own record of wins. This isn’t even the most nominations she has received at the annual awards; in 2019 she garnered 12 nods. Swift has won “Video of the Year” three times — in 2022 for “All Too Well: The Short Film,” in 2019 for “You Need to Calm Down” and in 2015 for “Bad Blood (feat. Kendrick Lamar).”
Swift has quite a history with the MTV VMAs. In 2009, Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speech when she won one of her first moon people for best female video, took her mic and shouted out Beyoncé, whom he thought should have won the award in her place. Swift then presented West with the Video Vanguard Award the same year she won for her star-studded “Bad Blood” music video.
Last year’s VMAs marked a reclamation for Swift when she not only won “Video of the Year” for “All Too Well: The Short Film,” but took the moment one step further to announce her tenth studio album “Midnights,” which nobody saw coming since she was — and still is — in the process of re-recording her masters. Fans can’t help but wonder if she will announce something — such as the vault tracks for “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” — this year.
Swift’s VMA style has evolved throughout her career VMA appearances. Join us on a fashion flashback:
Swift went simple with this black, buttoned look for her VMAs appearance post-“Midnights” release and post-Eras tour, at least in the United States. It fits her wins for “Anti-Hero” for sure.
Best believe she’s still “Bejewled.” Swift sparkled in this diamond dress when she attended the 2022 VMAs to accept awards for “All Too Well: The Short Film” and surprised fans by announcing her tenth studio album — “Midnights.”
Like a rainbow with all of the colors, Swift dressed the part for her “Video of the Year” nomination — “You Need to Calm Down,” which featured stars like Todrick Hall, Ellen DeGeneres, Haley Kiyoko and the entire cast of “Queer Eye” in a loudly pro-LGBTQ+ music video. This marked her second time winning the award.
Featured in her “Miss Americana” documentary on Netflix, Swift wore this royal blue and golden outfit for her performance at the 2019 VMAs, which included a rousing rendition of “You Need to Calm Down” off her “Lover” album.
Swift’s cat eye was “sharp enough to kill a man” for her appearance at the 2015 MTV VMAs to accept the moon person for the epic “Bad Blood (feat. Kendrick Lamar)” music video, which featured herself, Lamar, Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, Zendaya, Lena Dunham, Karlie Kloss, Ellie Goulding, Jessica Alba and many more stars. She also presented Kanye West with the Video Vanguard Award at this ceremony.
This shimmering red outfit, similar to those she wore on her “1989” tour, might represent the “Bad Blood” Swift wrote about on that album. She wore this costume in a performance with Nicki Minaj at the 2015 VMAs.
Seems like Swift’s had that “blue feeling” since 2014 when she attended the VMAs at The Forum in Inglewood. This outfit and period calls to mind the part in Swift’s documentary where she references her struggles with an eating disorder. She has come so far since then!
Seems safe to say that Swift has had a handle on sparkly outfits for at least a decade, if not longer. This shiny white set shimmied all over the Inglewood Forum stage when the 2014 MTV VMAs were hosted there. Must be easy to shake it off in an outfit like this one!
Talk about a mastermind, this dark blue dress screams “Midnights” almost a full 10 years before the album came out. Swift wore this deep v-neck, strappy number to the 2013 MTV VMAs at the Barclays Center in New York City. If you look closely enough, you can see her red nail polish, most likely an homage to her “Red” album, which must have been competing for some moon people.
She was in her “Red” Era, to put it generously. (Many fans good-naturedly refer to this look as the “Where’s Waldo” costume.) Swift loved her high-waisted shorts and red stripes during this part of her career. And she rocked the look for her performance at the 2012 MTV VMAs.
The signature red lipstick Swift wears here also marks her “Red” era. This was her red carpet look at the 2012 MTV VMAs. From here on out, her wardrobe gets more conservative, as she was only in her 20s when she released “Red” and “1989.”
A barefoot Swift performed at the 2010 MTV VMAs in a simple white dress.
“Burning red” must have been in Swift’s mind when she wore this dress to the 2009 VMAs. Notice the length of the skirt and the lack of plunging neckline.
This dress got Taylor through that fateful moment when Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV VMAs. She was accepting the moon person for best female video when West got up, took the mic from Swift and claimed Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. Let it be known that Beyoncé classily invited Taylor up onstage later on in the show to finish her speech. See below:
Crazy that they were both wearing red!
Taylor wore this pale pink dress to the 2008 MTV VMAs right before “Fearless” came out in November of that year.
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