At The 2025 Grammy Awards, 1980s Aesthetics Signalled Fashion’s Cultural Shift

OPINION

In uncertain times, there’s always safety in power dressing as the Grammy Awards showcased.

Patrick Bateman and every yuppie scum in town might survey today’s red-carpet looks at the 2025 Grammy Awards with quiet approval.

Rapper and singer Doechii, who won the Grammy for Best Rap Album, was dressed in the power pinstripes of the 1980s - a tie, and shirt tucked into a corseted fitted bodice from Thom Browne, a designer whose love of a white-collar uniform has now been adopted by several other designers in recent seasons.

A pinstripe fabric - one traditionally used for men’s suiting, also made its way onto a gown worn by Kehlani and designed by Robert Wun, the overall look not too far removed from one once worn by Joan Collins as Alexis Colby, the vengeful ex-wife of oil tycoon Blake Carrington in the 1980s TV series Dynasty.

There was Sabrina Carpenter’s pastel blue JW Anderson gown trimmed with ostrich feathers with hair piled up into an up-do no doubt supported by a generous can of Elnett Hair Spray, the Espresso singer looking like she’d stepped out of a glossy 80s Manhattan penthouse ready for a glass of Bollinger and a plate of Taramasalata.

The producer and R&B crooner Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds even looked like late 80s-early 90s MC Hammer in a pair of wide-pleated trousers and a tuxedo jacket with its wide-lapels bedecked with rhinestones designed by Olivier Rousteing of Balmain.

From Cardi B, it was an off-the-shoulder vintage Roberto Cavalli animal print sequin gown trimmed with feathers that made an OTT statement, the kind of dress that wouldn’t look out of place leaving a Chrysler Executive Limousine before making its way towards a benefit for the wing of a new museum.

If the looks at today’s red-carpet event for today’s 67th Grammy Awards in LA are anything to go by, it’s that fashion can be a barometer of the times we live in.

Last year’s obsession with quiet luxury and vintage fur coats was one indication of this shift, and so too were the nostalgic AI-generated trending vignettes across TikTok that highlighted retro decor from the 80s set to a slow saxophone soundtrack.

Miu Miu, Prada’s sister line is another example of this shift, delivering collections that focus on preppy staples like pleated skirts, polo shirts, ties and loafers. According to a report from Vogue Business in October, the brand reported a revenue increase of 105% year-on-year and up 97% in the first nine months of 2024.

But fashion has always reinvented the past. The 1980s is an era that fashion revisits not necessarily for its good taste, but for its excess.

If the new world order of tech “broligrachy” in America - Trump, Musk, Zuckerberg, Pichai, Bezos - is anything to go by, you only need to see how their partners such as Melania Trump and Lauren Sanchez reasserted their own manifesto for fashion this year - whether it’s an austere coat and matching hat for inauguration day followed by the release of an equally austere official portrait dressed in a Dolce & Gabanna white shirt and black tuxedo; or the white Alexander McQueen suit worn by Ms Sanchez that exposed a lacy white bra underneath.

Another famous person who has reignited a specific 1980s aesthetic is 83-year-old doyenne Martha Stewart, who is having something of a renaissance with recent projects including an advertising campaign for Uber Eats alongside Gen-Z’s undisputed queen of cool, Charli XCX, along with a Netflix documentary that pays attention to Martha’s self-made iconography.

Martha has even fronted a new campaign for M.A.C Cosmetics and today during the Grammys, shared her top tips for that other decadent symbol of the 1980s - a mini martini. Kendall Jenner’s confession that her Christmas decoration game plan last year focused squarely on inspiration from Martha Stewart was another subtle nod to the shift toward tradition.

Towards the end of 2024, Jilly Cooper’s long-awaited TV adaptation of bonkbuster Rivals further reminded us what we’ve always known about the 1980s: it was fun. The posh cabal of Rupert Campbell and co didn’t have to worry about silly things like carbon emissions and size inclusivity as they boinked their way about town in a parade of taffeta puffball skirts and leather blazers layered over Oxford shirts and jodhpurs.

If there was another indication an 80s “boom boom aesthetic” is making its presence felt, one of the original brat-pack stars Demi Moore has also found success at 62 with her first-ever Oscar nomination for her role in the gory horror satire The Substance. Playing the role of Elisabeth Sparkle, the costumes worn in the film play another visual cue around an 80s aesthetic revival.

At the Grammys, both Miley Cyrus and Olivia Rodrigo both wore black body-conscious dresses with strategic cutouts that looked reminiscent of the kind of aerobics adjacent designs beloved by designers such as Gianni Versace and Herve Leger during the last 80s and early 90s.

But not all 80s looks served on the red carpet focused on expensive, conservative glamour.

As we prepare for another onslaught of those 80s tropes, any referenced era still needs the tonic of the avant-garde to challenge and offer some hope that not everyone wants to live a straight-laced existence.

You only have to look at someone like Chappell Roan in her vintage Jean Paul Gaultier couture gown and harlequin make-up to realise that even in the 80s there were boundary-pushing artists that shared headlines with the First Wives Club and Sloane Rangers.

Leigh Bowery, Cyndi Lauper, Prince and Madonna’s Desperately Seeking Susan were just some eternal style icons of the era who reminded us that in a sea of oversized shoulder-padded blazers, tight cocktail dresses and mermaid gowns, there’s hope for the non-conformist who still wants to fly their freak flag.

Dan Ahwa is Viva’s fashion and creative director and a senior premium lifestyle journalist for the New Zealand Herald, specialising in the intersections of style, luxury, art and culture.

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