Great Outfits in Fashion History: Kacey Musgraves in Feathered, Sparkly Valentino

This over-the-top CMA Awards gown deserves another look.

There are perfectly good celebrity style moments, and then there are the looks that really stick with you, the ones you try desperately to recreate at home. In ‘Great Outfits in Fashion History,’ Fashionista editors are revisiting their all-time favorite lewks

Kacey Musgraves shared some promising teasers of her new album “Star-Crossed” this week, and while I’m most excited about the music, I’m also very much looking forward to a new era of Erica Cloud-styled looks from the country crossover star.

The singer and celebrity stylist made a lot of sartorial magic together during Musgraves’ “Golden Hour” era and events surrounding it. Whether it was with butterfly motifs, rainbow hues, western-inspired silhouettes or just lots and lots of sequins, they were never afraid to make a statement. Case in point: the high-glam Spring 2020 Valentino gown Musgraves wore to the CMA Awards in Nashville in 2019.

With its yellow color, bell sleeves and abundance of sparkle and feathers, the dress was a lot — maybe even too much for a conservative country crowd. (I’m pretty sure Big Bird jokes were made.) But I think Cloud and Musgraves knew what they were doing with this look, which, in context, feels like a reference to the delightful tackiness of country-music fashion in decades past, plus a hint of Cher. It embodies that mix of kitschy, timeless and modern that Musgraves captures so well, both sartorially and musically. As Tom and Lorenzo summarized it in their review of the look: “That’s some sickening high-fashion Country Drag, y’all.”

A dress like this might be a bit much for those of us not collecting statuettes at award shows, but you can inject a little glam into your wardrobe with the tamer sequined dresses in the gallery below.