American singer Madonna (born 1958) has received extensive coverage in fashion journalism. Madonna's forays into the fashion industry have included attending runway shows and the Met Gala, as well as owning fashion brands. She has appeared on the covers of numerous magazines and became the first musician to complete Vogues Big Four. She has served as muse for various designers and photographers and has been credited with raising the profile of several of them.
Throughout her career, Madonna's evolving styles and aesthetics influenced fashion trends and attracted both positive and negative reactions in mainstream media. She was included in several best-and worst-dressed lists and featured in influence rankings such as Times All-TIME 100 Fashion Icons, Style and Design (2012). She was also included in Peoples Hall of Fame of Worst Dressed (2004), while fashion critic Richard Blackwell included Madonna in his book Worst: 30 Years of Fashion Fiascos (1991). Madonna received accolades for her fashion, including the inaugural Versace Award at the VH1 Fashion Awards in 1998 and the Style Icon from the Elle Style Awards in 2007. However, she also received less favorable distinctions such as the Worst Dressed Person Award from the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party in 1992 and 1993. Photographs and clothing associated with Madonna have been exhibited in museums and other venues.
Madonna has also attracted significant criticism and generated controversy over her fashion, ranging from criticism of outfits incorporating religious imagery and sexual overtones to controversial photoshoots. During her early career, Madonna's influence on the fashion choices of her teenage fan base was the subject of criticism. She has also faced criticism over cultural appropriation and from animal-rights groups, while her fashion sense has been cited as examples of consumerism and narcissism.
Fashion image Background Stylight magazine stated that "much of her popularity" was attributed to her sense of style, and the Hinduism Today (1998) reported that she became famous for her constantly changing makeup. Billboard staffers commented in 2015 that "her sense of style became as influential as her chart-topping tunes". Authors of The 1980s (2007) suggested that "Madonna's influence on fashion eclipsed her music", and feminist scholar Camille Paglia argued in 2005 that Madonna "became a fashion icon more than a music pioneer". Writing in The Journal of Popular Culture in 2014, associate professor José Blanco observed that fashion critics, designers and scholars had examined her influence on fashion. Additionally, Louise Gray of i-D magazine commented in 2018 that Madonna had come "under scrutiny for her outfits over the best part of four decades".
Madonna also developed a reputation as a fashion provocateur, with her style and influence attracting criticisms and controversies.
Styles
Observers such as Barbara Foley of Los Angeles Times (1990) have traced Madonna's relationship with fashion back to her childhood, noting Madonna's father influenced her awareness of fashion without realizing it, with the dress code imposed in her strict Catholic upbringing, and that she saw "how potent a certain way of dress could be". BBC's Katya Foreman (2015) stated that Madonna "saw clothes as a tool of rebellion from early on".
Madonna explored different styles and looks, both on and off stage. The French fashion magazine Crash (2015) explained that she is known for having an "extravagant taste". Douglas Kellner wrote in Oh Fashion (1994) that fashion became inseparable from Madonna's aesthetic practices—including interviews and music videos. Heart UK described the evolution of her styles and looks as having been "documented through the years", while Foreman called it an "expansive catalogue of looks". However, Pamela Church Gibson of the London College of Fashion observed a notable lack of academic discussion of Madonna in relation to high fashion.
Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli observed that religious symbols became a crucial part of her fashion. Foreman noted that Madonna wanted to be either a film star or nun when she grew up, and "extensively explored both roles through clothes ever since". Through her clothing, she paid tribute to women such as Marilyn Monroe, Marie Antoinette and Eva Perón. Allison Berry of Time described "Vogue" (1990), as "perhaps the most fashion song of all time", noting that she paid tribute through the spoken word Strike a Pose section to Hollywood glamour and icons. Sydney Nowak of KOST stated that Madonna brings a tinge of grunge to her fashion. She has incorporated aesthetics such as cowgirl, ghetto fabulous, military styles, masculine pieces, and androgynous imagery, as well as thrift shop looks, and "dirtbag-chic". Madonna also drew on fashion imagery from Asian cultures, particularly Japan and India during the 1990s.
Fashion trends and influence
Madonna was described as a fashion trendsetter. According to fashion editor Robin Givhan (1990), although Madonna did not originate the styles she popularized, she helped bring them into the mainstream. Fashion scholar Harold Koda and Kal Ruttenstein of Bloomingdale's similarly argued in 2000 that she helped bring the garments into the "cultural consciousness" and that her influence "validate[d]" them. Cynthia Robins, a beauty writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote in 2001 that her influence extended across the spectrum of "high, low or otherwise". Madonna influenced fashion or trends through her music videos, concert tours such as The Virgin Tour and Blond Ambition World Tour, her role in Evita (1996), and public appearances, including her use of gymwear.
Responses to Madonna's fashion trends varied. For instance, early in her career, an unusual number of young women began dressing like her—with elements such as jelly bracelets, rosaries, crucifixes, lace tights—, giving rise to the term "Madonna wannabe". Macy's opened a "Madonnaland" department in 1985 to sell clothing inspired by her looks, and other retailers followed suit. Authors of the Defining Visions (1998) stated that "no pop star had more impact on retail clothing sales than Madonna", and Foley claimed Madonna to be "the woman who has influenced the fashion scene more than anyone else in the 1980s". Jane and Michael Stern (1992) wrote that her ascension coincided roughly with the Valley girl fad and that her wardrobe, "pretty much defined the Valley Girl look". In 2016, fashion magazine Redbook included Madonna's style among The Worst Fashion Trends of Every Decade, in the category of the 1980s. Madonna herself said in an interview with Rolling Stone that the 1980s included some of her worst fashion moments.
Observers such as Canadian scholar Karlene Faith (Madonna, Bawdy & Soul 1997), Gertrud Lehnert (A History of Fashion in the 20th Century, 2000), and Amalissa Hall from Tatler (2022) referred that her fashion influence crossed generations or decades. The Journal of Popular Culture (1999) attributed Madonna's influence on fashion to her "capacity to identify with and interpret the moods". Fashion publications such as L'Officiel (2020), Harper's Bazaar (2015), Yahoo! Style (2021), and Vogue Italia (2023), credited her with helping to define fashion eras or looks that reemerged or endured. She was also credited with paving the way other celebrities through her style, or as an influence on them, by author Carlyn Beccia (2016) and publications such as Vogue and L'Officiel. Media entertainers Kelly Osbourne, Naomi Campbell, Rita Ora and Kelly Brook have cited Madonna as a fashion icon or influence.
Looks and outfits
The wedding dress Madonna wore during her 1984 MTV Video Music Awards performance was described by journalist Lyndsey Parker (2019) as a signature look of her career. Parker stated the general setting helped elevate her to superstardom, although it was also considered a highly controversial moment. Vogues Spanish edition noted in 2015 that the look had become a Halloween costume. Her World (2019) credited the white Bob Mackie dress Madonna wore at the 1991 Academy Awards with influencing a generation of pop singers. The ponytail that Madonna wore in the Blond Ambition World Tour (1990) was described by Glamour as "one of the most iconic hairstyles of all time" and credited by Dazed with helping spark a fashion revival of the style.
The pink conical-bra corset designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier drew media attention. Critics called the look hypersexual and aggressive, and Entertainment Weekly (2015) named it a "controversial concert outfit". It became one of the many looks associated with her, according to the National Geographic Society. Fashion journalist Tim Blanks described the image of Madonna in the cone-bra as "one of the most unforgettable images" of the 1990s, and Another Magazines Jack Moss described it as an image of pop-culture ubiquity. The style later influenced other designers and pop stars, according to publications such as Vogue (2022) and Entertainment Weekly (2020), and became one of her most emulated outfits, according to author Joanne Garde-Hansen (2011).
Clothing worn by Madonna has been displayed in museums and exhibitions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Rock Style (1999–2000), the Victoria and Albert Museum's Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk (2020), and Madonna, Manta, Mauerfall (2018), a German exhibition examining 1980s culture. In 2013, Madonna personally selected garments from her archive for Madonna's Fashion Evolutions, a pop-up exhibition at Macy's curated and styled by Arianne Phillips. During the premiere of her documentary film Madame X (2021), Madonna told Kim Kardashian that she had preserved many of her outfits and that her fashion archive was housed in Brooklyn.
Awards and rankings
Madonna has appeared in media polls of both the best- and worst-dressed celebrities. She was included in both categories in Rolling Stones 1985 annual poll, and topped both categories in Spins first annual readers' poll in 1989, with the magazine referring to her as breaking down the "boundaries of good and bad taste". Fashion critic Richard Blackwell named Madonna the Worst Dressed in 1988, 1989, and 1992, describing her in the latter year as a "bare-bottomed bore of Babylon". He also included Madonna in his book Worst: 30 Years of Fashion Fiascos (1991). She was ranked among Vogues 100 Best Dressed in 1999. In 2004, Madonna tied with American singer Cher for the most appearances on Peoples Hall of Fame of Worst Dressed, with seven each. In 2003, Czech publication Mladá fronta DNES called her "Master of Kitsch".
Madonna has also appeared on influence rankings. She topped the 1980s category in a 2009 Clothes Show London poll of the 20th century's greatest fashion icons, while Rolling Stone named her among the musicians who defined 1990s fashion. She was also included on lists published by Glamour (The 25 Most Influential Style Icons in Music, 2010), Time (All-TIME 100 Fashion Icons, Style and Design, 2012), Design Museum (Fifty Women's Fashion Icons that Changed the World, 2016), Laurence King Publishing (100 Women 100 Styles, 2021), and Harper's Bazaars Women Who Changed Fashion: The Style Icons (2015) and 150 World's Most Fashionable Women (2017).
Madonna has also received awards for her fashion. She received the inaugural Versace Award at the VH1 Fashion Awards in 1998 and was named Style Icon at the Elle Style Awards in 2007. However, Madonna received the Worst Dressed Person Award at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party of 1993 and 1994. In addition, she was included on the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame List, and inducted into the Headwear Hall of Fame in 2011.
Activities and relationships