Lorde started off Sunday night’s 2017 MTV Video Music Awards red-carpet preshow on a shockingly sophisticated note, despite having the flu. She wore a feathered purple Monique Lhuillier gown, and for a second there, we thought the days of millennial pink, naked dresses, and bad suits were over. Even the evening’s host, Katy Perry, arrived in a low-key outfit — for her.
But alas, this is the VMAs! As the night wore on, we saw all the outrageous onesies, woke T-shirts, and, yes, millennial-pink jumpsuits we expected. The red carpet looked like a parade of bad prom dates, with so many sequins we wish we’d kept our eclipse glasses.
Thankfully, though, the youngest people in the audience, 10-month-old Asahd Khaled and 13-year-old Millie Bobby Brown, give us hope for a better-dressed future.