Mariah Carey’s top fashions celebrated for MTV VMAs honors
It’s hard not to be “Obsessed” with Mariah Carey.
From her honeyed high notes to her butterfly-like allure, the icon has been slaying the scene with song and style since the early 1990s.
At this year’s MTV Video Music Awards — which airs live Sunday at 8:00 p.m. on CBS — Carey, 56, will accept the 2025 Video Vanguard award, an accolade given out to recording artists and music video directors for their “outstanding contributions” and “profound impact” on the music industry and pop culture.
It’s not just the songstress’ mesmerizing élan and impressive discography that earned her this honorable trophy — Carey’s unforgettable fashion choices made throughout her career have had a lasting impact on today’s generation.
The native New Yorker’s Video Vanguard win will be celebrated with a medley performance of her greatest hits at the VMAs.
It’s a showcase that will also take die-hard fans down a memory lane of the voluptuary’s hottest ensembles.
“She’s the ultimate glam diva,” Samantha Brown, an experienced NYC celebrity stylist, tells The Post of the “We Belong Together” chanteuse.
From her early ’90s bridal gown to the fab frock she donned to receive “Icon” honors earlier this year, Carey’s kept her pedicured foot on the pedal of posh, Brown said.
“She has a lasting impact on style that’s influenced the generations, including Gen Z,” the fashion expert said.
Brown even noted that “It” girls, such as Hailey Bieber, Dua Lipa and Vanessa Hudgens, have all taken a page out of the “Butterfly” singer’s look book at one time or another — with each spotted wearing monarch-inspired attire, akin to the Emanuel Ungaro butterfly top Carey wore at the 2000 VH1 Divas gala.
Throughout her decades-long career, Carey has always stayed true to herself — especially when it comes to fashion.
“With Mariah, there’s always lots of legs, lots of cleavage, lots of skin — but she does it tastefully and confidently,” Brown said. “She’s always going to turn heads in something glitzy, sexy, figure-highlighting and authentic to her aesthetic.”
It’s a saucy, chic aesthetic that Carey has carried since her 1990 debut. And after 35 years, the luminary continues to shine as a voguish “Vision of Love.”
Here’s a look at Mariah Carey’s 10 most memorable fashion moments over the last three decades.
1. The unbridled bride
Saying “I Do” to a custom Vera Wang wedding dress is a commitment so nice, Carey made it twice.
The R&B royal will forever live in the annals of elegance — thanks to the sweetheart-neckline ball gown she wore for her 1993 nuptials to music executive Tommy Mottola. The pièce de résistance featured an over 20-foot train and a 10-foot veil, which she anchored atop her head with a diamond tiara.
She and Mottola, now divorced, swapped vows in a lavish $500,000 ceremony in New York. But Carey’s couture served as the focal point of the fête, says Wang.
“This was the era of Princess Diana, and [Carey] was very moved and influenced by that wedding,” Wang told PageSix. “She really wanted a princess look, and it was just one of those weddings that was truly a fairytale in the sense of scale.”
But the “Fantasy” songstress didn’t let the dress go to waste once the marriage went south. Fast-forward to 2005, she revived the number in the “We Belong Together” music video.
“I was going to do a scene with a wedding dress,” Carey told Vevo’s Footnotes, “[but] rather than spend tons of money on a new dress, we just used the one I had lying around.”
2. Santa’s slay
Most queens want worship and praise. But all that Carey, the acclaimed Queen of Christmas, wants is you. (And her epic Santa jumpsuit, of course).
The dynamo admittedly had “no idea” that her 1994 “All I Want for Christmas” ditty and duds would have such indelible impact on pop culture.
She donned a red, curve-clinging one-piece, embellished with a white fur trim and a black leather belt, for the song’s music video, as well as the artwork for her “Mariah Carey Merry Christmas” album.
It’s a classic keepsake that her highness now wears every year during the holidays.
3. Risqué “revenge”
Ditching both her ex-husband and her cutesy girl-next-door image, Carey sent tongues wagging in a saucy, high-slit black two-piece, reportedly made by Calvin Klein, at the 1997 VMAs.
The “Honey” crooner took the red carpet by storm, baring her toned thighs, taut midriff and ample cleavage shortly after announcing her separation from Mottola.
In the years since she wowed in the look-at-me finery, Carey fanatics have hotly hailed her threads the ultimate “revenge” dress.
4. Fashion face-off
What’s better than one vocal VIP in top-tier gladrags? Two.
Carey and the late Whitney Houston simultaneously stole each other’s thunder in identical coffee brown Vera Wang gowns as presenters at the 1998 VMAs.
Both “one-of-a-kind” dresses came complete with plunging necklines and detachable swaths of fabric, which revealed each pinup’s unique hemline. Unsurprisingly, Carey’s cut offered audiences an eyeful of her killer legs (which are reportedly insured for several million dollars).
“We opened the show with a bit— a faux competition about our looks,” she previously told Vogue. “Vera Wang made these dresses for us, to be matching. My dress, naturally, didn’t show up [until the last minute].
“I had a police escort for the dress.”
5. A-list luxe
Carey commanded the spotlight at the 1999 Academy Awards, wowing in a white lace gown by L’Wren Scott.
The songbird bombshell flaunted her figure in the dress ahead of a duet performance of “When You Believe,” from the animated film “The Prince of Egypt,” with Whitney Houston.
6. Fly by design
Never one to wing it with her wardrobe, Carey set the tone for Y2K flashiness in Ungaro’s beaded, wrap-around butterfly crop top.
Cutting an hourglass frame, the “Always Be My Baby” beauty paired the showstopper with a pair of lightly distressed low-rise jeans and heels. Hers was the look to beat on the step-and-repeat for the VH1’s Divas tribute to Diana Ross at Madison Square Garden in April 2000.
7. Mimi’s so chichi
Breaking free from the chains that once bound her, the boundless “It’s Like That” creative took matters into her own hands when it came time to pose in ritzy regalia for the “Emancipation of Mimi” visuals.
With a pair of bedazzled scissors, Carey snipped, sliced and diced the glimmering, metallic threeASFOUR gown that she wore on the cover of the 2005 anthology.
“She just grabbed [her scissors] and cut a few more openings into that dress,” photographer Markus Klinko exclusively told PageSix Style, recalling that the hotshot really wanted to show off her stems.
And that, she did.
“The rest is history,” said Klinko, “it became literally one of the most iconic music covers of all time.”
8. Carey’ing “Precious” cargo
After becoming nearly unrecognizable for her role in the 2009 blockbuster, “Precious,” in which she portrayed an NYC social worker, Carey quickly reclaimed her stellar swag at the 2010 Oscars.
The “Don’t Forget About Us” gem sashayed down the red carpet of the 2010 Academy Awards in a navy blue number by Valentino and Christian Louboutin heels.
Carey, then-married to comedian Nick Cannon, accessorized with a deluge of diamonds, including 43-carat Chopard rose-cut diamond hoop earrings, a diamond flower brooch and a H.Stern top floral collection bracelet — a bauble decked out in diamonds worth a reported $720,000.
9. Injured en vogue
Beauty hurts. But Carey makes it work.
The “Touch My Body” mastermind refused to let a little thing like a dislocated shoulder stop her from slaying the stage.
Despite her injury, a pain she sustained on the set of a music video in July 2013, the centerfold sported three splashy slings to match her outfits for the Major League Baseball All-Star Charity Concert at Central Park that month.
While performing with the New York Philharmonic, Carey belted her heart out in a fluffy white armband, before switching it out for a rhinestone-encrusted number, then a black-feathered job.
She later thanked fans for applauding her modish medical gear, tweeting, “Still in a lot of pain — cracked rib, fractured shoulder, bruises everywhere, but the show must go on.”
10. The haute “Heartbreaker”
Nowhere near done with her illustrious run, Carey received a standing ovation in a custom Mariana Romanova gown while accepting the 2025 iHeart Radio Music Icon Award in March.
The “Heartbreaker” hitmaker took the honors in the black dress, featuring a fitted silhouette with an eye-catching bodice topped in glittery details. Its structured sleeves, made of sheer fabric, hugged Carey’s arms and accentuated her flawless physique.
It’s a look that will be hard to outdo at the upcoming VMAs.
But, then again, is there anything that Carey can’t do?
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
