Once upon a time, when I was a little baby unpaid editorial intern at Billboard I was asked to work their annual Women In Music event, which mostly meant helping white ladies at Ticketmaster find their seats and compiling a gift bag for Taylor Swift. It was held in the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday in a teeny hall in Chinatown, the Target dog was there, and I was simply grateful for the opportunity to leave the office.
Since feminism is cool now, the event has become a much larger affair, with even more fake awards and performances than ever before. The 2018 iteration of the event, which took place Thursday night, looks a lot fancier than what I remember. Everyone looked conservative, but also somehow hot? Let’s take a look.
I’m so fucking grateful for Ariana Grande’s commitment to both monochrome and thigh-high boots. Janelle Monae’s chaps and dramatic shoulders are unreal, and perhaps the best look of the night. Former Fifth Harmonizer Lauren Jauregui tried it. She didn’t find it.
Nashville’s Maggie Rogers looked extremely cool in this floor-length, long-sleeve, high-neck black dress with hippie-dippie tie-dye detailing and a matching clutch. The queen Cyndi Lauper’s ta-tas were out to play in this deep green frock and I take back everything I said about Monae, Philly’s Tierra Whack’s look is by far the best, and maybe one of my fave fits of the year? The platform Nikes, the oversize jacket-dress? It’s so good.