Madonna Puts a Sultry Spin on Menswear for Her First VMAs Performance in 23 Years
Madonna's first VMAs performance in 23 years came with a menswear-inspired Saint Laurent look that turned corsetry and tailoring into the night's real talking point.
Twenty-three years is a long time to stay away from a stage as loud as the MTV Video Music Awards. When Madonna finally returned to open the 2026 ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on 27 September, joined by Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX, the performance itself made headlines. But it was the wardrobe, styled by longtime collaborator Rita Melssen in Saint Laurent, that gave the night its most quotable image: a black satin blazer and burgundy corseted bodysuit worn over fishnets, finished with
knee-high lace-up boots, worn with the buttoned-up structure of menswear tailoring and none of its restraint. Outlets from WWD's Footwear News to Yahoo Entertainment called it a "sultry spin on menswear", and it is easy to see why: this was tailoring reworked as performance armour rather than a boardroom uniform.
A Homecoming, Reworked
Madonna's last VMAs performance was in 2003, the year of her infamous on-stage kiss with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Returning in 2026 was never going to be a quiet re-entry, and it wasn't: the opening medley paired her with Sabrina Carpenter for their Confessions II collaboration "Bring Your Love", before Charli XCX joined for a remix of "Danceteria". Julia Garner, Seth Rogen, Andrew Watt, Sombr, Debi Mazar and Gabbriette all made cameo appearances across the set, turning the opener into one of the most talked-about moments of the night.
The night ended up being one of her biggest in awards terms too. Madonna led the field with 13 nominations and walked away with seven wins, including Artist of the Year, Best Dance and Best Collaboration alongside Carpenter, capping a year that already included a Coachella set, a FIFA World Cup Final halftime show and a run of new material with Confessions II.
The Look, Piece By Piece
The opening ensemble centred on a Saint Laurent Saharienne-style jacket, a belted, double-breasted piece with the boxy lapels and buttoned front of a safari blazer, worn open over a burgundy leotard with a corset-like front closure. Fishnet tights and thigh-high socks bridged the gap to the boots, which carried the evening's real talking point: a squared-toe, lace-up closure running the full height of the shaft, set on a three-inch block heel.
Reports on the boots noted they read as archival Saint Laurent, echoing the label's mid-2000s output around the Confessions on a Dance Floor era of Madonna's own career, a deliberate bit of styling continuity given creative director Anthony Vaccarello also dressed her for the World Cup halftime show earlier this year. That repeat casting matters: it signals Saint Laurent treating Madonna less as a one-off red carpet moment and more as an ongoing collaborator for her current performance era.
Mid-performance, the look shifted again: the jacket came off in favour of a black leather jacket for the Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX segments, keeping the silhouette sharp while adding a rock and roll edge more suited to the set's higher energy. It is a small detail, but it is the kind of quick styling change that reads as intentional rather than accidental, treating the outfit as something built to move through distinct acts rather than a single static red carpet statement.
Why The Look Landed
Menswear-inflected tailoring paired with corsetry is not new territory for Madonna. It is a lineage that runs straight back to Jean Paul Gaultier's cone-bra corsetry for her 1990 Blond Ambition tour, one of the most referenced silhouettes in pop culture history. What made the 2026 VMAs version feel current rather than nostalgic was the restraint: no cone bras, no shock value for its own sake, just structured tailoring worn with enough undress underneath to keep it sensual. That balance, hard tailoring softened by lingerie-adjacent pieces, is exactly the trend fashion press has been tracking across recent seasons, and having one of pop's most recognisable style icons execute it on one of music's biggest stages gives the trend a genuine cultural anchor rather than just a runway reference.
For her acceptance speeches later in the night, the wardrobe kept working in the same register: a black corset with attached lace sleeves over a glossy leotard for one award, then an oversized spiked leather jacket over a laced-front satin corset with classic black pumps for Artist of the Year. Accepting that final award, Madonna referenced her own VMAs history, recalling the 1984 ceremony where a stiletto famously slipped off mid-performance of "Like a Virgin". Forty-two years and seven more trophies later, the shoes stayed on.
At a glance:
- Designer: Saint Laurent, styled by Rita Melssen
- Look: black Saharienne-style blazer, burgundy corseted bodysuit, fishnets, knee-high lace-up boots
- Event: 2026 MTV Video Music Awards, Peacock Theater, Los Angeles
- Years since her last VMAs appearance: 23
- Performance partners: Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX
- Night's haul: 7 wins from 13 nominations, including Artist of the Year
Verdict: This was styling with a point of view, not just a red carpet moment built to trend for a day. Pairing hard-edged Saint Laurent tailoring with corsetry that nods to her own Gaultier-era history let Madonna reference four decades of her own image without repeating any single era of it, and the quick costume changes across the performance showed real thought about how an outfit reads in motion, not just in a single photograph. For an artist thirteen VMAs nominations deep into a comeback year, it is proof that her instinct for a defining fashion moment is still sharper than most performers a third her age.
