Miley Cyrus may have shocked the world with her plethora of provocative ensembles at the MTV Video Music Awards but the real shock was learning her favourite Australian label didn't design them.
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Cyrus, a long-time fan of Melbourne fashion house Discount Universe, stormed the stage in a number of colourful, barely there, bright costumes including a chandelier fashioned into a loin cloth, linear-like nipple pasties and various super-high cut leotards. The majority of her looks, 16 of them, could have been confused for being the handiwork of Discount Universe designers Cami James and Nadia Napreychikov.
However her plastic, glittering and furry get-up, pulled together by her stylist Simone Harouche, was eerily derivative of Discount Universe and their trademark Third Eye motifs and large hand-beaded mouths. For the finale performance of her new song Dooo It, Cyrus was joined onstage by 31 drag queens all boasting Discount Universe-esque costumes, except the looks were produced by US-based designer Brad 'BCalla' Callahan.
"It's very rude by Miley who was Discount Universe's biggest fan. She made their psychedelic T-shirt iconic during her Bangez tour and now to appear to commission someone else to make something very similar is odd. He [BCalla] has his own distinctive style but those looks with the pop graphics is very Discount Universe," Women's Wear Daily contributor Patty Huntington said.
"Emerging brands get ripped off all the time but it's just a bit weird as Miley was Discount Universe's biggest fan. Perhaps they've had a falling out and this guy was called upon to design something similar for less money with the promise of exposure."
The style situation was made all the more confusing when Cyrus' style twin, 87-year-old social media star and medical marijuana advocate Baddie Winkle, arrived at the awards show wearing a Discount Universe sequin dress boasting a third eye and mouth print.
While Cyrus may have stolen the show for her razzle dazzle, subdued looks reigned supreme on the red carpet, including Taylor Swift's girl squad members like Karlie Kloss and Gigi Hadid, who looked like citrus fruit that the supermarkets rejected.
Vanguard winner and yet to be endorsed candidate for the 2020 US presidential race, Kanye West trumped Swift's girl gang for laid-back elegance, opting for a beige outfit reminiscent of an off-duty army reservist.
