With Tyla’s A*POP World Tour now under way in Europe, it feels like the right time to look back at some of our favourite Tyla red carpet outfits. These six looks range from sculpted sand to archive Galliano, and each shows how much fun she has with fashion:
1. The 2026 Grammys
The Grammys have been a turning point in her story since the night she first collected Best African Music Performance, so there was something special about her return as a two-time winner. She chose a vintage DSquared2 gown, finished with crystal accents that caught the carpet lights and a dramatic feathered train that moved with every step. It was glamour in an old Hollywood spirit, and wearing a piece with a past on one of music’s biggest nights said a great deal about her love of archive fashion, which has followed her from carpet to carpet.
2. The 2025 Glamour Women of the Year Awards
In November 2025, when she arrived in New York as one of the honourees, she wore a slip gown from John Galliano’s spring and summer 1998 collection for Dior, a piece more than a quarter of a century old that still looked as fresh as the day it was made. The dress was a soft sage green, with a hand-beaded fringe falling across one shoulder to form a delicate cap sleeve, and she layered long pearl necklaces over it so that they trailed beyond the neckline. Choosing a romantic, archival Galliano for an evening that celebrated women’s achievements felt entirely fitting, and it gave the night a quiet kind of elegance.
3. The 2025 Met Gala
The theme for the 2025 Met Gala was Superfine, Tailoring Black Style, and while many guests answered it with sharp suits, she reached for a softer idea of tailoring. Her white off-the-shoulder gown by Jacquemus was embellished with dark blue pinstripes and finished with a floor-length cape inspired by a crisp white shirt, so that the language of menswear came through in a silhouette that was fluid and romantic. It was reported to pay tribute to the late André Leon Talley, and it fits the idea her stylist, Law Roach, expressed before the event, that tailoring does not have to mean a suit.
4. The Pre-Met Gala Look, 2025
The Met Gala weekend began a day early, when she stepped out in New York on May 4 in a look that had the fashion crowd talking before the carpet even opened. It came from the autumn and winter 2025 collection of Tolu Coker, the British-Nigerian designer and 2025 LVMH Prize finalist, and it was a short, orange, brown and white striped dress with puffed sleeves, a corset-laced bodice, a tiered ruffled hem and a built-in necktie. The matching wide-brimmed hat, which looked like a bowler with a playful twist, was widely read as a wink to the event’s co-chair Pharrell Williams. It was a lovely reminder of how she supports young African designers even when the cameras are not at the Met.
5. The 2025 Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards
At the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles in February 2025, she brought sunshine to a ceremony that honoured Black women’s contributions to film, television and music. Her glittering sequinned mini dress, reported to be by 16Arlington, had a clean square neckline and a warm, sunlit tone that glowed under the cameras, and it was paired with gladiator-style heels. It was a lighter and more playful moment than some of her grander carpets, and fans took to social media to call it perfection.
6. The 2024 Met Gala
Her first Met Gala was a look that people still talk about. For a theme that played on the idea of time, she and Balmain’s creative director, Olivier Rousteing, created a custom bustier gown whose sculptural bodice was shaped from a plaster mold of her body and whose organza train was encased in three shades of sand and micro crystal studs. She carried an hourglass clutch made of glass, brass and encased sand, a literal nod to the sands of time, and the dress was so close to the body that she had to be helped up the Met steps. Rousteing later trimmed the train so that she could move, and the gown that was designed to be worn only once became one of the most talked about looks of the night.
From a gown moulded in sand to a Galliano that is older than she is, each of these looks began with an idea, whether it was the theme of the night, a designer worth championing or a piece of fashion history worth wearing again. That same sense of play will follow her through the rest of her tour, and we cannot wait to see what she wears next. Which of these looks is your favourite?
