You can tell Fred Durst’s been kind of down lately by the way he’s all agitated when responding to the have-you-and-Britney-been-dating questions and, more importantly, the fact that he’s not sporting his usual jaunty red baseball cap.
At the 45th annual Grammy Awards in New York he wore a brown cap, an olive T-shirt over a gray long-sleeve top, and a sour though resolved expression when he admitted that he and Britney were seeing each other for a while, before she “played him out.”
Durst was pretty much alone in his dressed-down look at the event, however. The men, everyone from Fat Joe to the Foo Fighters and Nelly, were all spiffed up in suits. Fat Joe wore his best Godfather gear – a black fedora, a black fur coat draped over his shoulders, and a black suit with a pink shirt for some color. Scruffy Dave Grohl cleaned up and got himself into a black suit without a tie and fellow Foo Fighter Taylor Hawkins channeled his inner Don Johnson by wearing a gray suit with a blue T-shirt underneath.
A Band-Aid-less Nelly, winner of two awards before he got to the end of the red carpet, hooked up with Cedric the Entertainer and Steve Harvey’s tailor, who made the rapper a khaki suit with a matching checked vest, tie and hanky.
The five boys of ‘N-“We’re whole tonight”-SYNC all wore black suits, while Raphael Saadiq looked sharp in a brown suit with salmon accents and matching fedora. He was attended to by the outfit’s designer and P. Diddy’s personal valet, Farnsworth Bentley.
P. Diddy was his usual fashion-plate self in a black suit with a white tie and, starting to walk in Daddy’s shoes already, was his son Justin in a matching outfit. Meanwhile, Usher wore a white suit with a tie-dye tie and John Mayer sported a black pinstripe suit with a silvery-gray tie.
T-Boz and Chilli of TLC tribute-dressed by wearing leather jackets over sparkly bra tops with homages to their late group member, Left Eye – the ladies accented their outfits with the word “Left” on Chilli’s necklace and T-Boz’s belt, and pictures of eyes on their clothes.
Rowdy and rag-tag Avril Lavigne and her band all wore the ugliest tuxedos they could find. On purpose. Lavigne wore a tux with studs and skull-and-crossbones because, she said, “There’s no friggin’ way I was going to wear a dress.” The rest of her bandmates wore clashing tuxes with gaggy water-squirting flowers and light-up bow ties.
No Doubt’s fashion frontman is usually and reliably Gwen Stefani, who didn’t disappoint Sunday night, though she was slightly upstaged by drummer Adrian Young. Stefani wore a black-and-white polka-dot dress with an asymmetrical neckline and a white boa, while Young paraded around in a plaid skirt – not a kilt – and maroon Doc Martens.
Missy Elliott and Cam’ron were tickled pink to be there, literally, as they both wore rose from head to toe. Missy wore a “Gossip Folks”-type sweatsuit with a fuzzy pink Kangol cap, and Cam’ron dressed to match his pink cell phone. The real Pink, meanwhile, was rocking a cranberry mohawk and black shredded dress, cut high enough to let the new dragon tattoo on her left thigh peek out.
And Foxy Brown, as is her way, let a little more peek out. She wore a teal micro-micro minidress, slit all the way down the front to reveal a matching bra and a belly button.
While some other girls also opted for the minidress, like Kelly Rowland and Kylie Minogue, India.Arie wore a long white dress to complement her new buzz cut, and Ashanti wore a long Roberto Cavalli dress with a train to offset her new Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album.
Finally, what would an awards show fashion round-up be without a proper thrashing of the disastrous duds? Unfortunately, Christina Aguilera couldn’t make it to the ceremony….