2023 Was the Year of Quirky and Campy Fashion: Kylie Jenner’s Lion Head, Margot Robbie Brings Barbie to Life, Mschf’s Big Red Boots and More

The race to go viral in 2023 nourished many quirky and campy fashion moments.

Kylie Jenner set the bar high in January, controversially wearing a faux-taxidermy lion head as a brooch at Schiaparelli’s spring 2023 couture show. In February, Mschf made humans walk like cartoon characters with their big red boots — later in the year, the brand also sold a handbag smaller than a grain of salt for more than $63,000. AI tricked everyone into thinking Pope Francis was wearing Balenciaga in March, while Margot Robbie spent many months dressed up as Barbie for the namesake film’s red carpet promotional frenzy.

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To celebrate this year’s creativity, WWD looks back at some of the campiest fashion moments of 2023 that will live forever in the social media realm.

Viktor & Rolf’s gravity-defying gowns

Viktor & Rolf’s spring 2023 show during Paris Fashion Week in January provided jaw-dropping moments with its upside-down and floating ballgowns. The collection’s starting point was “seeing the world through our phones and the subsequent disconnect between images and the reality behind them,” WWD reported.

Kylie Jenner’s wildest dress

Daniel Roseberry debuted his spring 2023 haute couture collection for Schiaparelli in January. The collection, inspired by Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy,” featured dresses “decorated” with wild animals such as a leopard, a lion and a she-wolf — a reference to Alighieri’s work that uses the creatures as a representation of lust, pride and avarice.

Sitting in the front row was Jenner, wearing one of the dresses shown on the runway. “The Kardashians” star’s look consisted of a black dress with a faux-taxidermy lion head on her shoulder. Although there was significant controversy, PETA defended the look, saying it was “fabulously innovative.”

Doja Cat covered in red crystals

Jenner wasn’t the only one making headlines from Schiaparelli’s spring 2023 front row. Doja Cat covered her body in red paint and 30,000 crystals. Pat McGrath revealed her look took almost five hours to complete. “The final product was a magical, mesmerizing masterpiece and a tribute to Doja Cat’s hard work and dedication,” McGrath wrote on Instagram.

Rihanna’s Super Bowl look

Rihanna made breastplates trendy again, thanks to her 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show look. The singer performed at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., in February, wearing a bespoke boiler suit with a red bodysuit and breastplate by the British designer Jonathan Anderson and a coat and gloves by Alaïa.

The Fenty Beauty founder also did a quick makeup retouch mid-performance, revealed her second pregnancy and pushed search interest for Saloman sneakers online.

Mschf’s Astro Boy boots

Mschf had quite a year when it came to viral moments. In February, the Brooklyn-based brand released its big red boots inspired by the Japanese video game and anime character Astro Boy’s signature footwear. The boots, made of TPU rubber and an EVA mid-outsole, retailed for $350. Ciara, Iggy Azalea, Coi Leray, Lil Wayne, Steve Aoki and other celebrities wore the shoes.

AI x Pope Francis

Artificial intelligence made it possible for a photo-realistic image of Pope Francis wearing a white puffer coat from Balenciaga to go viral on social media in March. The image raised a red flag after most people couldn’t tell that it was fake.

“These fake images that are coming out, there are concerns about what the long-term impacts might be. There’s excitement about the rapid advances in the technology, but at the same time, concerns around the impacts and that those might be harmful,” Mhairi Aitken, ethical fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, told WWD.

Jared Leto’s Choupette costume

Karl Lagerfeld’s life and career were honored at the Met Gala in May. The late designer, who worked for Chanel, Chloé and Fendi, was also known for his devotion to his cat Choupette — the feline was the inspiration behind Lagerfeld’s cornflower blue spring 2012 collection.

Paying tribute to Lagerfeld, Jared Leto attended the Met Gala in a 6-foot-tall Choupette costume. The fluffy costume was the most-searched male red carpet look on Google from the event.

Margot Robbie’s Barbie era

Margot Robbie started the press tour for “Barbie” back in April at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. Since then, the actress has taken almost every red carpet opportunity to dress up as Mattel’s doll.

Robbie channeled 2015’s “Pink & Fabulous” Barbie in Valentino at a Los Angeles photo call, evoked the original 1959 doll in a black-and-white striped bandage dress by Hervé Léger in Sydney and nodded to 1985’s “Day to Night” Barbie in a custom Versace suit in Seoul.

For the Los Angeles premiere in July, Robbie paid homage to 1960’s “Solo in the Spotlight” Barbie in a custom Schiaparelli dress. Meanwhile, at the Gotham Awards 2023 in November, the actress wore a ’60s-themed Prada look inspired by the 1964’s “Black Magic Ensemble” Barbie.

Jennifer Lawrence’s flip-flops

Jennifer Lawrence paired a red Dior ballgown with black flip-flops to attend the “Anatomy of a Fall” premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. At the time, social media praised Lawrence’s footwear choice as a political statement — in 2015, women were reportedly denied entry into the festival for wearing flats. However, Lawrence clarified in June that she did not know about the controversy surrounding flats on red carpets. Her shoes were simply too big, so she opted for a more comfortable choice.

Mschf’s LV minuscule handbag

Taking the mini bags trend further, Mschf created a minuscule handbag measuring just 657 by 222 by 700 microns, smaller than a grain of sea salt. The piece, made of 3D-print micro-scale plastic parts and embellished with Louis Vuitton’s “LV” monogram, sold for more than $63,000 at an online auction in June.

Crocs x Mschf’s boots

Mschf continued its viral product releases streak in August with help from Crocs. The footwear brands created the Big Yellow Boots, inspired by the Astro Boy Boots released in February.

Crocs tapped Paris Hilton to promote the shoes, releasing pictures of the socialite in a “Kill Bill”-inspired costume. Maluma and Victoria Beckham also tried the boots on for social media.

Christian Cowan’s giant furball gown

In October, during Christian Cowan’s ready-to-wear spring 2024 show in Paris, model Mi’jon Woods got lost on the runway while wearing a giant furball dress. Sam Smith, who performed at the show, tried to help the model, but she ended up crashing into the front row.

Speaking backstage before the show, Cowan said he was “obsessed with” the look, WWD reported. “It hasn’t fit through any of the doors. We even got to our temporary office space, and two of the looks just could not fit in the building, so they had to be parked in the venue, like, seven days ahead of time because luckily, this space has huge doors,” he said.

Louis Vuitton’s Illusion boots

In November, Louis Vuitton grabbed TikTok’s attention with its Illusion boots that emulate the look of legs wearing high-heeled shoes and socks. The style was revealed during the brand’s fall 2023 show and it’s now available for $2,470 at louisvuitton.com.

Balenciaga’s grocery bag

During its fall 2024 runway show in L.A. in December, Balenciaga unveiled a new collaboration with Erewhon, filled with viral-worthy pieces. In the front row, Kim Kardashian carried one of them — a paper-like Balenciaga-branded Erewhon shopping bag. The piece retails for $2,500.

“This is my purse for today, this is what Demna wanted me to carry, a little Erewhon Balenciaga bag with flowers, so I’m going to give him the flowers when it’s done,” Kardashian told WWD while leaving the show.

The Balenciaga x Erewhon collection also features purses shaped like coffee cups and water bottles.

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