Fashion

Great Outfits in Fashion History: Gloria Estefan’s Jean Paul Gaultier Mesh Dress

[ad_1]

Photo: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

There are perfectly good celebrity style moments, and then there are the looks that really stick with you, the ones you try desperately to recreate at home. In ‘Great Outfits in Fashion History,’ Fashionista editors are revisiting their all-time favorite lewks.

Did you know the VH1 Honors were such a hotbed of Great Outfits in Fashion History? If India’s write-up of Beyoncé’s very-on-trend-for-2022 look from 2003 didn’t make that clear, let’s turn back the clock even farther, to 1996, when Gloria Estefan arrived at the event in a mesh Jean Paul Gaultier dress from that year’s spring runway collection.

Kim Russell — a.k.a. the internet’s #1 source for Looks We Should Still Be Talking About (see also: this) — bubbled this red carpet moment back up earlier this year, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. For the VH1 Honors, Estefan opted for the brand’s short-sleeved, cinched-waist, paneled-print midi Cyberbaba dress with peep-toe brown suede heels (the only indication this look dates back to the ’90s) and thick gold chain bracelets on each wrist. She wore her hair down, bouncy and side-swept. No notes!

Scroll to Continue

The simple styling, which really emphasizes Jean Paul Gaultier’s design as the centerpiece/attention-grabber, has made this ensemble age incredibly well, even primed for a 2022 reappearance. Given the resurgence Jean Paul Gaultier’s archival mesh pieces have seen the past few years, plus the Y2K revival sweeping the nation, we’d love to see Estefan — or anyone! — bring it back in 2023. The rest of us can shop the look just as easily; shop some JPG-inspired graphic pieces in the gallery below.