Not Even Gwen Stefani's Hair Could Save Her 2025 AMAs Outfit

Gwen Stefani's outfit during her 2025 AMAs performance was bananas — and not in a good way. The pop icon reprised her Y2K hit "Hollaback Girl" dressed in what can only be described as an over-styled fashion disaster that narrowly missed making our list of the worst-dressed celebrities at the 2025 American Music Awards. She wore a lumpy, burnt-orange jacket with chaotic paneling and gaudy puffy sleeves. We liked the beautiful pops of blue and pink we saw more elsewhere in her performance, but the coat tanked everything — hard. To Stefani's credit, her hair was styled in a chic, retro updo that matched the nostalgia of the song and didn't budge as she strutted around the stage, but even that couldn't rescue the look.

gwen stefani performing 'hollaback girl' at the amas!! pic.twitter.com/bdrAUO4qQE

— 2000s (@PopCulture2000s) May 27, 2025

The outfit was a masterclass in why less is sometimes more — and why putting two statement pieces together is often a recipe for chaos. Here, the delicate bow at the neckline of the dress underneath was completely disrupted by the jacket's overpowering collar. Worst of all, the jacket distorted her silhouette, and the once-promising shorts ended up looking like ruffled grandma bloomers. It felt like the designers were trying too hard to make a statement and missed, much like when Gwen Stefani revealed a hint of her natural hair color and was almost unrecognizable. The takeaways? Not everything needs to be overdone, and the "Just a Girl" singer needs to have a chat with her stylist.

Gwen Stefani might have been in the spotlight for decades, but that hasn't stopped her from making repeated fashion missteps. While no one expects stars to nail every look, the No Doubt singer seems to save her worst style moments for awards shows. One of her most-talked-about fails came at the 2023 Country Music Television Awards, where she stepped out in a cluttered mix featuring a black-tie suit shirt and jacket, gold sequin micro-shorts, fishnet stockings, and oversized fuzzy black boots, all in one outfit.

A similar case of over-styling happened on the finale of "The Voice" Season 24, which Stefani posted on Instagram. This time, she wore a look that seemed more suited to Jojo Siwa's brand of edgy — think beaded stars, lace, appliqués, sequins, fringe, and fishnets all crammed into one ensemble. Like many of her fashion fails, the issue wasn't any single piece; it was that the outfit was doing too much at once. While we love an outfit that captures the chaotic "star girl" aesthetic, it's difficult to capture the essence when there are too many statement pieces or designs.

However, Stefani seems fully aware that her chosen aesthetic leans chaotic. "I always love mixing super girly glamour with a tomboy edge [...] everything all mashed up together," she told People in 2016. Unfortunately, while that "mashed up" approach may work in theory, it often comes off as a hot mess on the red carpet.