The Stunning Style Transformation Of Pamela Anderson

For those who remember the noughties, Pamela Anderson will always be a household name. At the dawn of the new millennium, the "Baywatch" actor and Playboy model ascended to icon status with a recognizable signature style that both captured and influenced the atmosphere of the 2000s. While other stars at the time might have played their fashion game more safely, Anderson wasn't afraid of pushing boundaries, entwining the beachwear (and even underwear) for which she was known into her everyday 'fits. Sultry and risqué, Anderson's wardrobe — whether she put it together or not — relied on plunging necklines, bare midriffs, and super-short denim, all finished off with her famous platinum locks and false lashes. "I started to feel like I was dressing for other people, whether that was husbands or just for the rest of the world and how they perceived me," she reflected in a 2024 interview with Harper's Bazaar.

But as the 2010s arrived (and went), Anderson began to transform her signature look, veering toward something more modest and intentional while still keeping it fun. It wasn't until after her 50th birthday in 2017 that she started to find her confidence and her fashion voice. "I really felt the trappings of dressing for others, and I had got to an age — or maybe just a moment in my life — where I started looking back at my journey, reflecting on what I was wearing and why," she added in the interview. Whether you're a millennial who's been watching Anderson since the beginning or are just tuning in now, her incredible style transformation has been a delight to witness. 

In 1989 at a British Columbia Lions football game, the Jumbotron picked up a young woman in her early 20s wearing a Labatt's Beer T-shirt. Such was Pamela Anderson's star power that Labatt's hired her immediately as what we'd know now as an influencer, which then paved the way for her first Playboy audition. By 1991, she had a recurring role on the sitcom "Home Improvement" and was fast making a name for herself in Hollywood. She was still new to both fame and fashion at the time, but she proved to be a quick study, jumping right on to the '90s trends that served her best. High-waisted jeans and leather jackets were staples in her wardrobe, and she was all over the iconic frosted lip (which had a 2023 comeback in the form of glitter girl summer).

Her "Home Improvement" look, which she wore to portray Tim Taylor's (played by Tim Allen) assistant, Lisa, was starkly different from her everyday vibe but still had a distinct '90s feel with T-shirts and denim overalls. While out and about, Anderson was right at home in little black dresses (and little white dresses), leaning toward risqué details like cutouts and short hemlines that would eventually come to dominate her looks in the coming years. (By the way, here's a guide if you want to recreate Pamela Anderson's iconic '90s makeup.)

The most monumental role that put Pamela Anderson on the map came in 1992, when she was cast as C.J. Parker on "Baywatch." She'd already established herself as cover-girl material, but "Baywatch" flung Anderson into the new world of sexy swimwear. Even when she wasn't in swimsuits, she had that sea-salt hair look, parted in the middle and gritty enough to seem like she'd spent a day on the sand. Her sartorial staples included summery crop tops, shorts, and tied-up denim shirts as she began to bloom into her iconic persona. 

Away from the beach, black dresses featured heavily in her evening-wear rotations, and she often turned up the glamor with glossy, teased hair and a full face of makeup. By 1994, Anderson was getting increasingly more risqué with her wardrobe choices. Woven beachwear was still a staple, particularly as she did press for the show, but the glamazon also started to reach for 'fits that left little to the imagination. A turning point was the Australian CCAM Awards in 1994, when the "Naked Gun" star turned up in a plunging and backless black dress held together by safety pins à la Elizabeth Hurley.

By 1995, Pamela Anderson was in her slinkiest era that would set the tone for much of the following decade. Most of her outfits, whether formal nightwear or daytime casual, were form-fitting and seductive, usually featuring low-cut necklines, cutouts, latex, or all of the above. One of the most notable looks came at the opening of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas in '95, when Anderson wore a color-blocked red latex halter dress with the bust and neckline in baby pink. She also wasn't opposed to bustiers and skin-tight pants during this time, not to mention fun accessories like gloves and glasses. 

The sexy aesthetic continued into 1996, as Anderson continued modeling in outfits that found the balance between fashionable and overtly risqué. Often, they'd include regular looks with sultry details, like a pantsuit with no shirt underneath and most of the buttons open. She nailed the '90s makeup ideal at this time, sticking to thin eyebrows (which we'd call over-plucked in hindsight) and lined lips.

At the 1997 American Music Awards, Anderson turned heads not just for her see-through dress with its red-embroidered overlay but also for her comically sized hat. This was the first of her statement costumey accessories, but it was far from the last.

Toward the end of the decade that had made her a household name, Pamela Anderson was gearing up to deliver even more eye-catching looks. At another event at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas in 1998, Anderson wore what was becoming her signature: a form-fitting white T-shirt featuring the words "Girls Rule," an ultra-short white miniskirt, and pink latex knee-high boots. This look captured the model's sense of fun and not taking herself too seriously, which was and remains part of her image. 

Following suit from her boundary-pushing '97 AMAs look, Anderson fronted up to the Video Music Awards in 1999 with another outlandish hat, this time feathered with the color and texture of cotton candy. She paired it with a white corset that felt very on-brand for late-'90s Anderson, along with an embellished pair of gold pants. Add to this the see-through nightie she wore that year to launch her makeup line in Vegas, said to be inspired by the Roman goddess Venus, and it's clear that Anderson was reveling in her playful approach to fashion. 

The coming of the new millennium shook things up for the fashion world, and Anderson, too, got swept up in moving from '90s style to the Y2K aesthetic, often featuring low-cut pants and platform heels. This was also around the time that she debuted her iconic glamorous updo with falling ringlets and side-swept bangs. 

Along with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, Pamela Anderson's style in the 2000s was so iconic that she's almost synonymous with this era, even after undergoing numerous transformations since. Unlike other A-listers of the day, Anderson pushed boundaries rather than simply following the status quo. "I'm not a real trend follower, and I'm a little rebellious," she admitted in a 2025 interview with Glamour, and the confession makes her noughties wardrobe so much easier to understand. 

There were certain staples that you could almost guarantee she'd be wearing: miniskirts, hip-hugging or cropped jeans, bustiers, crop tops, and, as was so popular at the time, a spray tan. She was also a fan of chunky bling and vibrant shoulder bags, which seem dated now but were all the rage in the Y2K period. Even if her tops weren't cropped, she'd find some way to show off her toned abs (understandably so!). 

Another noughties trend that the "Baywatch" star was all over was the colored-lens glasses, but these typically featured in her daytime looks, while nights and red carpets were still reserved for more formal dresses with very informal cutouts. And like a true star of the '00s, she knew how to rock a wedge with her jeans. Beauty-wise, her comfort zone remained frosted lips, smokey eyes, and over-plucked brows, though she sometimes swapped the former out for a candy-pink lip. Her hair layers also became choppier as the years went on, allowing for versatility in her voluminous curled looks.

When she wasn't wearing her signature provocative style, Pamela Anderson was proudly advocating for animal rights. A long-time partner of PETA, she was often seen in the latter part of the noughties wearing pieces that reflected her values, notably starring in the organization's controversial anti-fur campaigns. In 2006, she posed semi-nude in the Stella McCartney store window in London with a few other models, their modesty maintained only by a banner that read, "We'd rather bare skin than wear skin." That year, Anderson also participated in the MAC Viva Glam AIDS Fund Campaign in Ireland, where she wore a simple black top with the words "Every day is World AIDS Day at MAC."

The "Chicago" actor proved that it's possible to be passionate about more than one cause at a time, but animal rights have held most of her focus over the years. In 2007, she wore another PETA T-shirt and simple black jeans to serve a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner at a homeless shelter. By 2009, she was firmly part of the organization's Save the Seals campaign, wearing white outfits with seal sketches on them to make her point.

The 2010s brought another new fashion era, and Pamela Anderson managed to find the balance between honoring her personal style and riding the new wave. While she kept her sense of fun, often reaching for glamorous satin gowns with her go-to low-cut necklines, she toned down the drama. Her makeup was still bold (she wasn't giving up on her smokey eyes just yet), but the overtly sexual feel of her wardrobe took a back seat. Rather than relying on body-clinging silhouettes, she embraced more angular looks with distinctive lines. 

By 2012, her rotations were beginning to feel less Playboy Mansion and more subtly sexy, with details like ruching, midi hems, and muted glitter over latex and cutouts. She still loved her all-white looks at this time and even leaned into her previously loved crochet beachwear-vibe while appearing on "Promi Big Brother" — the German version of the reality-TV staple — in 2013. But where she once would've left almost nothing to the imagination, she was now in a modest maxi, signaling a total backflip from her Y2K wardrobe. "Style is about what you're going through in your life and how you want to present yourself to the world," she confirmed in her 2025 interview with Glamour. As her life took on a new season in her mid-40s, she was clearly leaving her party days behind.

The mid-2010s marked the turning point in Pamela Anderson's style journey where it became clear that she was gravitating toward more understated, modest looks. We saw her in a sparkly black low-cut dress at the Bambi Awards in 2015, and at first, this doesn't sound too different from her former seductive style. But the flared sleeve design and thicker material made this dress seem more high-end and intentional than her dresses from 10 years earlier. She hadn't totally said goodbye to figure-hugging T-shirts and mini shorts, but seemingly insignificant details, like a low-key crew neck and a muted color, led to an overall more sophisticated vibe. Moreover, she wore extensions at this time, having cut her hair into an unexpected but stunning pixie in 2014.

Anderson turned 50 in 2017, celebrating the milestone with a newfound sense of confidence in her wardrobe. At the British Fashion Awards that year, the Canadian actor had jaws dropping in a glittery black shirt dress with a cinched waist. It had elements of Playboy Pamela with a thigh slit and cold shoulder, but this look ushered in the reign of her more elegant, refined wardrobe.

The transformation from sultry to sophisticated was complete in 2018, when Pamela Anderson looked the part 100 times over at the Chanel Spring-Summer 2019 Ready-to-Wear fashion show. Decked out in a collared white blouse, high-waisted tweed skirt, and traditional Chanel blazer draped over her shoulders, Anderson seemed to have purged all remnants of her old rebellious style. This era was marked by more sophisticated pieces, like classic trenchcoats worn with turtlenecks, and even though she maintained her penchant for tight or low-cut dresses in 2019, they now carried details that gave them a lavish air, like a statement belt or hemline pleating. The old-money aesthetic made a modern comeback in 2023, but Anderson was clearly ahead of the curve.

Even noughties icons weren't excused from COVID-19 lockdowns, so the "Home Improvement" star retreated indoors with the rest of the world in 2020. But come 2022, she emerged from the pandemic with a new lease on life — and fashion.

Pamela Anderson came out of COVID-19 swinging; to the "Le Raphia" Jacquemus show in 2022, she strutted her stuff in an all-white 'fit with a statement hat and gloves reminiscent of her earlier MTV looks. She also made her Broadway debut in "Chicago" that year, and the jazz-age setting of the musical may have inspired the old-world glamour underpinning many of her street looks. The biggest change for Anderson came in 2023, though, when she decided she was done with makeup.

"I am much more comfortable in my own skin, but I also am in an industry that really focuses on beauty," she told Today. "And I thought, 'I'm going to challenge beauty. I think challenging ourselves is what keeps us young and beautiful. And I think, really genuinely, beauty does come from within and you don't have to play the game." That said, Pamela Anderson returned to her '90s makeup in an iconic transformation in 2022, giving us one final glimpse at the glam that put her on the map.

In her 2024 interview with Harper's Bazaar, she further reflected on the "bold move" she made to go bare-faced during this period. "Clothing and make-up is a way to express yourself to the world — and I really wanted to be vulnerable," she explained. "I just had this moment where I thought, 'What am I doing? I have got to get off this crazy train. ... You know, I'm 57 years old. I'm not 20 anymore.'" This newfound sense of freedom resulted in several eye-catching looks that were elevated by the absence of makeup, and the confidence that brings. 

Clearly, Pamela Anderson knows how to look fresh-faced without makeup. Liberating herself of the pressure to wear cosmetics was part of the star's larger move to take control of her image. "I dress myself and I do my own hair and makeup (that is, when I wear any at all)," she told Harper's Bazaar. "Of course, when we do photo shoots, there are stylists and makeup artists and all of that, but for real-life events, I just want to keep it very small and do it myself." In a video feature for the outlet, she confirmed, "I've definitely learned that I'm happiest when I style myself." 

Taking the reins when it comes to putting together her style has clearly worked in Anderson's favor, as the model rocked an array of gorgeous looks in 2024. Among our favorites were the floral and sheer Oscar de la Renta gown that she wore to the Vanity Fair Oscar Party and the simple black boatneck midi she wore to the Glamour Women of the Year Awards. On both occasions, she went without makeup (other than a smear of lipstick to liven up the black dress), and these are just a few of the times Pamela Anderson has gone makeup-free and looked absolutely stunning.

After the many ebbs and flows of her sartorial journey, Pamela Anderson has cemented that she's an icon who can reinvent herself. Enjoying calling the shots in her own styling led to several chic fashion moments in 2025, but the star's inner glow may have also come down to her apparent new romance with "The Naked Gun" costar Liam Neeson. The pair gushed about each other right through the press tour, and Anderson looked positively radiant in every photo op. She looked particularly dignified at the New York premiere of the film as she posed with Neeson while wearing a sleeveless satin dress and sheer lace gloves. The two also looked starry-eyed during their appearance on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen," where the star wore a fluttery pink sheer dress and no makeup. 

Even without Neeson's influence, she has served stellar look after stellar look — all complete with a new cropped haircut. From the Christian Dior set that she wore with a fascinator (again without makeup) at Paris Fashion Week to the flouncy white Chanel set she rocked around the same time and the blingy Tory Burch frock she donned at the 2025 Met Gala, Anderson has been a vision. She may look different from the Anderson we knew, but she's paving the way for a new generation to fall in love with her.