The 25 Most Stylish Musicians of 2023

“I have embodied the slur ‘Black bitch’ and made a whole archetype out of it,” 24-year-old Florida rapper Doechii told Rolling Stone last year. “I see this Black girl, and she’s super powerful, creative, confident. She knows who she is. She doesn’t carry around weight. She’s just a boss.” That confidence was all over her breakout viral hit, “Yucky Bucky Fruitcake,” and it comes through in her uncompromising looks. Walking the red carpet at the 2022 VMAs in a Patrycja Pagas leather blazer, she showed she knows how to turn heads with low-key accessories, opting for a pair of black grillz by jeweler Alligator Jesus, and a choppy, pitch-black updo by celebrity hairstylist Dhairius Thomas. For her debut Tonight Show performance, she rapped the intro to her single “Persuasive” engulfed in a crocodile-toned gown, with layers of excessive fabric and matching knee-high boots, glamorously serving notice that even though her career is just getting started, she’s already in charge of her own future.

The Indiana-born Mexican American pop star’s style veers toward minimalism, but there’s always power in Omar Apollo’s simplicity. Check out the video for his hit single “Evergreen.” In the clip, Apollo builds a room on an empty stage and watches it fall in around him while wearing a distressed flannel shirt and peeling leather pants from the Balmain collection, featuring the phrase “Do you still buy magazines?” written in the same script as Kurt Cobain’s journals. “The styling for ‘Evergreen’ was relatively modest, which was deliberate,” says stylist Brandon Tan. “The song has a lot to do with vulnerability — the room built by Omar and then deconstructed — so there was definitely a through line of demolition, seen in the distressing details of the R13 flannel.” It’s the mark of a budding genius who knows he doesn’t need to shout to be noticed.

As Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield said in his rave review of her 2022 album, Hold That Girl: “Rina Sawayama is everything you could pray for in a pop provocateur: rude, audacious, unpredictable, hilarious, blunt, with a mean streak and an omnivorous ear.” The same could be said of the Anglo Japanese singer-songwriter’s fashion sense. She effortlessly shape-shifts into whatever she wants you to see. From taking the stage in a polka-dot alien piece by Jean Paul Gaultier for The Tonight Show to looking cowboy chic in Dion Lee, Sawayama has the enviable ability to make anything her own. “When I first started out, I was very much in control of my image,” she said in a conversation with Shania Twain for Rolling Stone’s recent Musicians on Musicians issue. “I didn’t have any pictures from fans that were unflattering. I was trying to make sure that I look hot in everything.” Of course, the thought of a “bad” Sawayama photo is comical — whether she’s wearing Schiaparelli in the front row of Paris Fashion Week or Diesel behind the scenes during tour rehearsals. Even in her most self-consciously outlandish looks —like the archival Vivienne Westwood jumpsuit and feather boa she wore in what stylist Jordan Kelsey called “full homage to one of Elton’s amazing costumes over the years from Bob Mackie” — she always seems completely in her element.

FKA Twigs’ style is a decoction of vulnerability and fearlessness. Last year, she released “Thank You Song,” a ballad in which she sang, “I wanted to die, I’m just being honest/No longer afraid to say it out loud.” For many, the song brought to mind her lawsuit detailing the emotional, physical, and mental abuse she’d suffered during her relationship with actor Shia LaBeouf. In the song’s video, she appears in a soft-pink sweater and uniform-style skirt that is ripped and gashed, with safety pins straddling the plunging neckline, and deep stains on the edges of seams that appear to be pulling apart. Using fashion to make powerful personal statements comes naturally to the U.K. avant-pop artist, whose 2022 mixtape, Caprisongs, was one of the year’s most acclaimed releases. “You’ve got to have so much more about you than the way you look or your clothes,” she said, and she’s lived up to that statement over the past decade. In December, at the Red Carpet Fashion Awards, her charcoal Rick Owens dress and black face paint evoked an embattled hero rising from the ashes, which is a perfect metaphor for her own recent triumph.

Moses Sumney proves you don’t need splashy colors to make an impact. In his case, it’s the very lack of color that’s so striking. “Wearing all black has taught me discipline,” says the North Carolina-based Ghanaian American art-pop musician. Sumney doesn’t stray beyond a palette of onyx, jet, and the occasional charcoal, yet everything he does feels glamorous and theatrical. “It’s thinking about what’s going to move,” he says. “I appreciate that it, as a wearer, forces me to be a bit more disciplined and knowledgeable, but also, for the viewer, it creates a distinction.” Sumney gravitates toward draped looks and cuts that emphasize texture, fabric, and silhouette. Last year, he walked for Riccardo Tisci’s fall 2022 collection at Burberry in a corduroy-collar quilted set, and also attended the prestigious CFDA Awards with designer Willy Chavarria, suited in a piece that augmented (what else?) head-to-toe black with subtle elements of religious iconography (echoing Sumney’s background as the son of two Christian pastors). “Now I know really what it means for something to be silk,” he says, beaming. “I know what it means for something to be waxy and hold a shine, or for something to be more matte.”

It’s pretty obvious that Bad Bunny doesn’t have an overly serious view of fashion, and that’s exactly what makes him so entertaining. His sense of style always comes with a sense of humor, and his choices are just as unpredictable as his relentlessly evolving music. From appearing in The New York Times depicted as a matronly gardener in looks by designers INGLISH MOFFIN and Ernest Baker to the custom puffed Burberry shoulder dress, inspired by the brands classic trench, which he donned for his first Met Gala, El Conejo Malo always kept it boisterous and witty. “I searched for what was going on during the Gilded Age, but in my country, in Puerto Rico,” he said of his Met Gala look. It reminds us that there’s detailed thought behind his every wild decision, which is sure to continue in his Coachella performance this spring.

Fashion scrutinizers and fans love consistency, and Tyler, the Creator’s schoolboy-contemporary-meets-­fashion-goblin aesthetic is one of the most dependable looks around. His style doesn’t waiver because he knows exactly who he is, and what works. “The fit I had on yesterday/Uniform necessities, multiples are er’thing,” he raps on the 2022 single “Come On, Let’s Go,” and he underscored that maxim by appearing in the visualizer for the song in one of his signature staple looks: loafers and socks, shorts suit, and an ushanka. Tyler opened his set at last summer’s Roskilde festival in a coffee-toned puffer, pale blue shorts, canary-yellow hat, and loafers, and then dressed in the exact the same outfit (give or take a few colors) for his set at the Made in America fest a few months later. Of course, this is all brilliantly intentional and self-aware. Recently, Tyler released a video that gave us a glimpse into what defines his style, noting his love for colored stones, quirky watches and pins, Louis Vuitton trunks, and how Supreme editorials helped him “understand shape and proportions.” Meanwhile, he has continued to grow his own Golf Wang and Golf Le Fleur lines, taking a hands-on approach so that every piece reflects his vision. “I still edit the look books,” he said in an interview. “I still make sure that the blacks and shadows are right. Like I still give a fuck about all of it.”

How does a band balance streetwear, glamour, and rock & roll all at the same time? When Blackpink dropped their much-anticipated “Pink Venom” video, not only did they prove it was possible, but they also compressed everything that makes them great into three minutes and 13 seconds: conceptual storytelling, distinct personal styles, and well-executed accessorizing. As Lisa raps with strutting self-awareness on their accompanying album, Born Pink, “Masked up, and I’m still in Celine/Designer crimes, or it wouldn’t be me.” It’s truth in advertising: Lisa is, in fact, a brand ambassador for the French fashion house. “Rather than emphasizing how cute or feminine they are,” a fan of the group told Rolling Stone for our 2022 Blackpink cover story, “Blackpink’s confidence seems to stem from certainty about themselves as individuals.” Their styles continue to evolve with the times. As the fashion world cycles back through the 1990s and 2000s, they’ve stayed a step ahead. In the video for “Shut Down,” they embrace trends like cropped jerseys, leather jackets, and low-rise denim overalls, while modernizing classic grunge ideas, like the way Jisoo wears a Givenchy stone-washed skirt set from the label’s fall-winter 2022 show. We can only anticipate what’s to come from Blackpink in the future, but for now, it’s clear that no band on the planet has merged so well with high-end fashion.

Lil Nas X had quite the year in 2022. Afte­r walking the carpet at the Grammys in custom Balmain, decked out in pearls and with a butterfly insignia stitched on the chest and arms, he took the stage to perform hits from his debut album, Montero, in looks inspired by Michael Jackson. “My whole career has been about breaking down doors,” he said in a video released to inaugurate his relationship with Coach, the high-end leather brand that created a full set of looks for Nas’ “Long Live Montero Tour.” Together, Nas and Coach creative director Stuart Vevers came up with a production that told the story of the rapper’s life and wild ride to fame — complete with a lifelike Coach-embossed horse that galloped onstage during the show. “The looks we created for Lil Nas X explore playful tensions between past, present, and future,” Vevers explained. “They reference our American heritage through the lens of Montero’s playful, expressive vision — combining the timelessness with futuristic.” Getting a luxury brand to create custom looks for a live performance is ­impressive, especially for an artist who’s been around for just a few years. But it only scratches the surface of what Nas has done through fashion. Few ­artists are so skilled at mixing simplicity and ostentation — from outlaw cowboy to gilded fabrics to sci-fi armors. And he’s just getting started, set to showcase more of his wicked style at Gov Ball later this year. “Style is a form of self-­expression,” he said recently. “I feel like to get further in life, you have to shed skins.”

We’ve come to expect one-of-a-kind viral moments from Rihanna, but last year she found her most radical way to turn heads yet. First, there was the announcement of her pregnancy at the end of January, which she did by displaying her baby bump on a stroll through New York dressed in vintage Chanel and Vetements denim. A couple of months later, she appeared on the cover of Vogue fitted in a custom lace jumpsuit and Alaïa heels, another powerful celebration of her changing body that showed the world women can parade their pregnancies while radiating sensuality. The Vogue cover was also clever marketing, reminding consumers that the pop superstar also has her own lingerie brand. Perhaps her biggest fashion coup came at the Dior fall-winter show, where she appeared in nothing but a bra and underwear, with a black lace slip, leather trench and Amina Muaddi boots. Her appearance literally brought the event to a standstill, with attendees openly gazing at her stunning selection. When asked about causing the delay, her response was perfect: “No shit.”

Rosalia knows how to balance hard and soft – just see her landmark 2022 album, Motomami, and the blockbuster tour to support it. “I wanted the record to feel like an emotional roller coaster, which is what I was feeling at that point in my life,” Rosalía told Rolling Stone in her recent cover story. “I wanted that dynamic, that constant sensation of toma y daca, give and take.” At the beginning of each show, she steps out in a custom Dion Lee ensemble, a look that reflects the intensely ambitious and intimate feel of Motomami. The dichotomy between the singer’s broad leather shoulders and revealing silhouette, as well as the sharp contrast of vibrant colors and an ­otherwise black-and-white set, highlight the sense of personal and musical extremes Rosalía maps out during the set. There is something for everyone to relate to in her approach to fashion, just as there is in her music. Her understanding of harmony was on display on the red carpet at last year’s Latin Grammys, where she stepped out pairing a Miu Miu dress and skintight silhouette with satin pumps, large angular shades, and damp hair, a chic look with a subtle rock & roll edge. The designs Rosalía has served up this past year will live on for decades to come.

Doja Cat recently described her last album, Planet Her, as “controlled chaos,” adding, “I’m crazy about putting different genres into the same album or even into the same song.” That manic sense of clever, purposeful juxtaposition comes through in everything she does. Doja is such a pop-culture fixture at this point that it’s hard to believe that 2022 was her first year attending Paris Fashion Week. “My Fashion Week experience was special because I was able to get the message across to people that I am an explorer of art and fashion,” she said. At designer Thom Browne’s show, Doja was in the front row (nestled between the legendary Janet Jackson and fellow style savant Jaden Smith) sporting a tie-shaped gown. At the first official Paris runway show for the brand A.W.A.K.E. Mode, she was the center of attention in a modified gingham suit and gold body paint. The previous weekend, she appeared at the fall-­winter Monôt show caressed in a black cutout dress and full alien face paint. “I love old silent films, weird dark art films and a whole strange melting pot of music,” her stylist, Brett Alan Nelson, told Rolling Stone. “I try very hard to not reference anything anyone will ever intentionally notice – but if I do – there is a reason and a purpose behind it, what that is, is for the viewer to figure out. After our major run in Paris for Couture where her red crystal look for Schiaparelli was plastered across all socials with a mixed reaction I had one thought that I needed everyone to read – have your opinion – say what you want . But … art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” In any context, she can make the overstated feel natural and the mundane seem extravagant. “I like a ­performance when it’s not onstage,” she said recently. “I think it’s really fun. Life is too short, having the same hair and the same face all day.”

How does someone go from budding R&B star to full-fledged fashion king? In the case of Steve Lacy, it’s with a daring disregard for the sartorial status quo. The “Bad Habit” singer knows his way around an outfit like he knows his way around a Number One hit, and in 2023, few people exude — and celebrate — style like he does. Lacy effortlessly incorporates fashion into his offstage and onstage persona, which he’ll continue to showcase throughout this year on his tour, treating clothing as an extension of his artistic identity. Consider the way he turned heads last year in spray-painted pants by Mowalola, artisanal boots by R.G.B., sculptured hair by Malcolm Marquez, and wool kilts by Stefan Cooke. It’s the mark of someone who understands shape and proportion and who can balance weirdness with the refinement of a seasoned editor. And to top it all off, he does it all himself. “[I have] a very personal relationship to clothes,” the singer says. All this comes together best via Lacy’s burner Instagram account, dubbed “Fitvomit,” where he lets us view his evolution in real time (the account’s description reads “fitting out, not in”). As he puts it himself, “I don’t like to be a billboard. Y’all can have the cool, wear the most brands and all this stuff. I’m going to go do this.”