MTV Style | Julianne Escobedo Shepherd

Style Icon: Janet Jackson

Posted 5/16/13 9:00 am EST by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd in Ladies

Janet Jackson's style evolution from 1982 to 2002.
Photo: Getty Images

Happy 47th Birthday Janet Jackson! To consecrate this hallowed occasion, MTV Style commemorates the icon's most legendary style moments.*

As a youngin, Janet Jackson was just the cute baby sister of her superstar brother crew, and her child-style was tethered to their garish-ass '70s costumes. Her showbiz debut was at the age of seven on the stage of the MGM in Vegas, and by nine she was performing on the CBS variety show The Jacksons, dressed in gossamer pants and lamé vests over turtlenecks, cutesy ensembles chosen specifically to match her bros' performative bell bottoms. God bless, but GOOD GOD. Soon enough, she ended up as Penny on Good Times and got to bust loose in clothes that didn't make her look like a tiny genie fresh out the bottle, wearing normal-kid flared '70s collars and dy-no-mite wool plaids and, on one occasion, a ruffle sleeved overall that looks like it inspired the entire Free People line. She was, for a time, America's little sis, and America dressed her like it.

Related Content Stevie Nicks: Our Mystical Style Spirit Guide

Tags Boy London, Doc Martens, Janet Jackson, Style Icon

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10 Iconic Destiny's Child Performance Outfits In Honor Of Super Bowl Reunion Rumors

Posted 1/31/13 1:32 pm EST by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd in Ladies, Performance Outfits

In case your direct-to-brain-from-Beyhive app is broken: rumor has it that when Queen Beyonce plays Super Bowl XLVII this weekend, there will be a special, super-spectacular, long-awaited, brain-detonating performance by Destiny's Child. Should the internet be correct, and should Destiny's Child indeed reunite, you can basically divine their setlist: after Beyonce does her thing, Kelly and Michelle will emerge to fireworks and new song "Nuclear," then they'll bust off a medley of some of their greatest hits, topped off with "Independent Women Part 1," which they must have performed at 365 awards shows during the Year of Charlie's Angels, anno domini. The real stumper is, after more than six years apart...what will they possibly wear? Since their last show together in 2005, they've all done complete style 180s, each going in the direction of higher fashion for their more frequent solo red carpets. (They have also clearly been freed from the girl-group albatross of wearing matching ensembles, racing forth like wild ponies fleeing a burning forest into the life-sustaining clothing racks of their individual personalities. Hallelu, hallelu.)

Hoping for a crystal ball into their potential Superbowl estilo, we spent hours face-deep in YouTube, scouting some of the most memorable costumes the quartet-ternt-trio ever wore live, and breaking them down with our eagle eyes chronologically here. Bonus shadow-styling courtesy Beyonce's mama Tina Knowles, whose manicured hands were in these ladies' boudoirs long before House of Deréon was birthed into the world.

LIKE A TUPAC COWBOY (2000)

Destiny's Child.
Photo: Getty Images

Early DC were ardent aficionados of distressed denim, particularly whilst embellished with rhinestones, embroidery, and creative scissor-work—note in this photo, snapped at London's Hyde Park on New Year's Day 2000, Kelly Rowland's victory-V hem is joined by chopped-off beltloops...because waistlines! Who needs 'em! During the Destiny's Child/The Writing's on the Wall eras, circa '98-'00, they were often set on regular-gal vibes, repping rough-and-tumble home state Texas with workwear like this, while staying true to the strong-woman emittances of their music. Abdominals: it ain't no joke. That said, it's surprising to see LaToya Luckett and Michelle Williams wearing such similar jeans-and-tank-top ensembles, because part of the Destiny's Child mystique, of course, was that they always rocked similar fabrics but wildly different silhouettes. Beyonce's 'Pac bandana tank-top thingamajig is bringing back sharply technicolor memories of the early '00s...when people were prone to wearing (and DIY'ing!) bandana tank-top thingamajigs. #neverforget

Tags Beyonce, Beyoncé Knowles, Destiny's Child, Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, Performance Outfits

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RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars Recap: The Finale

Posted 11/27/12 4:38 pm EST by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd in TV Shows

RuPaul's finale runway look.
Photo: LOGO

Sweet mother of RuPaul, we're down to the final episode. This is the ultimate payoff of the investment we've made for weeks, some of us several seasons: the crowning of the redemptive queen who returned to take her rightful place in the Drag Race Hall of Fame. Get us a hankie, we predict blubbering in our future.

Perhaps you missed us last week—we were on the gonzo whirlwind known as #Rihannaplane, where television, time, and internet did not exist, so here's a brief recap of last week's pre-finale. The remaining queens—Chad Michaels, Shannel, Raven and Jujubee—were enlisted to play a game of FISH, Ru's queen version of beloved sixth grade hoops game HORSE. Then she flipped the switch and had her girls dress in good versus evil superhero costumes, the best of which was Chad Michaels in a flame-themed cape and bodysuit as Firecrotch. Raven and Jujubee were forced to lip sync against each other to Robyn's "Dancing On My Own" (ugh!), but the end result was so emotional, complete with Jujubee hyperventilating, that Ru bucked her own rules and kept them both in the competition. Also, Michelle Visage was wearing a necklace in the shape of home state New Jersey and Ru goes, "You put the HO in HOBOKEN!"

Tags RuPaul, Rupauls Drag Race All Stars, TV Recaps

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'RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars' Episode 4 Recap: "Girl Group"

Posted 11/13/12 2:09 pm EST by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd in TV Shows

RuPaul in her episode 4 runway dress.
Photo: LOGO

The aftermath! After last week's RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars upset elimination of fan fave Team Latrila, the queens' cockles are up, and we think the TV Guide needs to recategorize this show from "reality" to "tragedrama." From jump, Team Yarlexis was salty for all the shade the ladies threw their way and seemed as determined as ever—but so did everyone else. Stakes is high. Be still our hearts.

This week was the "reading" mini-challenge, in which the queens have to tell their counterparts what time it is, and how they're failing. Usually the best part of Drag Race, the way it was configured this week illuminated the shortcomings of All-Stars. Rather than a regular read, the teams were compelled to cheer their disses in unison, which takes out the entire point of reading: timing and wit. In their efforts to distinguish All-Stars from the rest of the series (and not make the queens repeat stunts they've already done), the producers rearranged what makes the show great in the first place. Not that we're not living for All-Stars, because gag me with a silver stiletto, baby, but by the show's very nature it's hard to repeat contestants and yet not alter the basic structure.

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'RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars' Episode 3 Recap: Bad Girl Chic

Posted 11/6/12 3:00 pm EST by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd in TV Shows

RuPaul in her runway gown for episode 3.
Photo: Logo

Watching Nina Flowers and Tammie Brown go away on last week's RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars still smarts—especially Brown, the weirdo's Honey Boo Boo. As Alexis Mateo put it, "I'm gonna miss their crazy a****." But this competition is cutthroat, and there was a lesson in that: part of whittling it down to just one winner means that we're going to watch beloved contenders sashay away time and again. Take heed: the four teams left this week were stacked with faves. No cut would have been unpainful, and by the end of it, Twitter had turned into a wailing wall of heartbroken fans.

Team Yarlexis' butch look.
Photo: Logo

Plus, it was hard not to imagine how Team Brown Flowers would have handled this week's mini-challenge: to dress up giving "butch male realness" and take selfies with an archaic, unattached-to-a-phone, handheld digital camera. Given the number of side-eyes and sarcastic laughs, this was possibly one of the toughest pre-challenges in Drag Race history: Raven was all, "We have no idea how to be butch," and proceeded to take pics of herself looking exactly as she does out of drag, no broham attached. The shaded five-o-clock shadow she gave Jujubee with an eyeliner pencil was more butch-successful, even though Jujubee looked like a kid going as a hobo on Halloween. But nobody really nailed it like Team Yarlexis, who looked like a French Montana and Juelz Santana supergroup in a barrio/Prince close shave (Alexis) and bandana splash (Yara). You know Dipset's crew photo is in the dictionary next to "banjee," y'all.

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'RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars' Episode 2 Recap: The "Match Game"

Posted 10/30/12 8:18 pm EST by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd in TV Shows

RuPaul in her Stella McCartney-esque dress.
Photo: LOGO

The last two days have been rough for the Eastern Seaboard and Caribbean—weathering Hurricane Sandy has been, and will be, devastating. But I'm a firm believer that light and humor is as important on the road to recovery as wearing the proper rain gear, so once my internet got turned back on and the lights stopped flickering, I went right back into Drag Race All-Stars for the levity, well wishes for everyone affected from Staten to Haiti still in my heart.

Tags Drag Race, RuPaul, Rupauls Drag Race All Stars

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RuPaul's Best Girls Reunite in 'Drag Race All-Stars' Premiere [Video]

Posted 10/23/12 4:48 pm EST by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd in TV Shows

RuPaul in her show stopping neon runway ensemble.
Photo: LOGO

Last night, Barack Obama shut down Mitt Romney with a RuPaul-worthy dig, wearing a Presidential tie and telling the governor "the '80s are calling, they want their foreign policy back." (Burn!) Meanwhile, a certain well-respected drag doyenne was lip-syncing for her life with half a boobplate bulbing out of an iridescent, Cher-invoking bodysuit, covered bodaciously with a silver pasty. So many bodies got read all over the cable-guide last night. But while the Presidential debates were giving their parade wave, the almost-most important American match up on television last night commenced for its debut. RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars, that behemoth catfight of quick wits and huge wigs, paired 12 of the most beloved drag queens from the first four seasons to weed out the best for the ultimate resurrection. If you watched it and DVR'd the debates for after, you're a true patriot. RuPaul's cackling laugh track is a goddamn national treasure—half Glinda, half Wicked—as American as a flag lapel pin the size of a cockatiel.

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