She grew up in front of the cameras, stuck out her tongue at every opportunity, stripped down, feuded publicly and aired her dirty laundry. What once looked like the making of a pop-culture cautionary tale has instead turned into a fashion triumph.
Today, singer Miley Cyrus commands red carpets and catwalks with the same confidence that once fueled her controversies, proving she has the body, presence and attitude to evolve from near-parody to style authority.
At 32, Cyrus has settled into a role few imagined for her a decade ago. After years of wild reinventions—Disney princess turned provocateur, tabloid fixture and headline magnet—she now stands as both a respected artist and a fashion muse. The same instincts that drove her chaotic rise are now calibrated, shaping a distinctive, deliberate aesthetic.
Cyrus’s career arc has been anything but smooth. She released nine studio albums, acted in films (most of them forgettable), appeared in a much-maligned “Black Mirror” episode, and shared every detail of her tumultuous relationship with Liam Hemsworth. Her pointed breakup anthem “Flowers,” though disavowed as being about him, won a Grammy and topped the Billboard charts.
Her antics once drew sneers—tongue-wagging performances, outrageous costumes that seemed lifted from Lady Gaga’s reject pile, scandalous music videos. Yet instead of collapsing into the familiar spiral of child stars gone rogue, she managed to turn the journey into reinvention. Unlike others whose “bad girl” phase ended in rehab, Cyrus matured into a credible performer and cultural figure.
That evolution has been mirrored in fashion. Once mocked for her shock value, she has become a front-row favorite for the industry’s biggest houses. She now headlines Gucci fragrance campaigns, serves as a face for Maison Margiela and brings designers’ visions to life with charisma few can match.
Whether stepping out in Margiela’s warrior-goddess gowns, archival Bob Mackie beads, or pared-down Alaïa silhouettes, she has shown she can inhabit a look without being consumed by it.
Her partnership with stylist Bradley Kenneth has crystallized this shift. At last year’s Grammys she debuted five custom looks, outshining her peers and cementing her place as a red-carpet powerhouse. Beyond fashion, her performances retain her edge—still sexy, still provocative, but now with a polish that reflects maturity rather than rebellion for its own sake.
Cyrus continues to test boundaries. Viral AI-generated images recently sparked speculation about her appearance, but instead of undermining her, they reinforced her position in today’s culture of hyper-curated authenticity. As she once sang, she can buy herself flowers—she doesn’t need validation.
What makes her ascent striking is not only that she salvaged her career from self-sabotage, but that she did so on her own terms. Cyrus now sits comfortably in the cultural mainstream without surrendering her outsider energy. She is no longer the almost-joke of pop’s wild child era but an undisputed fashion icon.