LOS ANGELES _ This year's Grammys red carpet could have rivaled the star power of New York Fashion Week, delivering the ultimate sartorial showdown and displaying some of the biggest awards show fashion moments in years.
Except it didn't. Several fashionable celebrities skipped the red carpet or had jetted off to London for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards. And in the expected fashion showdown between Beyonce and Adele, a pregnant Beyonce bypassed the photo gantlet, leaving a fresh-faced Adele the winner.
The British songstress and Grammy winner didn't disappoint in her green long-sleeved, floor-length Givenchy Couture gown.
She wasn't alone in looking good. Other standouts included Paris Jackson (in a multicolored Balmain look), Nick Jonas (in a blingy, studded Balmain jacket), Jason Derulo (looking dapper in a tuxedo, vest and overcoat with fur trim) and Carrie Underwood, who wore a red long-sleeved Elie Madi gown with a diamond cutout.
"I usually don't do red, but I was feeling it," Underwood said.
For every Adele, Heidi Klum (in a short, metallic Philipp Plein minidress), Kat Graham (in a trio-striped asymmetrical dress) or Mya (in a red pantsuit with a pussycat-bow blouse), there was a parade of cotton-candy looks, from lime-green-haired men (Mike Posner and Blackbear) to singer Girl Crush in what appeared to be a dress straight out of the board game Candy Land.
Then there was the downright strange (CeeLo Green, statue-like, in a head-to-toe gold outfit, including what appeared to be a mask).
And in these days of Donald Trump, there was a political statement, of course, but not quite the type seen at Fashion Week.
Wearing the equivalent of a cartoonish slogan T-shirt, singer Joy Villa got political in her Trump-inspired red-white-and-blue gown featuring the president's campaign slogan, "Make American Great Again."
Making a different kind of bold statement, Laverne Cox wore a skin-baring one-shoulder leather gown by Los Angeles designer Bryan Hearns.
In the mix of looks, there were strong showings of pinks, dusty roses and lavenders.
That included Jennifer Lopez, who looked more like a fancy bridesmaid at a Midwest wedding in a cleavage-baring Ralph & Russo frock than her usual glamorous self.
Grammy host James Corden also wore pale pink. His Tom Ford two-button Windsor dinner jacket had peak grosgrain lapels. And then there was Katy Perry, in her futuristic-meets-glam Champagne-colored Tom Ford embroidered mock neck tunic with a feather-embroidered tube skirt.
Just before the show began, Lady Gaga, who came to rock out with Metallica, turned heads in a nearly there look that appeared to have come from the wardrobe of "Fifty Shades Darker."
The singer had donned fishnet stockings, thigh-high platform boots, hot pants and a crop top. The look might have been her ultimate response to body-shamers who questioned her Super Bowl outfits earlier this month.
