VMAs 2012: A Night of Image Changes for Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus

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Halloween isn't for two months, but suddenly, celebrities seem to want to play dress up - and in somebody else's clothes. At the MTV Video Music Awards in L.A., it seems like the three major pop singers who turned up, turned up looking like somebody else. And not one of them worked the usual "video vixens look" - mini dress and short high heeled boots, with waist length hair.

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Rihanna was the biggest shock. She almost resembled Anne Hathaway in her Prabal Gurung white Grecian goddess gown from one of The Dark Knight Rises premieres - short SHORT dark hair - the 2012 Jean Seberg - and a soft elegant white gown, that had her looking suddenly very restrained and elegant - a lot more Vogue than Cosmo. 

Was this "look at me, I changed" move a way of giving ex Chris Brown a coded message - or was it just more "look at me" - ? She often morphs from hairdo to hairdo - but the sexpot image never changes - till now.

Taylor Swift looked more Vogue than ever - and apparently she is very much under the fashion tutelage of Anna Wintour herself. Losing the spangles, the sequins, the bugle beads and the over-the-top evening gowns - the hallmark of every great country singer - she turned up in the ultimate chic - a crisp, tailored white evening pantsuit. She looks more like Gwyneth Paltrow than Taylor Swift here. Is she angling for a movie career? Or perhaps - a best dressed list?

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And last but not least - Miley Cyrus has morphed into Pink. Actually, no - Pink is more restrained. With her hair standing straight up in the air - a look that disappeared at the end of the punk era and should never ever be resuscitated. Cyrus wore an equally bizarre dress, a black gown by Emilio Pucci with giant structured circle shapes at the armholes. Didn't she realize this was a dress reserved for Grace Jones? Either you do wild hair with a simple dress - or simple hair with a wild dress. The trajectory she's chosen to evolve her look in has gone off on a tangent even we can't comprehend.

Perhaps she needs to talk to Taylor.