Celebrity style: The new fashion eccentrics 2012

Celebrity style: The new fashion eccentrics

Meet the new generation of look-at-me dressers that have taken celebrity style to a whole other level.

Several weeks into the awards show season and you start to wonder just how many sequined mermaid gowns can a girl take? The designer confections you see on the red carpet are lovely and glamorous but conventional, safe and certainly nothing that raises eyebrows or even relishes the thought. How weirdly wonderful it is then to see a new group of women who are willing to transcend trends and dream outside the box. By embracing the odd, ugly, and over-the-top, they force us to ponder on our very own willingness to push the envelope and act out the sartorial desires well hidden within the recesses of our minds. Here, then we salute the spirited newfashion style setters bravely standing out in a sea of sameness. 

Celebrity style: 5 new red carpet fashion designers

New fashion eccentrics: The musicians

Then: Lady Gaga 
Now: Nicki Minaj 
Gaga may have been born this way but Ms. Minaj and her madcap sartorial statements appear to spring fully formed from the Internet. Whether it’s a brightly coloured surgical mask, neon puffball tunic or pink-and-yellow streaked wig, hip-hop's newly minted queen brings that same eclectic mix as Lady Gaga before her, scooping up countless coveted magazine covers and makeup contracts along the way. 

Celebrity style: Lady Gaga's most outrageous looks.

New fashion eccentrics: The editors

Then: Anna Piaggi
Now: Anna Dello Russo 
It’s a wonder that either of these veteran Italian editors ever reach their front row seats at Fashion Week, given the number of fashion bloggers and street style-seekers who stop them outside all the shows they attend. While Piaggi, a writer who has produced more than 7,000 editorial pages for the most prestigious fashion magazines, is more prone to colour and clash (not to mention a penchant for blue hair), ADR (as she is affectionately known) of Vogue Nippon does keep an equally outsized closet filled with couture confections and outrageous hats, as well as sharing a habit of never wearing the same outfit twice.