We’re Paying Attention to Gwen Stefani’s Style Transformation

Even from her earliest days on the stage with her band No Doubt, hints of Gwen Stefani’s playful and attention-grabbing style were on full display. At a 1989 No Doubt concert at The Roxy in Los Angeles, Stefani rocked a very ’80s outfit comprised of a sheer white skirt with polka dots underneath and a white crop top. She accessorized with a waist-defining hot-pink belt, striped socks, and a white bow in her hair. Already, she was proving her skill at mixing patterns while still looking put together.

Despite the early hints of her punk-inspired style coming through, Stefani also rocked a truly breezy, California-girl style. At a No Doubt concert in Newport Beach that same year, the “Don’t Speak” singer wore an adorable black-and-white patterned skirt paired with a black-and-white striped bikini top. Her chin-length hair had beachy, blond waves, and she kept the look simple but bold with red nails and red lipstick, which would later become part of her signature style.

By the mid-to-late ’90s, Gwen Stefani’s look had already transformed a lot. By now, she had moved away from her more feminine looks to a punk-rock style. Filled with crop tops, baggy pants, and a range of colors and prints, sometimes mixed together, her look was truly unique. At a Live 105 BFD performance in 1996, Stefani donned a look that was representative of her style at the time. Her hair was bleach blond, and her eyebrows were ultra-thin and penciled-in. This was just one of many interesting points in Gwen Stefani’s hair transformation. There, she wore a tight, white cropped tank top paired with tight, yellow leather pants detailed with black zippers.

In 1997, at the Race to Erase MS Gala, Stefani showed a different side of her multi-faceted style. She wore a black, cropped tank top paired with a gold-and-orange print. She accessorized with layered gold bracelets and a gold necklace. It was her hair, though, that we loved. Rocking mussed mini-buns, her hair was a great example of an edgy and trendy Y2K-era look. Everything wasn’t positive, though, as this was another instance of Stefani being accused of appropriating another culture due to sporting a bindi on her forehead.

In the late ’90s, Gwen Stefani switched it up once again. During this time, she was shifting away from some of her more wild and eye-catching styles from the earlier ’90s and opting for looks that were a little darker and more subdued, at least when it came to her outfits. At the 1998 MTV VMAs, Stefani had pastel-blue hair, which she wore in a half-up, half-down space-bun look that became one of Glam’s favorite celebrity hair moments from the ’90s. Her makeup also displayed her fun sense of style, with her signature red lip combined with gemstones that arches around her eyebrows. She brought texture into the look with a fuzzy blue bikini top and paired it all with a dark, shiny skirt, dark pants, and platform flip-flops.

At a PETA event in 1999, Stefani once again mixed bold hair colors with trendy, dark-toned outfits. There, the “Just a Girl” singer wore her pink-and-blond shoulder-length hair loosely curled. Her makeup was simple and subdued, except for her burgundy lip. Her outfit was also on the low-key side, consisting of a dark vest with a denim skirt and black pants underneath.

By the turn of the century, Gwen Stefani’s looks were becoming more colorful, funky, and glamorous. This was especially apparent at a release party for Madonna’s album “Music,” where Stefani rocked an outfit with a playful, retro vibe. There, she wore a brown newsboy hat, layered necklaces, and glitzy bracelets. Her multicolored tank top added even more fun to the look, as did her studded black purse and huge hoop earrings. 

At the 2001 MTV VMAs, Stefani kept the retro vibes going, albeit in a more polished way. There, she wore a red-and-white striped bikini-style top with dark pants and a white belt. She rocked bold red nail polish and a red lip, introducing a lot of classic glam to the look. Her hair also added to the overall vibe of playful sophistication, with her platinum, rockabilly curls bringing cohesion to her whole style.

In 2002, Gwen Stefani refined her look. While some outfits from previous years may have had an experimental vibe, the styles she wore during this period felt more focused. At the 2002 Beach Rock Festival in Belgium, she wore a black-and-white-striped keyhole top paired with red-and-white-striped pants. While she wore lots of accessories that were super trendy at the time, like a wrist sweatband, a studded belt, and loose suspenders, this look is a great example of her shift toward outfits with a simple black, red, and white color palette.

At a rehearsal for the 2003 Super Bowl Halftime Show, Stefani wore a similar outfit, this time with a more blinged-out feel. The singer of “The Sweet Escape” wore a sparkly silver bra top with a red one layered underneath and baggy pants. While she wore similar accessories, like her studded belt with chains, her rockabilly hairstyle and red lip added an element of classic glamor to the overall look.

In the mid-00s, Gwen Stefani revamped her style in a big way. Now, she was making solo albums, and she was not only showing a new side of herself creatively but also expressing herself through fashion in new ways. Her looks during this time were all about Japanese street fashion, and she traveled and performed with dancers known as the Harajuku Girls. Since then, Stefani has come under criticism for appropriating Japanese culture.

In a 2021 interview with Paper, Stefani defended her point of view. “If we didn’t buy and sell and trade our cultures in, we wouldn’t have so much beauty, you know?” she said. “We learn from each other, we share from each other, we grow from each other. And all these rules are just dividing us more and more.” Not everyone loved this response, but Stefani maintained the aesthetic throughout this period.

By 2006, Gwen Stefani was rocking maternity styles thanks to being pregnant with her first child. At the Grammys, she wore a leopard-print maternity gown with an empire waist. However, this wasn’t just a plain leopard-print dress; it was one with a lot of details that truly took it to the next level. At the waist, embroidery-style detail created interest, as did the green ombré effect at the bottom of the skirt. Layered gold bracelets made for a fitting accessory. With this look, Stefani kept her ultra-bright blond hair pulled back in a simple chignon and kept her makeup simple, putting all the focus on her gown and its fun details.

After giving birth, Stefani kept the leopard-print theme going. This time, though, the “Spiderwebs” singer took it in a sportier direction. Wearing a leopard-print jacket as she carried her son, she was the epitome of a put-together new mom. Bold, funky jewelry and large, white sunglasses brought edge to the style without taking it over the top.

In the late ’00s, Gwen Stefani hit a peak of streamlining her style into something chic, effective, and bold all at once. Relying on a black-and-white color palette that she punctuated with pops of red, many of her looks from this time were simple but show-stopping. Backstage at a New York Fashion Week show for her fashion line L.A.M.B., she wore a minidress with a large, black-and-white houndstooth print. She paired it with a smooth, ’60s-like hairdo that highlighted her bleach-blond hair and proved that Stefani knew just how often you can safely bleach your hair. Of course, she also rocked her signature red lipstick.

Stefani worked with the same streamlined color palette but with a different feel at a 2009 No Doubt concert in California. There, she rocked baggy white pants, a white tank top, a black studded belt, and boots. She also wore her hair in a style reminiscent of some of her ’90s space-bun looks, although this time in a more polished way.

By the early 2010s, Gwen Stefani’s fashion choices were veering into more colorful and eclectic territory once again. Appearing on the L.A.M.B. runway at spring 2011’s New York Fashion Week, she mixed patterns filled with geometric shapes in bold colors like yellow, red, burgundy, and blue. With bangle bracelets and a messy bun, this look was super eclectic.

At the 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival, Stefani rocked more fun color and texture. While her look featured a go-to silhouette for her courtesy of dark baggy pants and a crop top, her top featured a ton of complex details. A high neckline, cutouts, and a woven, beaded texture brought tons of interest to the outfit, which she paired with a high, messy bun. As she often did, Stefani rocked simple eye makeup and a red lip, proving that whether you’re aiming for chic glam or something eclectic and punk-inspired, red lipstick is always a good idea.

During the mid-2010s, Gwen Stefani showed off a wider range of fashion choices, from wearing sporty jackets and jeans at the US Open to reaching new levels of sophistication on the red carpet in a neutral ombré gown at the Glamour Women of the Year event. She also opened up a lot about her fashion influences.

In a talk with Teen Vogue, she explained what some of her biggest early influences were. “I grew up near Disneyland, and my brother’s an animator, so I was always really inspired by bright, cartoony colors and that whole feeling of happiness,” she said. She elaborated that she was further inspired by Marilyn Monroe and the quintessential Hollywood glamor that Monroe evokes.

Stefani didn’t just discuss her influences, though. In a 2016 interview with Vogue, she got candid about how her fashion evolved — and the point where she began to feel truly in charge of her style. “So when I look back at what I wore, I see a lot of mess. That was just me making it up as I went. Nobody told me or helped me,” she admitted. It’s clear that Stefani has come a long way!

In the late 2010s and beyond, Gwen Stefani continued to play with new elements in her style. That said, by now, many of her looks were more focused and had an overall sense of refinement to them. At a holiday pop-up event in 2017, she wore a blue jacket featuring a multicolored pattern with shorts and tall, red boots. She wore her hair in a high pony with her signature red lip, balancing playful colors and prints with simple silhouettes. At a taping of a performance for the 2019 Lighting of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center, the “Truth” singer wore a look that represented her style at the time: Her silver sequin jacket was worn like a minidress and paired with thigh-high sequin boots, creating a look that was edgy but still glitzy.

While speaking with InStyle in 2018, Stefani explained her shift into different styles. Discussing how her style was now “more feminine,” she said, “It’s probably because I’m super in love and have a really manly man [Blake Shelton]. I enjoy letting that part of me come out now because when I was in No Doubt, I never thought of myself as sexy. Even in my 30s, I was a tomboy. I hardly ever carried a purse.”

In 2019, Stefani didn’t just discuss her style evolution; she also accepted a major award that recognized her as a style icon. While accepting her Fashion Icon Award at the People’s Choice Awards, she said, “So to get to this point where I’m getting an award for fashion…it’s kind of surreal and it just proves that if you just are true to who you are and just follow your own passion that weird things can happen…I love fashion. It never gets old for me” (via E! News).

By the start of the 2020s, Gwen Stefani’s style choices continued to be ultra-feminine, but this time with a playful country twang, which was very likely due to the influence of her country singer of a partner, Blake Shelton. The early 2020s weren’t just about sophisticated glam and feminine florals for Stefani, though; they were also about some special dresses — in particular, her wedding dresses.

Stefani collaborated with none other than Vera Wang to create her unique wedding looks, making her one of many celebrities who wore Vera Wang wedding dresses. Speaking to Page Six, Wang dished about the process of creating Stefani’s wedding styles. “Gwen knows clothes. Many performers at that level, they’re very savvy about how they look best — most women are, but when your livelihood is about performance, it’s even more [so],” Wang explained. “I happen to know Gwen, and I knew a lot about the wedding in terms of how they were going to celebrate. She took some inspiration from one of the collections I did, but on the other hand, [this gown] had so much of Gwen’s personality.” Custom wedding couture sounds like a dream to us!

By 2023, Gwen Stefani was both branching out and revisiting some of her styles from the past. While performing at the 2023 CMT Music Awards, Stefani rocked a white-and-red polka-dot minidress with a layered skirt and matching opera gloves. She wore her hair in a top knot, reminiscent of some of her past space-bun looks, and accessorized with something that was popping up in her outfits more and more: fishnets. At a 2024 concert in Canada, Stefani worked with some of the same elements once again. There, she wore a plaid outfit with tons of cutouts and straps, with fishnet layered underneath.

In a 2014 interview with Glamour, Stefani had touched on the fact that fashion was all about expression for her and had nothing to do with age or any concept of what she thought she should wear. “For me, fashion is not really about age as much as it is reflecting your personality. Your personality is what it is. I don’t see that as I’ve grown and aged and matured in my life that I have much of a different personality, so I feel like there’s definitely an evolution of style,” she told the outlet. “But that’s because I’ve come across some many talented people on my journey that have influenced [me]. Anything along that way that’s pointed me into a new direction to evolve as style.”

In 2025, Gwen Stefani has stuck with tasteful glitz, but she’s also done further into different types of playful, feminine clothing. Not only that, but she’s also mixed textures and patterns in new and interesting ways. At an iHeartRadio event this May, Stefani wore an olive-green jacket with layers of multicolor ruffles, adding a lot of visual interest — and also displaying how easy it can be to take graceful ruffles, which are normally an ultra-feminine dress trend, and apply them to any outfit. She paired the look with jeans with silver fringe across the legs, turning simple pieces into a truly intriguing outfit.

Meanwhile, at the Audacy’s Leading Ladies event, Stefani used a similar color palette and textures to create a look that was both edgy and sophisticated at the same time. There, she paired baggy camo pants with a camo jacket, a glittery silver top, and fishnets underneath. All of these different elements came together to create a look that felt both feminine and masculine, as well as uniquely Stefani.