The Worst Celebrity Wardrobe Malfunctions Of 2024

Beyond the main attractions at award shows, stage concerts, live broadcasts, and television series, a glaring spotlight is always reserved for wardrobe malfunctions that warrant a look-back. While style triumphs are rewarded well — earning upvotes from the audience and places of honor in fashion history — malfunctions are perhaps even more memorable. 2024 was a year of many such fashion missteps that made people both empathize with celebrities who either tore a dress or were left with an unhooked top mid-event. 

It also became simultaneously clear in 2024 that these celebrities have been in front of the camera long enough to successfully find their way around knotty situations that arise out of their outfits giving up on them without notice. Well-versed in the art of keeping their audiences entertained, actors like Emma Stone and Joey King managed to bypass sensational headlines by turning their wardrobe malfunctions into punchlines, while singers like Taylor Swift and GloRilla navigated the awkwardness by giving their fashion snafus minimal acknowledgment. As Katy Perry, who was the victim of an unforgettable fashion setback while hosting "American Idol" in 2024, described it to Access Hollywood, "I wouldn't call it a malfunction — I'd just call it an interesting moment on live television." 

Here are the worst celebrity wardrobe malfunctions of 2024, complete with a lowdown of how deftly they were managed. 

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour outfits made as many headlines — if not more — as the Grammy-winning singer did all through a musically busy 2024. While most of her concert regalia made fans around the world swoon, one  caught the attention of audiences for reasons other than its beautiful extravagance. For a show in Miami, Swift showed up in the resplendent white Vivienne Westwood gown that had by then become a regular feature of her segment on "The Tortured Poets Department." The dramatic outfit, memorable for its billowing skirt splattered in lyrics from the album, included a corset top that unfortunately would not cooperate.

"need help"
"thanks guys!" pic.twitter.com/OmsoUFGgMF

— taylor (@wishescametrue) October 19, 2024

Swift tried to get to the bottom of the issue with one hand behind her back during a rendition of "But Daddy I Love Him." While theories on the malfunction vary, People claimed it was her microphone that caused trouble. After a few unsuccessful attempts of picking at her corset, Swift called for extra hands mid-song. Backup dancers sprung to action and, without losing their cadence, unfastened the back of Swift's dress, fixed the hitch, and reattached it. If we didn't know any better, the moment may well have been part of the performance, with Swift going on to sing just then: "But now I'm running with my dress unbuttoned." 

If Camila Cabello thought that her frozen purse — made of literal ice — was going to be her biggest problem at the 2024 Met Gala, she was severely mistaken. She showed up to the night of fashion extravagance looking like a million bucks in a dress that was encrusted with 250,000 Swarovski crystals and featured a daringly high thigh slit. The distressed Ludovic de Saint Sernin piece, along with her melting ice purse, was supposed to make a statement consistent with the gala's theme: "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion." As she told Extra, "I feel like it is impermanence and things decaying over time and the beauty in that, so there are sort of rips toward the ends of my dress."

But in a rather ironic faux pas, the most fashionable rip in the "Havana" singer's dress — the one running up her thigh — came apart more than the design intended. The tear in the tactfully placed slit ended up exposing Cabello's undergarments but hardly dampened her spirits. In fact, Cabello took the wardrobe malfunction head on, using a clutch — not the one made of ice, which likely melted off by the end of the night — to cover up the fashion snafu on her way to a Met Gala after-party. Reiterating Cabello's unruffled reaction to it all, an eyewitness told the Daily Mail, "It was so embarrassing for her on fashion's biggest night but she handled it with ease and just laughed it off."

Cate Blanchett is known for her impeccable range — a quality that isn't just limited to acting but extends to her fashion sensibilities, too. She appeared to have experimented a little too hard with her wardrobe, however, for a screening of her film "Borderlands" in 2024. In a bid for sustainable fashion, her outfit comprised a halter top made entirely of spoons — a long way from her luxurious Oscars outfit in 2014, which still ranks as one of the most stunning red carpet looks ever – that just about looked like an accident waiting to happen. Surprisingly enough, the extraordinary spoon top stayed put and it was Blanchett's simple, tailored Hodakova trousers that betrayed her on the red carpet. 

While details of the wardrobe malfunction were not publicized, Entertainment Tonight hinted at the issue with the Hollywood star's pants. Thankfully, Blanchett's co-star Jamie Lee Curtis was around to save the day. At one point, Curtis slid up behind Blanchett, holding her in an embrace so close that it prompted host Denny Directo to ask what exactly was going on. "Nothing. You know what is going on? I got her back," Curtis quipped, as Blanchett wiped away tears of laughter, trying to recompose herself so she could make it through the interview. Underlining Curtis' caring disposition, Blanchett gushed: "On every single movie that Jamie makes, she is the den mother." 

It's not without reason that Katy Perry is known as the queen of kitsch. But sometimes, her campy fashion comes at a cost. The "Firework" hitmaker was confronted with one such moment while hosting "American Idol" in 2024. The metallic top she was wearing malfunctioned. Its collapse coincided with contestant Roman Collins' performance, leading Perry to exclaim, "That song broke my top off!" As her fellow judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan joked about the show's ratings soaring after this mishap, Perry kept audiences entertained through the moment, hiding behind her desk and clutching a pillow to her chest to prevent any further blunders. 

While an awkward moment is hardly a rare occurrence on live television, Perry diverted any imminent possibility of a tabloid scandal by making light of the situation herself on Instagram, sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the incident when she tried to get her top back in place. "If it's not fixed, this show is going to get more than it wanted," she said into the camera, as a team of people — including Bryan — attempted to secure her dramatic shiny contraption from behind. While speaking to Access Hollywood later, she gave a fairly straightforward explanation: "I'm just super expressive physically. ... I love this outfit so much, and I knew I was rolling the dice, but I was like, 'Who cares?'" 

"Oh boy, my dress is broken." These were Emma Stone's first words when she accepted her Best Actress Oscar for "Poor Things." The zipper that held her Louis Vuitton peplum gown together from the back had come apart — something she apparently only realized while making her way up the stairs to the stage. Overcome with emotion at having won the top honor, Stone announced the malfunction to the world as soon as she made the discovery. "I think it happened during 'I'm Just Ken,'" she quipped, citing Ryan Gosling's electric rendition of the "Barbie" number from that evening, which she enthusiastically participated in from the audience. 

A quick alteration had her dress looking back to normal before long. "They sewed me back in," she told the press at the event, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. "Right when I came back[stage], they sewed me back in, which was wonderful." She also confirmed that she wasn't joking about when the malfunction occurred. "I genuinely do think I busted it during, 'I'm Just Ken.' I was so amazed by Ryan and what he was doing, and that number just blew my mind. And I was right there, and I just was going for it, and, you know, things happen," she said.

While Stone maneuvered the hardly scandalous goof-up with her trademark quick wit, it didn't stop fans from dragging Louis Vuitton for the gown's supposedly flimsy quality on social media. The zipper blunder did little to elevate the appeal of the jacquard silk dress, which anyway received a lukewarm response from many fashion commentators. However, the dramatic silhouette of the gown was on-theme with the late 19th century blueprint in "Poor Things." Costume designer Holly Waddington told Harper's Bazaar, "It's this discordance, but it's playful" — but unfortunately, it came away as one of the worst celebrity looks from 2024. 

Rapper-songwriter GloRilla was put to the test at her first-ever stage performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2024, as her bralette top came unhooked and she was caught in the middle of a major wardrobe malfunction. The mishap transpired near the end of a rocking rendition of her hit songs "Yeah Glo!" and "TGIF" that set the stage on fire (literally). At some point, the cameras cut to GloRilla and showed the singer very evidently holding up the top half of her pinstriped bikini-style ensemble that, she told Vogue, was inspired by the suit Janet Jackson wore in the music video for "Alright." Ironically, Jackson suffered a wardrobe malfunction so severe during a Super Bowl halftime show that it led to a federal investigation.

Nevertheless, the malfunction hardly deterred GloRilla from keeping her groove on. Without missing a beat, she continued her routine unflustered. Audiences even got a crystal clear view of her unfastened top during a transition, when she turned her back to them. She performed that way for at least a half-minute before a backup dancer noticed and came to her rescue, clasping her top back on — all while dancing through the chaos. Once things were secured back in place, GloRilla delivered a powerful closing act.

Even seasoned camera-facing pros have their bad days! Prominent journalist and "Today" host Hoda Kotb was far from being the worst-dressed at the 2024 Paris Olympics but a minor faux pas did make her stand out among the many eye-grabbing fashion moments that occurred at the games. In an incident that made it to social media — on Kotb's own Instagram feed, no less — the journalist was seen struggling with an outfit she wore while reporting live from Paris. The attire in question was a yellow shift dress that, despite its essentially undemanding design, had come apart down one seam on the side. 

This snag didn't seem to have ruffled Kotb in the slightest, thanks to a quick fix she had at hand: a stapler. With a simple click of this ordinary tool, Kotb's fellow NBC News staffer Kaitlin Vickery stapled her dress back in place, with the journalist covering up the repair with the belt running around her waistline. "Wardrobe malfunction— nothing that a stapler cant fix!" Kotb wrote on Instagram. Kotb and Vickery wrapped up their amusing but successful maneuver with a well-deserved high-five, as social media users cheered for them in comments under the video. 

When Joey King was announced as the 2024 recipient of the coveted WIF Max Mara Face of the Future Award, little could she have known that the milestone would become memorable for more than one reason. As the "Crazy, Stupid, Love" star made her way to the stage at Los Angeles' Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the annual event was taking place, her blazer came undone. Now, this sounds like it would be a non-issue  — except King had gone for a shirtless look that evening. So when her blazer busted open, King scrambled to keep it in place, making no attempt to hide her utter shock over the startling moment. 

Though King managed to save herself from a major faux pas in the nick of time, she appeared disarrayed all the way to the podium, desperately trying to fix her blazer even while on stage. Eventually managing to pin it back together with the help of people on stage, King began her vote of thanks with a sheepish acknowledgment of the blunder: "Wow, the perfect time for my shirt to pop open. And I'm not wearing a bra!" Before tabloids could have a field day with it, King deftly found her way around the embarrassment of the goof-up by sharing a clip of it on her own Instagram, writing, "Face of the Future is what they were promised...I am what they got." 

Australian influencer and podcast host Laura Byrne was attending the 2024 Australian Podcast Awards, when a wardrobe mishap got the better of her outfit. As she shared on Instagram before the event, the pink one-shouldered dress she slipped into was a last-minute decision. "Okay, so I'm dressed and I don't have time to consider another outfit," she told her followers. "So this is it. This is what we're going with." Considering that the look didn't seem to have been planned too meticulously, Byrne presumably overlooked her nude stick-on bra peeking out over one side of her dress. 

While this malfunction could have well gone unnoticed, it became glaringly visible when Byrne lifted her arm in a cheer while posing for pictures with her "Life Uncut Podcast" team. Instead of downplaying the very relatable slip, Byrne recorded it for posterity by sharing zoomed-in shots of it on Instagram. "Steven would not be impressed," she quipped, referencing a social media user who apparently called her out for her poor time management. She had schooled the user saying, "I run three businesses, have two kids and I'm trying to drink eight glasses of water a day Steven." 

During her GUTS world tour in 2024, Olivia Rodrigo took a potentially mortifying wardrobe malfunction and turned it around into a magnificent stage moment that left people cheering for her. The singer was enthralling audiences at London's O2 Arena with her hit song "Love Is Embarrassing" when, mid-performance, her leather bra top popped open from the back. Given the thousands in attendance at the sold-out show, the moment neither went missed nor unrecorded. A viral clip of the entire episode showed Rodrigo clutching her chest in a moment of realization and sidling up to the nearest backup dancer for help to fix her top — all while rocking it out like a pro. 

The event played out rather comically, something Rodrigo seemed to acknowledge with her spirited expressions. The backup dancer tried in vain to latch the top back on, since Rodrigo kept getting away from her in the middle of her high-energy choreography. "This is f***ing embarrassing," she announced into the mic with a laugh. She held onto her undone top for the rest of the performance, without allowing the faux pas to impinge on her enthusiasm. Eventually, she made an exit and re-emerged with her top in place. "I almost flashed you guys but it's okay now," she candidly confessed on stage, winning hearts across social media.