Mariah Carey's Most Dazzlingly Expensive Outfits

Mariah Carey is many things, but being stingy with her money is not one of them, especially when she's treating herself. The music icon has amassed a staggering net worth of $350 million as of 2024, with her fortune only climbing every Christmas season thanks to her perennial hit, "All I Want For Christmas Is You." This has allowed Carey to not only let her twins with her ex-husband Nick Cannon — Monroe and Moroccan — live a lavish life but also accumulate an insane collection of designer clothing, shoes, and bags. 

She gave fans a look at her massive closet in her New York City home for a Vogue video in 2017, revealing rows and rows of high heels, racks filled with long gowns, an entire section of La Perla lingerie, and two Hermes Birkin bags — including a pink one gifted by Floyd Mayweather. "I'm not as casual as most people," she jokingly said of her expensive taste.

Carey's collection has only grown since then, with the diva reportedly spending up to $1 million a month on various extravagant purchases, including designer clothes as well as hair and makeup. Cannon even once commented on his ex's lavish spending during a 2022 interview on "The Joe Budden Podcast," saying, "Mariah don't step out the house — it cost her $150,000, $200,000 just to walk out the house." Her lavish lifestyle reportedly has led to major money troubles for the "Queen of Christmas," but this hasn't stopped Carey from shopping at stores like Louis Vuitton and showing off new designer fits on social media or during her outings. Here are some of the most dazzlingly expensive outfits Carey has worn over the years.

Mariah Carey once addressed the public's mixed comments about her lavish lifestyle in her 2016 show "Mariah's World," noting that people demand she be more down-to-earth one minute and the next they're praising her for all her diva-ness. "They want her to be grand, they want her to be accessible. They want her to have glamorous clothes. They don't want her to have glamorous clothes," she said in the reality series' first episode (via Entertainment Weekly).

Eight years later, the singer has proven one thing, and that is Mimi will be Mimi regardless of what people think — and being Mimi means wearing an outfit worth more than $17,000 to go Christmas shopping. Four days before Christmas in 2024, Carey was photographed rocking a $14,900 chunky rib wool cardigan and a $2,100 matching chunky rib wool tank dress from Gucci while shopping at the luxury brand's store in Aspen, Colorado. She completed the look with a $399 Gucci rib knit wool lamé hat and diamond jewelry that likely cost a fortune as well.

This was just one of many expensive winter-wear Carey showed off in Aspen, where she typically spends Christmas. A few days before her Gucci shopping spree, she stepped out wearing a $1,220 Louis Vuitton skirt and a red Chanel puffer coat with a staggering price tag of $8,050 — a festive look fit for the Queen of Christmas herself.

As Carey was flaunting her designer winter clothing collection in Aspen, she was also adding to them. She was snapped leaving a Louis Vuitton store wearing a $5,200 reversible brown hooded cape embossed with the brand's signature LV logo, swapping out the white cardigan she initially wore for her shopping trip.

Eyebrows were raised in December 2023 when, for the first time in years, Mariah Carey spent the holidays in Aspen without her beau Bryan Tanaka. She'd been dating the dancer since 2016, right after she parted ways with her Australian billionaire fiancé James Packer, who reportedly gave her millions as a breakup fee. The day after Christmas 2023, Tanaka confirmed via Instagram that he and Carey had split after seven years of dating. "Our decision to embark on different paths is mutual, and as we navigate these separate journeys, we do so with profound respect and an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the invaluable time we've shared," he wrote.

While she didn't have her arm candy that holiday season, Carey looked like she still had a blast by herself browsing the racks at the Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Kith stores in Aspen, presumably looking for new winter fits to add to her collection. For the outing, she donned a $2,600 white Prada puffer coat, along with a fitted top, flared mini skirt, tights, and $1,795 Giuseppe Zanotti boots in the same color, as seen in photos obtained by People. She paired the look with a diamond tennis necklace and Tom Ford sunglasses, which can range in price from $300 to $570.

Carey turned the city's streets into her runway once more two days before Christmas when she was photographed slaying in a $3,800 Burberry cape, $1,000 Chanel earmuffs, and thigh-high black boots. As if those weren't glamorous enough, she accessorized the look further with a stunning diamond necklace and oversized sunglasses. Carey was all smiles as she shopped, proving that retail therapy indeed works.

For most people, a wedding gown may be the most expensive piece of clothing they will ever purchase. Wedding dresses averaged about $2,000 in price in the U.S. in 2023, according to a study by wedding planning site The Knot. For Mariah Carey, however, even a casual outfit could cost three times an average bridal gown.

In 2022, the "Obsessed" singer traded her usual gown for an athleisure look, but it was still anything but casual. The glittery silver hoodie and joggers set from Prada was made of cashmere and lurex and came with an eye-watering price tag of $6,850 ($3,300 for the zip-up jacket and $3,550 for the bottoms). In the photo she shared on Instagram, Carey had her hair styled in a braid and had on full glam, which may have cost her an extra $10,000 if reports are to be believed. "Out East for the week, soaking it all in," she captioned the photo.

At the time, Carey was staying with her kids and then-boyfriend Bryan Tanaka at a $20 million Hamptons estate she'd rented for their vacation. She had plenty of reasons to celebrate as she'd just been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Though she emphasized her songwriting abilities in her speech during the June 2022 ceremony, Carey looked every inch the diva in a glittery Oscar de la Renta gown, Tom Ford heels, opera-length gloves, and various diamond jewelry. "I constantly have to remind people I'm a songwriter. ... They're all into the 'diva' thing. It's like 'Oh my gosh, she's a diva, wow, a diva,'" she said before cheekily putting on her Gucci sunglasses.

Mariah Carey has given the world many iconic looks throughout her career, such as her two-piece black Calvin Klein dress at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards and her Emanuel Ungaro butterfly top and jeans with cutoff waistbands at the 2000 VH1 Divas. During a 2021 chat with Vogue, she dished on some of her favorite outfits of all time, revealing that the dazzling Dolce & Gabbana dress she wore in her Apple TV Christmas special that year was "one of my favorite gowns ever." However, she also admitted there was a major downside to wearing that bronze and black gown. "It's all beaded, and the dress itself took 250 hours to bead. It weighed 60 pounds! I had to have six gorgeous guys lift it up so I could walk," Carey explained. "It was magnificent, but it hurt like a mother to wear it."

But not all of Carey's favorite outfits have this problem. For example, she's been spotted wearing a short and sparkly shirt dress with a colorful print for both casual outings and parties over the years. The $11,000 dress was from Louis Vuitton's Resort 2018 collection, for which Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto served as a co-designer and muse. Carey was first photographed sporting the outfit at a Roc Nation bash in New York City in January 2018. She also styled the outfit with a black long-sleeve shirt, leggings, and boots for a Valentine's Day photo she took with her son Moroccan in 2022. She re-wore the minidress again later that October for an outing in SoHo, but this time ditched the tights and instead showed off her killer legs.

Mariah Carey has been known to do some pretty iconic things with her expensive gowns (aside from giving incredible performances while wearing them, of course). She once visited a McDonald's wearing a floor-length red gown, joking, "I hope I'm not overdressed." Carey went a step further in 2020 and donned a silver sequin dress for a dip in a hot tub while in the Dominican Republic. In January 2024, the singer also shared a video of herself exercising in her home gym while wearing a gold sequined gown and matching high heels, providing zero explanation besides "I'm Mariah Carey" (which, to be fair, is all the explanation we really need).

But if we talk about iconic, it's almost impossible to beat Carey unveiling and then burning a wedding gown for the 2017 music video for her breakup song, "I Don't" featuring rapper YG. The video started with the singer running in a white veil, leather jacket, and voluminous wedding dress and getting into a car and ended with her throwing the same gown into an open flame. 

While it might have seemed like nothing more than a prop at first glance, it was reported that the gown was a custom Valentino and cost a whopping $250,000 — 10 times the price of the $25,000 Vera Wang-designed, Princess Diana-inspired dress Carey wore for her 1993 wedding to her first husband Tommy Mottola. She was supposed to wear the wedding dress to her nuptials with former fiancé James Packer before the pair called off their wedding in October 2016. Guess that answers exactly what Carey thought of that relationship.