In the morphology of the red carpet, the MTV Video Music Awards, a.k.a. the V.M.A.s, are the wild card.

It is the event over which the fashion and celebrity system, thus far, has had the least edge-smoothing effect, where the men and women who make their entrances largely do so in creations — sometimes you can’t even call them clothes — chosen for their power of extreme self-expression as opposed to, say, luxury brand marketing purposes. (Think, for example, of Lady Gaga in her meat dress in 2010, or Miley Cyrus’s space apron in 2015.)

It is the event that, in its cheerful embrace of sartorial ridiculousness, gives everyone the permission to make mistakes. And that has mostly been a good thing.