This is not an outfit I expected to see at the Country Music Association Awards. At the same time, it’s a really, really country outfit. Which kinda describes what I’m learning about Kacey Musgraves and her career.

According to The Ringer, Kacey “beat the CMAs by not joining them”, her win and her performance a “triumph of quiet grace over empty bombast”. She won Album of the Year forGolden Hour,which was a surprise, because her songs did not get that much play on country radio (which is its own complicated and political ecosystem of favours and insider exchanges) and because she was the only woman in the category among a field of men - and country music, as Lauren Blackwrote on Forbes, has been dominated by men in recent years. Which is why Kacey’s win is such a big deal.

所以让我们go back to this outfit. Again, not the kind of outfit usually worn by women at this event. But it’s also a perfect outfit for this event. Back in June I went to Nashville and visited the Country Music Hall is Fame. So many of the old outfits on exhibit worn by legendary country stars were cut like Kacey’s jacket - cropped, well-tailored, strong shoulders. Bolero. Elvis Presley wore a purple bolero once early in his career. And of course there’s the famous red one he wore in Viva Las Vegas. Underneath Kacey’s jacket, all that gold detail in the bodysuit, it looks kinda like fringe - with a high country collar opening to cleavage. This is Versace. And it’s the perfect marriage of high fashion and country, modern country, worn by a woman who is pushing country forward.

This wasn’t the only Versace thatKaceywore last night though. She ended up changing into an orange suit. It’s the bright big bold colour we are used to seeing at the CMAs but with monochrome runway flair. I f-cking love the look of those leggings underneath the jacket and tucked into those sandals. It’s a little 60s throwback, it’s a little 90s supermodel vintage, and it’s also so very, very 2018. And note the stick straight, jet black hair. That hair doesn’t want anything to do with a curling iron.

Now I can’t wait for Kacey Musgraves’s next major award show appearance. She just became one to watch on a red carpet.