Kendrick Lamar and Chanel are a match made in fashion heaven, and on Sunday night the two made history. The “Not Like Us” singer arrived at the 2026 Grammy Awards in a custom tuxedo from the French house—the very first of its kind. But though the look—which took 207 hours to make—marks a new foray for Chanel, it’s not the first time the two have met in sartorial harmony.
In 2023, the rapper attended the Met Gala in honor of Karl Lagerfeld sporting a black quilted leather jacket, trousers, and a white T-shirt, all paired with a silk foulard worn as a belt and a double-C-embroidered baseball cap. The following year, he collaborated with the then creative director, Virginie Viard, on a short film titled “The Button” for the spring 2024 couture collection, attending the runway show in a tweed bomber and light-wash jeans. Most recently, Lamar was appointed as an official ambassador to the house.
The look for the 2026 Grammys began with a simple request: keeping things classic and “non-fashion” for the evening. “Kendrick always drives the idea,” pgLang’s style director Karizza Sanchez tells Vogue. “Sometimes it starts with a feeling he’s after, other times he sends a reference image, or a specific piece. For the Grammys, he knew pretty immediately that he wanted to wear a tuxedo—‘the nicest tux ever made.’”
Since Matthieu Blazy’s knockout debut at the house, the brand has reinvigorated Coco Chanel’s love for a suit or a button-down borrowed from menswear (those Charvet shirts are still on everyone’s minds). The good news is, Blazy’s designs tend to stick the landing no matter whom he’s dressing—and in the process, he’s redefined what Chanel can be. Tonight, it looked like a black grain de poudre tuxedo jacket with a satin lapel, white poplin pleated plastron shirt, bejeweled chain, and Chanel sunglasses.
“The starting point was restraint and intention,” Lamar’s stylist and Vogue’s contributing style director Carlos Nazario tells Vogue. “It was about letting his presence precede him, rather than making a big fashion statement. Confidence without excess, which has been the way he has been thinking about clothes lately in general.”
Sanchez echoes this sentiment. “We started looking at different ideas and silhouettes for what the tux could be, but ultimately, he wanted to lean pretty classic.” Lamar has yet to wear a strictly classic tuxedo to an awards ceremony, but Sunday’s event felt like the appropriate place to start—and Sanchez explains that Chanel was the only brand that they considered.
Going into the awards, Lamar was the most nominated artist of the evening, winning for best rap album for GNX, best rap song for “TV Off,” and a second consecutive record of the year for “luther” with SZA. By the end of the night, he’d won a career total of 27, officially making him the most awarded rapper of all time, surpassing Jay-Z’s record of 25.
Accepting best rap album, Lamar kept things succinct on stage, highlighting the bespoke tuxedo: “We are going to be in these suits looking good, having our folks with us. We are going to be having the culture with us. So I appreciate y’all. God is the glory. Love y’all.”
“If there is one thing we can all learn from Kendrick, it is the art of letting the work speak for itself,” Nazario said of Lamar’s accomplishments. Visual narrative and complex storytelling have always been integral to the artist’s work—but as for where style figures in that landscape? “In that spirit, I’m sure his sartorial progression will be even more personal and more refined,” Nazario says.
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