Where to start with “little CiCi?” Ciara is fresh out of high school, “Goodies” is dominating the charts, and it’s the 2004 VMAs. We’re setting the scene for the now-veteran singer, dancer, and actor’s instalment of Life in Looks, and the first look in question is an early Ciara go-to: a gold cut-out swimsuit, jeans, and a tall, wrestler style boot. “I hadn’t mastered the art of posing on a red carpet at this point,” she says with a laugh when she’s presented with her book of 20 era-defining looks.
Next up, the aforementioned “Goodies” cover art, a caramel brunette Ciara stares out from underneath an unzipped pink hoodie. “It was my first time saying hello to the world,” Ciara recalls. “I felt like I had so much to say.”
“I knew from my head to my toes, in my soul, that this was the song that was going to be the one to kick it off for me,” she adds. Ciara and Yolonda Frederick, her makeup artist of 24 years, wanted to make sure the cover was as vibrant as the song, so glam was dialed up more than she was used to. The cross around her neck reflects the journey she was on: for self-discovery, and faith in her path. Ciara was a new artist intent on proving herself, and she had to battle to keep her own song. (Her label had Britney Spears in mind for “Goodies”). “I would have fought tooth and nail for this song to be mine,” Ciara says. But she didn’t need to—and an icon was born.
Next up, comes the “1,2 Step” music video. “Look at that attitude!” Ciara says. She reminisces about the on-set choreo and camaraderie. "When I see this photo of me, I just know the energy….it’s young CiCi with so much attitude. For any artist, we all have our sauce, and you have your team that pours into you too.”
One, two, stepping onward…it’s the Pepsi Smash Concert Series for the 2005 Super Bowl, where Ciara wears a black bikini and another navel grazing bodysuit, with camo pants tucked into boxer boots and a baseball cap. “I just saw a stylist on set recently and she was swearing these boots in white,” she says. “It’s amazing how fashion always comes back.”
Ciara always tries to wear something personal for her, and here, it’s the ATL hat. “That’s my armor. You can’t take the ATL out of me, that’s the city that made me,” she affirms. Also, as a military baby, she wears her cargos like a badge of honor. “The cargos make the booty bounce a little better,” she adds wickedly.
Next up, 2005’s music video for “Oh,” where she wears a baby blue and orange crop top. “Crop tops were new for me!” she says. “It was so much color and life happening in this video..I pushed the attitude meter up in this visual, and that was with everything.” That attitude switch-up brought Ciara into a new style era: daring crop tops, eye-shading hoodies. “You would stop the camera if the hoodie placement wasn’t right,” she says, very seriously.
Another new frontier for Ciara’s style? Wigs. And that came with the 2005 BET Awards. As well as a flowing printed Cavalli skirt with a chunky bedazzled belt, a suite of bangles, and a classic white tank top, Ciara wore a long, toffee blonde wig. “I was on those laces before the laces was a lace,” she laughs. Wearing a skirt was also new for the artist, who was most comfortable in track pants. Slowly, things were getting cuter and more feminine.
That more sensual, sexy sense of style was captured on stage at the VMAs in 2005, where we see her onstage in a black mini dress with knee-high black boots beside Missy Elliott, who is dressed in contrasting all-white—here, they won big for the iconic “Lose Control” music video.
The 2006 Grammys took things up a notch again, with Ciara wearing a white chiffon-layered Dolce Gabbana dress. It was her second time. “I’d never worn a dress like this in my life, and I feel like on nights that are rare, you gotta be rare,” she says. “I like this girl, I like when I look at her I can see this evolution in me at that time.”
2009’s “Like A Boy” music video saw Ciara get to play with both the masculine and feminine aspects of her style. “I remember someone on set telling me I needed to be more sexy, and to me, the sexy was dressing like a boy,” she says. Experimenting with the double standards she sings about, Ciara dresses in both a sexy white pleated mini-dress and sharp suiting. Working with director Diane Martel was a turning point. “She knew how to help me speak to the world how I wanted to visually,” says Ciara.
For the 2019 Met Gala, following the “Camp: Notes on Fashion” theme, Ciara opted for a sparkling green, extreme cut-out custom Peter Dundas dress. It was her hair in gargantuan afro puffs that stole the show. “It’s giving Diana Ross in Studio 54,” she says. “Being a black woman, we’re empowered through our hair…wearing it boldly, wearing it confidently. This is hands down one of my favorite looks I’ve done of all time.” The dress ripped, but Peter got a needle and thread and sewed her up in the bathroom—no one was to know. Over the years, Ciara and the designer have formed a close bond, and she still often wears his designs.
More red carpets and starry affairs were to come for Ciara to cement her showstopping style. The 2019’s American Music Awards was “a dream come true”—she had always wanted to host, but it was also when she found out she was pregnant. For the occasion, she wore a dramatic, all-over leopard couture look by Ashi Studio. Next was in 2023 for the Recording Academy Honors presented by the Black Music Collective, where she wore a sleek, hooded black gown by Kwame Adusei. “I love supporting emerging designers,” Ciara says. “For nights like this, when you’re celebrating Black culture and music, I thought it was important to highlight a Black designer.”
Then there’s the 2024 CFDA Awards, because “there’s nothing cooler than going on a CFDA date night with Vera Wang.” In a tank top, tuxedo style wrap trousers, and boots she designed herself, a new style of glam sees Ciara with “Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn energy” with a soft, chic up-do. But the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party outfit is her favorite red carpet look ever. She wears a glittering peach, feathery dress by DSquared2. It was “love at first sight” a la fashion for Ciara in a swishy, dynamic, dramatic look. “The energy I felt…I felt like I was jamming to Chic in my head all night,” she says.
2023 was a megawatt maternity look, in a fluffed up white coat and bump-exposing glitter two-piece, carrying her fourth child. It’s a look that reflects her thinking as both a mom and a fashion lover. “Being a woman that’s pregnant in our world, you don’t have to become someone different,” she says astutely. “I remember the first time I had a baby I was thinking, ‘how do I be me, CiCi, the artist, and be myself creatively, but also embrace this journey that I’m going on as a mom?’”
“You don’t have to stop and lose yourself in the process of creating a new life,” Ciara adds. “It’s a beautiful thing. So when it comes to fashion, I want to have fun. I want to dress this belly up!” Even with the heels? Worth it.
New York Fashion Week is where Ciara gets playful, and in 2024, she wore layers of suave plaids and checks by Willy Chavarria. “He really understands tomboy sexy,” she says. “I felt real fly this night.”
Rounding off her life so far in looks is the forthcoming album cover for CiCi. “In album years, I’m turning 21,” Ciara says. On the stark, sleek cover, she wears all-black, with a 3D breastplate that represents a layer of armor and inner strength. “Sometimes, I have to be tough, even when I don’t feel like it,” Ciara says. “I’m navigating the waters of a man’s world…there’s so many things I’ve felt on the journey…I’ll always look back at taking ownership of my journey.”
CiCi energy abounds—whether elevated androgynous or sensual and feminine, Ciara’s looks are always stage-ready. And as Ciara says, “I hope you guys see we really do get better with time.”
Director: Symone Ridgell
Director of Photography: Céline Layous
Editor: Michael Suyeda
Producer: Chase Lewis
Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg
Assistant Camera: Chris McElroy
Gaffer: Kishan Patel
Audio: Paul Cornett
Production Assistant: Brock Spitaels
Production Assistant: Fernando Barajas
Production Coordinator: Tanía Jones
Production Manager: David Alvarez Paz
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew
Supervising Editor: Kameron Key
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Global Entertainment Director: Sergio Kletnoy
Director, Content Production: Rahel Gebreyes
Senior Director, Digital Video: Romy van den Broeke
Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson
VP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri
Filmed on Location: The Hollywood Roosevelt
Florist: The Empty Vase
