Considering her lewd MTV VMAs history, getting Miley Cyrus to host the hugely anticipated event was bound to stir up some controversy. And right on cue, the artist formerly known as Hannah Montana managed to spark off a series of arguments that had little to do with the music supposedly being celebrated. Seeing that these heated discussions will keep the VMAs trending long after the final credits, perhaps that’s what MTV intended all along.
First there was her very public, and very live, falling out with Nicki Minaj (although there is a suggestion that that particular war was staged). Then Cyrus took flak over her fashion sense. While her nipple slip didn’t cause much of a stir – Cyrus largely wore next to nothing anyway – an Australian fashion brand is said to be incensed by Cyrus’ plagiarism of their designs.
DI$COUNT UNIVER$E claim that some of Cyrus’ costumes, as well as the ones worn by her back-up dancers, are markedly similar to their range. One of their signature looks is to feature oversized parts of faces on their clothing.
Head DU designers Cami James and Nadia Napreychikov issued a statement on Instagram after the VMAs. They sounded rather hurt: “We are obviously distraught, and this couldn’t have come at a worse time as we are on our official last day of making the new collection, so we are trying our best to rise above and stay focused.
“We’ve kept our mouths closed about a lot of things in the past, but the one thing you can’t TAKE and get away with is someone’s IDENTITY. We know it might be risky for us career-wise to comment on this, but if we didn’t, it would mean that we stand for NOTHING. We will be discussing this soon.”
Clearly there is more to this than meets the eye: Cyrus was one of the first celebrities to champion the DU brand, back in 2013.
Also at issue was Miley’s “appropriation” of black culture.
Chance the Rapper took issue with Cyrus’ hosting performance, questioning her use of the word “mammy”, and her decision to style her hair in dreadlocks. The Twittersphere had a field day.
“Lord please tell me that Miley Cyrus didn't just abuse her whiteness and wore dreadlocks to the VMA's tell me this is all a bad dream?” read one tweet, while another critic wrote: “So Miley Cyrus has had 2 years to learn about cultural appropriation and decides blond dreadlocks are a good idea. Horrified.”
It’s a touchy subject, but one Cyrus clearly doesn’t have time for. The singer joined up with pal Rita Ora at an after party and recorded a series of silly videos saying “I don’t wear wigs” and captioning one "@ritaora this izzzzzz my hairrrrr!" – Entertainment Reporter