Tate McRae Outfits That Seriously Missed The Mark

Tate McRae is a very Gen Z pop star. She is a reality-TV dancer who skyrocketed to pop stardom through internet virality, after posting her ballad "You Broke Me First" to YouTube during the pandemic. Although she's still in the early days of her career, the "Revolving Door" singer has made many a fashion faux pas. After all, McRae has a lot on her plate. She's a singer, a songwriter, and a dancer. So, it'd be harsh to blame her for not being a professional fashionista too.

"I didn't think her stage outfits were flattering to her figure," said a fan on McRae's dedicated Reddit page. "Whoever is her stylist needs to be fired." Indeed, McRae has had a few stylists in her short career. Siena Montesano, Cameron Quittner, Joanie Del Santo, and Brett Alan Nelson have all had a hand in the singer's style. It's a style that sits somewhere between a professional ice hockey player and Britney Spears, an interesting mix that doesn't always land. The high turnover of stylists can't have helped McRae in finding her fashion footing. As they say, a camel is a horse designed by a committee.

"As a dancer, you want to be able to do everything, so the comfortability part of it is so important," said the triple-threat star when speaking to Harper's Bazaar in February 2025. "Which is why I end up going more sporty a lot of the time because I'm just like, 'Screw the fashion, let me dance!'" However, as much as it pains us to say it, McRae's devil-may-care attitude and ever-changing stylists mean her 'fits often seriously miss the mark.

When Canadian pop singer Tate McRae took to the Lollapalooza stage in 2021, she was still in her teens and still finding what style worked for her. A personal style is a result of self-discovery and experience – it's not the sort of thing that can be fixed with an expensive outfit. However, that's the trap that McRae fell into at the festival when she wore a monogrammed, primary colored Gucci windbreaker with matching shorts that screamed money, not style. While no longer available, the jacket alone goes for about $2,000.

"Walking into this industry, you get a lot of different people telling you what kind of style you need to have and what kind of person you need to be," McRae told Elle Canada in 2025. "If I just walked out and felt cool, that's what I would usually throw on," she said of her on-stage outfits in the past. "So, it was usually pretty sporty, but a touch of a feminine side to it." With this look, the "Sports car" singer, still in the embryonic stage of her career, didn't have the sporty-feminine vibe that she'd later become famous for. In 2021, she certainly knew how to sing, but she didn't yet know how to put an outfit together.

"I'm so honored to be a Canadian," Tate McRae told GQ in February 2024. "You want to make your country proud, so it's always cool when I get to talk about it and bring it back to my hometown." However, her need to show love to her homeland and ice hockey (McRae was an honorary captain at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game) means she isn't always the best at dressing for the occasion, like ... who wears hockey gloves on stage? Well, McRae did on her "Are We Flying Tour" in 2023.

In an Instagram post from her stop in Denver, McRae showed off her stage look. "This outfit perfectly exemplifies my desire to blend my masculine and feminine fashion tastes," she told People. "I wore a fun metallic latex top from Miaou, black basketball shorts, Bonnie Clyde Angel sunglasses, and, of course, my hockey glove that I wear for the first song each show." If she had been wearing her personalized T8 hockey jersey, as she'd done on other tour dates, it would've been a cohesive look. Instead, it looked like McRae had an ice hockey match at 6 p.m. and a rave at 10 p.m.

The hockey glove was a mainstay throughout the tour and, in 2023, she revealed why. "My family was a very motivated and sporty family, so hockey was a big deal to us," she whispered in ASMR tones to W Magazine. "I thought it was cool. And so it's been very fun to play around with my fashion." But the hockey homages that missed the mark didn't end there. 

Tate McRae is guilty of yet more inappropriate ice hockey outfitting on her "Think Later" album cover. She made a serious error: The hockey pads that displayed the album's name were the wrong way around. "If she had time to think now, she would have put the words on the correct pads," a Canadian X user wrote in response to the cover art. "Can't wait for her new album, 'Later Think' though." Another X user wrote, "Pads on the wrong legs, as a goalie myself this is so frustrating."

You may be thinking, "Hockey, again!?" Well, as we've covered, McRae is an outspoken ice hockey fan, and she even dated NHL star Cole Sillinger from 2021 to early 2023. "Think Later" was then released at the end of that year. But what really went down with McRae and Sillinger? In 2023, the "​​hurt my feelings" singer confirmed they called it quits in the most Gen Z way possible when she deleted all photos of herself and the Columbus Blue Jackets player from her social media. A year later, Sillinger was forced to deny rumors that he had cheated during their romance. So, were the hockey pads a subtle dig at her ex? McRae says no.

"I still have good relationships with my exes," she told radio personality Eliott King. "I'm not bashing them. Even the song 'exes,' it sounds like it's a 'diss your ex' record, but it mostly is like dissing myself. It kind of talks about how bad I am in a relationship and just all the things that I do to sometimes self sabotage." As her sophomore album's cover showed, she also self sabotaged with her style.

Despite it being a controversial trend, the use of color and pattern clashing can lead to some really great outfits. However, Tate McRae's outfit at the 2024 iHeartRadio awards was not one of them. Her custom stage ensemble by Heather Picchiottino featured a bright orange corset, matching boots-cum-leg warmers, and, most bafflingly, a distressed camouflage jacket. At the end of the day, there is no lawbook for fashion, but there are fashion police. "My issue is that besides being visually boring," said one Reddit commentator of McRae's Picchiottino-designed looks. "These outfits are poorly constructed. It looks like something they would sell at Shein or Forever 21, both in quality and aesthetics."

McRae has been open about the struggle to get her on-stage outfits right. "Stage looks have always been tricky because I need to make sure I can move and dance on stage at the same time as pop under the lights," the "Miss possessive" singer told People. "I also really wanted to find outfits that encompass all sides of me. I can be a bit of a tomboy, but I also love feminine pieces. I really love vintage, but at the same time, I have been excited about bringing more designer pieces into my fold." It's this kind of hodgepodge of ideas that results in an outfit as perplexing as McRae's iHeartRadio ensemble.

It was a bad day at the office for Tate McRae's stylist at the 2024 iHeart Radio Awards. Her on-stage look baffled, and her red carpet look wasn't much better. The "So You Think You Can Dance" alumna wore a gold Rabanne mini dress (read: nightie) with Jimmy Choo heels, and she accessorized with SHAY jewelry. But despite the designer labels, this look was more suited to an early night in than a big night out.

McRae is far from the first celeb to don the lingerie look on the red carpet, but her 'fit missed the mark because it wasn't elevated. It was just gold lingerie, whereas the likes of Rooney Mara and the stunning Kendall Jenner took the basis of lingerie and turned it into something red carpet-ready via reconstruction. The issue with McRae's look is that, aside from the gold-ness of the outfit, it's more apt for cozying up with a book than singing killer hooks. Perhaps McRae just loves lingerie. This is an artist with a song called "Purple lace bra," after all.

In attending Coachella in '23, Tate McRae wore a replica of Michael Jordan's famous no. 23 jersey. However, she was in the wrong state. As a noted sports fan, no one should know better than McRae that sports team jerseys should be treated tentatively. It's one of sport's unwritten rules that you don't wear a jersey of a team you don't support, particularly one you don't support when you're not even in their town. So, McRae pulling up to the California-based Coachella in a Chicago Bulls-inspired jersey wasn't the best idea. 

But her Coachella look not only missed the mark because it lacked an understanding of important context, it was also a very basic look compared to most Coachella attendees. When other celebs are wearing meticulously crafted boho or sequinned cowgirl core to the festival, McRae looked rather underdressed in her basketball jersey and side bag. McRae admitted as much in an Instagram post displaying the outfit, writing "this pic ruins my feed but i'm at coachella so who cares."

Tate McRae and sports jerseys just don't seem to mix. She made an equally egregious misstep in Milan, wearing a custom GCDS bustier consisting of jerseys from Italian soccer teams: SSC Napoli, AC Milan, AS Roma, and Juventus FC. A cursory look at Italian soccer shows there is no love lost between these teams, and they certainly wouldn't want to be stitched together into a single jersey. It'd be like McRae wearing a jersey from her beloved Calgary Flames when she's in Edmonton or Vancouver.

It's a look that is sacrilege among soccer fans and the subject of much vitriol. As one fan on Reddit commented, "No self respect wearing s*** like that," in response to a photo of a half-and-half shirt featuring Liverpool and Plymouth Argyle — two British clubs without any historic rivalry. Another commenter suggested the fan should be banned. Some went even further in their calls for a punishment, citing the death penalty. Clearly, sports team fans take public displays of support seriously. So, next time McRae's stylist offers her a mix-matched soccer jersey, she should do her homework before throwing it on.

Pop stars are often accused of re-heating each other's nachos, but rarely do they reheat the nachos of a fictional literary character. That's exactly what Tate McRae did with this Sherlock Holmes-inspired look. The dancer-turned-singer wore a Holmes-coded deerstalker hat, black raincoat, and black boots. The deerstalker hat is synonymous with the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle character as he appeared in 1800s illustrations and, of course, Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of the character in BBC's "Sherlock." Certainly not the typical reference point for a Gen Z popstar.

"As I'm getting older, I do want to show a bit more of my feminine side," McRae told British Vogue in 2023. "And so I've been working with my genius stylist Joanie [Del Santo] to create this sporty but sexy style — that maybe sometimes feels a little strange and all over the place, but it feels 100% like me for the first time." This look was neither sporty or feminine, but it certainly was all over the place. Her mismatched raincoat, hat, and boots made it look like McRae was doing laundry when she suddenly realized she had to attend Capital FM's Jingle Ball.

Tate McRae has often been touted as the new Britney Spears. She's even addressed the suggestion, telling The Independent, "I find the Britney Spears comparisons so flattering and scary." Her fans agree, too. One user on X posted, "Tate McRae is definitely Britney Spears's daughter. She knows how to serve." We just hope that the Canadian's career doesn't have as many tragic details as Spears'. It's a comparison that can also be made sartorially. The "2 hands" songstress has donned the same clothes as Spears and also replicated an iconic Spears outfit to an awards show, a dress that put McRae among our worst-dressed stars at the 2024 VMAs. McRae went all Spears again at the 11th annual We Can Survive concert, an event that raises awareness for mental health issues. Here, McRae referenced the "Toxic" singer with an on-stage military-inspired look.  

But what worked about Spears' look was that she went all-in on her military style. She adorned her stage gear with faux Medals of Honor and army patches, with the outfit even looking like it was distressed by a war zone. McRae's iteration, on the other hand, was too clean and contrived. It comprised a camo corset and three-quarter length cargo pants that both looked like they hadn't been worn once prior to the event. Moreover, she failed to keep the look cohesive with a pair of pristine white boots on her feet. In 2024, camo was very much en vogue, like it was in Spears' Y2K heyday. In fact, dressing like Spears became somewhat of a trend in itself in 2024. But while McRae looked like she was hopping on a trend, Spears made it her own. 

In the summer of 2024, Tate McRae stopped by New York City as part of her "Think Later" tour. After the concert, she wore a sequinned camisole top, ballooned black pants, and, most notably, a jacket with pink furry sleeves. However, her new beau didn't get the memo sartorially. The Kid LAROI, whose real name is Charlton Kenneth Jeffery Howard, wore a much more muted grey jacket, white T-shirt, and black shades. While McRae looked ready to peacock on a night out, her other half looked ready to get some groceries. It's always important to dress for the occasion, but these two looked like they were dressing for two separate occasions.

During her concert at Madison Square Garden, the "It's ok I'm ok" artist was joined by a very special guest. You guessed it, it was The Kid LAROI. On stage, the pair indulged in some PDA and performed the Australian rapper's 2021 hit "Without You." McRae and The Kid LAROI's budding relationship is a celeb love story in the making. It's just a shame their style wasn't quite as in sync as their vocals. The couple have been compared to a Gen Z David and Victoria Beckham, but if they're going to become an iconic fashion couple, the pop stars are going to need to coordinate their outfits with Posh and Becks' precision.

England isn't known for its sunny climes. So, we're a bit baffled as to why Tate McRae decided to wear sunglasses indoors for her performance of "greedy" — especially in London's indoor O2 Arena. Alongside her sunglasses, McRae sported a gold sequinned bra, a fashion-forward leather gym belt, billowing blue tracksuits, and grey sneakers. To McRae's credit, she achieved her goal of blending femininity and her tomboy roots — even the backup dancers wore outfits inspired by boxing gear – but some fans were still left dissatisfied. "She needs better stage costumes. It's a [bit] pedestrian still," said one critic on Reddit in response to the outfit.

McRae ditching the shades just 30 seconds into her performance suggests a lack of confidence in the look. By the time her sunnies had gone, she'd barely had a chance to throw one of her signature and, often, jaw-droppingly impressive dance moves. But with 3.1 million viewers watching the awards ceremony at home, her short-lived sunglasses were certainly noticed.