VMAs 2012 red carpet fashion: Rihanna wins big with pixie cut, Nicki Minaj loses with lacy, racy cat suit

Rihanna was the standout star on the MTV Video Music Awards rep carpet, drawing attention with her short cropped pixie cut with austere bangs.

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Rihanna was the standout star on the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards rep carpet, drawing attention with her short cropped pixie cut with austere bangs. As she entered the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the live broadcast on Thursday night, hosted by Kevin Hart, the pop princess wowed by pairing this major coiffure change with an almost angelic white gown.

“Rihanna is constantly experimenting with her personal style. She wears everything from the avant-garde to the seductively sexy and isn’t afraid to break the fashion rules — even if it means wearing white after Labor Day. The white, backless draped gown the pop star wore while posing for the paparazzi was nothing short of fabulous,” reports The Washington Post about the Bajan beauty’s stunning ensemble.

RELATED: Rihanna and Chris Brown kiss at VMAs

Many outlets labelled Rihanna one of the best dressed of the night.

While the red carpet of the VMAs is the perfect place to drum up attention, Rihanna has a thing or two to teach other celebrities about this craft.

She has perfected the art of stealing the spotlight by being a quick change artist. Stars like Nicki Minaj make a major mistake by trying to turn heads by striking the same note: extreme shock.

And Minaj’s shock tactics are wearing thin.

The rambunctious rapper donned yet another bodysuit and cotton candy wig for the music industry affair, this get up studded with red dots making an already suggestive outfit even more eye-catching. Yet Minaj managed to make what should have been daring appear yawn-worthy. For her this is just more of the same.

Even worse? “Nicki Minaj looked like an arachnid,” summarized StarPulse.com. Surely not the response she intended.

RELATED: Rihanna wins top honors at MTV VMAs

Could these two Caribbean queens get together before the next big event and trade style tips? Or rather, might the Barbados-born Rihanna take pity on Trinidadian Minaj and show her how to keep people both watching and wondering?

Let’s hope the fashionable singer won’t mind sharing her trade secrets.

On a more positive note, rapper Wiz Khalifa and his girlfriend Amber Rose took the occasion of the 2012 VMAs red carpet to flaunt her pregnant belly. Let’s wish those two expecting kids all the best!

Take a look the other looks rocked by black luminaries at the VMAs and tell us: Who is the best and the worst-dressed in your style book?

Follow Alexis Garrett Stodghill on Twitter at @lexisb.

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