Entertainment

Kathy Griffin Had Fashion Missteps of her Own Before Joining 'Fashion Police'

Kathy Griffin has come a long way. Back in her early stand-up days, when she was starring in My Life on the D-List, she could barely find a designer dress that worked. But as she became a reality TV star and started spending more and more time in the public eye, it seems experience eventually started to hone her sense of style. Now Kathy Griffin is joining The Fashion Police, proving she's a certified fashion expert, and will be trying to fill Joan Rivers' enormous stilettos with her own cutting commentary.

We know that Kathy is more than capable of roasting any celebrity based solely on how well she's burned them in her stand-up and on talk shows. But she's also made enough dicey fashion choices that I'm sure she's worked up some choice barbs about too-tight dresses and ill-fitting wigs. But in case you're not familiar with Kathy's style transformation, trust me — she's gone from fashion wannabe to fashion guru in no time at all.

Image: Brian Bowen Smith/E! Entertainment

by Kayla Hawkins

'Suddenly Susan'

Okay, so Griffin wasn’t responsible for her outfits on Suddenly Susan, the sitcom where she got her start in Hollywood, but they did get her off to a rough start in the public eye. As the eccentric secretary, she was put in some pretty heinous costumes, like the white, satin, fringed outfit she worse to Susan’s wedding in the series finale.

Image: NBC

Stand-Up Specials

Griffin’s stand up is aggressive, confrontational. So during her sets, she dresses like she’s going into battle. She used to use it as a chance to dress more casually — oftentimes in just a simple black shirt and jeans. Now that she’s a record-holder, she gets a little more dressed up, but still sticks to simple black looks.

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Red Carpet, 2004-2006

When she first gained notoriety for her stand up and her new Bravo reality show (one of the first hit shows to come out of the network), Griffin used to show up on the red carpet wearing gowns that weren’t super luxe or flattering. She did tend to stick to good shapes — like the neckline on this dress — but there was room for improvement when it came to style.

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Red Carpet 2007-2010

This is a transitional look from a few years ago. She’s not in the hyper-structured, lacquered looks of the late ’00s, but also missing the finesse and fine tailoring of the ’10s.

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Red Carpet 2010-2014

During this period, Kathy went through a total style transformation. No longer in dresses from no-name designers or ones that didn’t really fit, now she was showing up at the Grammys and Emmys looking amazingly tailored with a great head of hair and makeup.

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New Year's Eve

In the past few years, Kathy and Anderson Cooper have become the newest New Year’s Eve hosting stars. She always gets him to laugh, and he manages to stop her from swearing. And they manage to keep their outfits classy, but fun.

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The 'Girls' Premiere

Just last week, Kathy showed up at the Girls premiere party in a decidedly mixed look. The dress is fantastic, and totally appropriate for the event — it almost looks like she took the color scheme from one of Lena Dunham’s tattoos. Unfortunately, the hairstyle doesn’t live up to the dress (those bangs!), and the makeup isn’t photographing well. So even as a newly minted style expert, Kathy isn’t totally infallible.

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