Inappropriate Outfits Julianne Hough Has Been Caught Wearing
When Julianne Hough joined the cast of "Dancing with the Stars" in 2007, it was like seeing Ballroom Beauty Barbie brought to life — she had the big blond hair, the flawless tan, and a colorful wardrobe that sparkled and shimmered. She even possessed the perpetually pointy-toed doll's preference for wearing high heels, so it's a travesty that she wasn't asked to join the "Barbie" movie cast. "My foot has actually molded into this shape," Hough told Footwear News of her angled arches. "I started wearing heels at 9 years old. Like in a pair of 3.5-inch heels, my foot just kind of feels better."
The Kinrgy Dance Fitness creator's feet might be forever Barbie-fied, but Hough no longer dresses like the doll. As her role on "DWTS" shifted to judge and then host, she re-evaluated and elevated her style. Basically, it became less about glitz and more about glam. "I was like, I want to make sure that I'm still part of the same show — meaning I don't want to go so far away that people are like, 'this doesn't make sense,'" Hough revealed to WWD. "So, there's still an element of glamor, while also trying to add on a little bit more sophisticated, elevated fashion," she said. Unfortunately, this strategic approach to her style hasn't spared her from viewer complaints about her outfits.
Channeling the 'Material Girl' in a lot of material
By now, "Dancing with the Stars" viewers shouldn't find it shocking to see Julianne Hough rocking underwear on the dance floor. For a Season 7 performance with her brother, Derek Hough, she wore an outfit that was pretty much a bra and panty set with a matching filmy sash in the same bright shade of pink. She was far more covered up 15 years later when she dressed up like Madonna for Music Video Night. Pink underwear was part of her outfit again, but this time she wore her satin skivvies over a pair of black pinstripe pants. Her costume included a matching tailored jacket with strategic cutouts that revealed flashes of her pointy bra.
Hough's look was inspired by a Jean Paul Gaultier design that Madonna sported during her "Blond Ambition" tour in 1990; the Material Girl's outfit included that famous cone-shaped bra. While the copycat costume was a spot-on style homage that fit the night's theme, some fans weren't happy with Hough expressing her admiration for the "Dress You Up" singer in such a manner. In response to a transformation video the host shared on Instagram, one of her followers wrote, "I know it's typical of Madonna, but for a family show, she could have not added the pink underwear over the suit." Another commenter's critique started out promising but ended on a low note: "You are so beautiful, but this outfit was trashy and unbecoming of a host."
Fans didn't go gaga over Julianne Hough's drop-waist gown
When Julianne Hough returned to "Dancing with the Stars" as a co-host in 2023, she brought stylist Jennifer Mazur with her. For the Season 32 finale, Mazur helped Hough procure a black Versace gown that featured a drop waist and a sheer bodice designed to look like a corset with visible boning. "We wanted something that was a 'wow' moment, and also still chic and glamorous, and in a way that doesn't feel too glitzy," Hough told WWD. Now, Hough has danced in backless dresses that dip down daringly low, such as the slinky LBD that she wore for her Season 5 rumba with Hélio Castroneves. However, some viewers clutched their pearls over the more conservative back of the gown because the sheer material extended down to her backside. "You are beautiful @juleshouogh, but why do you wear an outfit with half of your rear end showing? Really!!" one Instagram complaint read. Another person commented, "I felt like the skirt was slipping in the back, like it needed pulled up."
It wasn't just the "DWTS" audience that had issues with Hough's dress choice. She'd made the mistake of wearing it a few months after Lady Gaga rocked it on the red carpet at the Oscars, which apparently gave the "Hold My Hand" singer ownership of the design in her Little Monsters' minds. Reacting to the style steal, one Gaga fan tweeted, "This should be illegal, no?"
Julianne Hough's blackface fiasco
In 2013, Julianne Hough gave ET an update on where she was at in her fashion evolution journey at the time. "I don't wear as short of shorts now, or show my belly. I wear less padded bras," she said. She also revealed that she was taking it easier on the spray tan, quipping, "I can actually see the real color of my skin now." That Halloween, Hough didn't ditch her new conservative style when choosing a costume — she rocked a baggy orange jumpsuit. Unfortunately, she did decide to cover up her natural skin color again. To dress up like the character Crazy Eyes from "Orange is the New Black," she wore blackface. This ill-considered addition to her costume naturally caused outrage. "She showed her ignorant side," stated Wendy Williams on "The Wendy Williams Show." She also said that Hough had to have known that her costume was offensive, adding, "Which means she's not just less than smart off the cuff; she's less than smart even when she thinks about it."
Hough issued an apology on X, formally known as Twitter, explaining that she wasn't trying to be racist. She revealed that she was simply an "OITNB" fan and especially liked Crazy Eyes. The actor who played the character, Uzo Aduba, didn't react to the scandal by calling for the "DWTS" host to be canceled. Instead, she told E! News, "She apologized and I feel like we can all move on."
Did she get in the Halloween spirit too early?
Julianne Hough just can't win. She shows a little skin; fans get unhappy. But when she rocks a frock that almost completely covers her up, she's still not safe from mockery. For an October 2023 episode of "Dancing with the Stars," she wore an elegant Valentino gown that featured a collar and a large quantity of fabric that cascaded straight down over her body. Because it was white, there were jokes aplenty about the garment being a design straight from the linen closet. Per The U.S. Sun, Derek Hough even shared a video in which he asked his sibling, "Jules, why are you wearing a bedsheet tonight?" On Instagram, some fans also suggested that Hough's outfit seemed inspired by spooky season. "You accidentally put your ghost outfit on, Halloween episode is next week!," one of her followers joked. And with her problematic Halloween history, the last thing Hough needed was to be negatively associated with the holiday in another way.
Getting "DWTS" to say yes to the flowy dress was a challenge. Stylist Jennifer Mazur told WWD that the production team felt like it clashed with the burgundy suit that Julianne's co-host, Alfonso Ribeiro, was wearing that night. A lighting change proved to be the solution. "It was too important of a dress to miss the opportunity. And it was quite pricey," said Mazur. The fashion fight paid off when the divisive dress became a top-trending search on Google.
The straps that scandalized fans
There was a time when Julianne Hough had a "modesty is the best policy" approach to her "Dancing with the Stars" wardrobe. While reviewing some of her past looks with Allure in 2015, she expressed regret over a turquoise beaded ensemble she wore for a 2008 dance with her celeb partner that season, "Hannah Montana" star Cody Linley. "I tried to be modest and appropriate, so I put a nude bodysuit everywhere. Afterward, I was like, I should have just worn a two-piece," she said. But sometimes, those nude bodysuits come in really handy. Without one, the sparkly, strappy look she wore for one of her "Move Live On Tour" performances would have been far too racy; when she turned around, she revealed that one of the straps of her harness-like costume was designed to fit her like a thong.
As it was, the bondage-lite outfit still bothered some fans. "The outfit could be a little more modest. She basically looks naked. ... She doesn't have to wear this outfit to get respect as a dancer," one critic complained on Instagram. Another wrote, "Trashy! Lookin a little too Miley Cyrus and the respect level just dropped." However, others defended the outfit by pointing out that most of Hough's body was actually covered with material. It was also a trendy look; one person even compared it to the bodysuit Pink wore while performing aerial acrobatics at the 2010 Grammy Awards.
Scrooges said 'bah humbug' to her sparkly bodysuit
Some "Dancing with the Stars" fans thought Julianne Hough deserved to be on Santa's naughty list after she wore a festive red bodysuit on a December 2023 episode of the show. It featured a plunging neckline and a large cutout on the back, and she paired it with matching thigh-high boots. She wore the sparkly outfit to perform "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" with Alfonso Ribeiro, and their song-and-dance number seemed to be a hit with most "DWTS" viewers who weighed in on Instagram. However, there were a few style Scrooges who didn't like Julianne's outfit. "She forgot her skirt," one person snarked on Instagram. "I love Julianne but I thought this is a Disney show? Like family friendly?" read another comment.
Other fans loved the performance so much that it had them begging for a "DWTS" holiday special. But when Julianne and Derek Hough teamed up for the 2019 television event "Holidays with the Houghs," she made a wardrobe choice that was far worse than any of her slightly revealing ensembles that some fans have gotten up in arms over. Despite having never worn them before, she decided to dance in roller skates. On "The Kelly Clarkson Show," she revealed that she ended up bursting the capillaries in her forehead after performing a dangerous spinning stunt.
She copied Courtney Love
In 2010, E! Entertainment's "Fashion Police" wrote Julianne Hough up for the crime of copying one of Courtney Love's outfits when she attended the American Music Awards. The two women were featured in the E! show's "B***h Stole My Look" segment after they wore the same black lace Marchesa dress. Panelist George Kotsiopoulos hated the oversized, floppy handbag that Hough was carrying with hers, while Kelly Osbourne observed that Love's dress appeared to fit her much better. "It doesn't drown her," she stated. Members of the panel also agreed that Hough made a huge mistake by wearing the same dress as the "Celebrity Skin" singer just one month later. "I'm sure she was like, 'I'm going to look better than her anyway, I don't care,'" Kotsiopoulos suggested. However, the panel and everyone else in the studio unanimously agreed that Love was the winner of that fashion faceoff.
The style misstep didn't end Hough's love affair with Marchesa. She wore another semi-sheer, black gown from the designer for the 2015 Emmy Awards, and it also wasn't a hit with some fashion critics. For the crime of sporting visible underwear and looking too gothic, ET placed her on its worst-dressed list. But Hough just couldn't quit the designer; when she married Brooks Laich in 2017, she wore a strapless Marchesa gown. However, she opted for white that time around.
Her Golden Globes gown wasn't built for groovin'
When you hear that Julianne Hough has suffered a wardrobe malfunction, you might automatically assume that it happened during one of her dance numbers on "Dancing with the Stars." With all that moving around, slips and rips are simply a hazard of the job. However, the entertainer has done quite a bit of damage to dresses that were not designed to dance in.
After the 2013 Golden Globes, Hough changed into a figure-hugging Jenny Packham gown to go after party-hopping. But when she attempted to dance in the pink dress, the front seams of the garment's two satin side panels split. This created two frayed, thigh-high slits, which Hough showed off on Instagram. "I love to dance regardless of how expensive a dress may be ... You can't hold me down!!!," she wrote. But Hough doesn't have to be busting a move to bust a seam. The back of her gold Zuhair Murad dress similarly split open while she was accepting her top new artist award at the 2009 ACM Awards because it was so tight. "They literally sewed me into this dress," she told Yahoo! Life. When she stepped onto the stage, she attempted to hold the back of her gown closed. "Well, it's a good thing my dress ripped, because now I have something else to think about," she quipped to the audience.
She thought her undies were too outrageous for CMT
When Julianne Hough released her debut country music album in 2008, she told American Noise that she was embracing her squeaky-clean rep. "I've made choices and decided that in fact I want to be a goody-two-shoes," she said. But two years later, she was trying to convince people that one of her music videos was too sexy for the CMT audience.
The video in question was for her song "Is That So Wrong." In it, she plays a Daisy Duke-clad country gal who moves into a massive apartment in the city that would make Carrie Bradshaw weep with envy. After having a celebratory glass of wine, she starts dancing around and strips down to her underwear. Eventually, she moves her solo dance party to her bed, where she flips around in her lavender bra and silk boxers before crawling on her headboard.
Ahead of performing the song at the 2010 Acoustic Christmas Concert in Baltimore, Hough told the audience, "Funny story. I shot a music video for it ... and [Country Music Television] kind of banned it," per The Washington Post. However, a CMT rep later pointed out to OnTheRedCarpet.com that the network had already aired Hough's video. While it was pulled from rotation, it wasn't because the powers that be had suddenly decided that it was scandalous. "We took it down shortly thereafter due to ongoing contract negotiations with Julianne's label, Universal Music Group," the rep explained.
Julianne Hough went bottomless on a boat
Spongebob Squarepants would have been horrified if he'd been on the same boat ride as Julianne Hough and her gal pals in 2016; there was not a Bikini Bottom in sight. Instead, there were three "full moons" and a setting sun in the snapshot that Hough shared on Instagram. But only one was a celestial body.
The "moons" in question were attached to the bodies of Hough and two of her friends, "The Vampire Diaries" star Nina Dobrev and "NCIS: Los Angeles" actor Milissa Sears. Hough and Dobrev were wearing bikini tops, while Sears had on a crop top. All three women were bottomless. Some of Hough's followers were overjoyed upon noticing this detail, while others were appalled. "I really don't see the point to show your bare a**es in that particular position. It's not beautiful, or flattering, it doesn't make a statement for anything meaningful," read one response to her post. Another commenter wrote, "Just knowing about the conservative background you came from, I'm sure your parents are embarrassed. I thought more of you than this. This is fun for you and people close to you but not appropriate to post for the media." The polarizing pic was taken during a trip to Idaho, where wakeboarding was one of the activities that Hough and her friends enjoyed. Luckily, Dobrev's buns weren't out when she wiped out.
Her fiery 'fit was too hot for some fans
For a 2014 "Dancing with the Stars" group number with the show's male professional dancers, Julianne Hough rocked a nude bodysuit with some sparkly appliques that looked a bit like flames, AI-generated handprints, or scarlet seaweed. The same snaky tendrils crept below her midsection, but most of her outfit appeared to be constructed out of pantyhose-like material. This gave the illusion that the appliques were stuck to her bare skin.
On stage, Val Chmerkovskiy almost dropped Hough during the dance — a disaster that would have dominated the conversation about their splashy routine. The pro dancer had previously dropped Hough during rehearsals and later told Glamour, "That was very traumatizing for me." Some viewers at home also found Hough's ballroom performance traumatic, but not because she came dangerously close to busting her head or breaking a bone. It was the same old song and dance when they took to social media to complain about her costume. "Sad to see you trying to prove something. Rely on your talents and not your wardrobe to prove that you are talented. You send the wrong message," read an Instagram comment. "Your lack of clothing distracted from your dance! Losing respect fast," another person remarked. But numerous others thought Hough looked smokin' hot and agreed that her performance was perfection — her ability to burn up the comments section may only be matched by her ability to set the dance floor on fire.