24 Looks That Take “Fancy” & Flip It On Its Head

When you think of a ball, images of luxe banquet halls and Beauty and the Beast-style, floor-length gowns immediately come to mind. But this is 2016, and nothing is as it used to be. This held especially true at Afropunk's first annual Fancy Dress Ball in Los Angeles this past weekend. The Brooklyn-based music festival decided to put its stylish show-going crowd to the test in a new fancy setting on the opposite coast — and the results were just as impressive as they were at its summer sister.

But again, just because we're talking about getting dressed up doesn't mean the looks ahead are your typical party dress-and-heels ensembles. In fact, this crowd looks well aware that style rules are meant to be broken. Here, we saw jeans and patterned jumpsuits, extra-wide bell-bottoms, and some pretty sick outerwear (read: vintage fur coats, patent trenches, vintage kimonos, and power blazers) — and not a tulle skirt or sweetheart neckline in sight.

Basically, this was one major dose of fearless-dressing inspiration, and with a full calendar of seasonal get-togethers ahead, it couldn't have come at a better time. Click through to see how 24 women take the notion of "fancy" and completely flip it on its head.