Billie Eilish Didn’t Just Win Five Grammys

Even before Billie Eilish took home five Grammys on Sunday, she had already won the night, at least as far as the game of super-one-upmanship that is the red carpet was concerned.

She did it not by opting out, like Alicia Keys (who also wore four different looks in her role as host, plus a fifth one to perform) or the presenter Cynthia Erivo. She was perfectly willing to play the game: to show up relatively early in the parade, to pose for the paparazzi, to enlist a big brand (Gucci).

But in doing so, she also changed the rules and thus swept the field — much as she does with her music and her approach to stardom. It was a fitting choice (no pun intended) on a night that took place in the shadow of Kobe Bryant’s death, and in an arena that, as Ms. Keys said in her opening speech, “Kobe built”: the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Because what Ms. Eilish did not do was engage with the two most common stereotypes of female celebrities on the red carpet. She didn’t play the siren, all va-va-voom curves and legs, like Camilla Cabello in a short, strapless LBD — with sheer ruffled overskirt — by Versace, Saweetie in sparkling body-skimming Moschino, or even Lizzo, in white strapless Versace (white was the color of the night).