Earlier this week, Kim Kardashian arrived in Paris—not for fashion week, but to testify about being bound, held at gunpoint, and robbed of $10 million in cash and valuables (including her $4 million engagement ring) by a group of armed thieves, who broke into her hotel room dressed as police officers in October 2016.

We’ve come to expect spectacle from Kardashian, and the jewelry heist trial was no exception. She arrived at the Assize Court decked out in a spring 1995 John Galliano skirt-suit outfitted with a cinched waist, strong shoulders, and peplum. She didn’t stop at the prize vintage: Kardashian added a whopping $1.5 million Samer Halimeh necklace and an $8,100 Briony Raymond ear cuff, quite literally dripping in diamonds to speak at her diamond theft trial.

That she refused to water down her over-the-top fashion sense for court was consistent with a woman who has built an empire sharing her private life. Dressing conservatively for this trial wouldn’t only be inauthentic to Kardashian, but it would cast her as meek. In wearing an eye-catching outfit and spectacular jewels, she took control over her image and the narrative it conveyed, even as she recounted the harrowing experience to the court. “I forgive you for what had taken place,” she told the robbers. “But it doesn’t change the emotion, the trauma, and the way my life is forever changed.” Kardashian told the court that she feared her sister would discover her murdered, and that she pleaded with her assailants, “I have babies, I have to make it home, I have babies.” Perhaps, for Kardashian, this fashion choice felt protective or poetic.

Kardashian’s extravagant diamonds weren’t the first time the public has consumed—grimly or voyeuristically—what celebrities and people in the public eye wear to court, and it certainly won’t be the last. In February 2025, A$AP Rocky was found not guilty in a felony assault trial. Throughout the nearly four-week-long court proceedings, Rocky retained his reputation as one of the most stylish celebrities, showing up every day in impeccably tailored suits: pinstripes, trench coats, structured shoulders, and wide legs. He was so well-dressed—and in so much Saint Laurent—that his morning walks to the courthouse may as well have been an ad campaign.

DUTCH/Bauer-Griffin

BACKGRID USA

In September 2024, Justin Timberlake arrived at the Sag Harbor municipal court to plead guilty to driving while impaired, for which he was arrested in June. (The charge came with a 90-day license suspension, 25 hours of community service, and a $500 fine.) The incident was heavily memed thanks to reports that the arresting officer didn’t know who the singer was, which came to light mid-arrest when Timberlake muttered, “This is going to ruin the tour.” When asked what tour, he said, “The world tour.”

With so much public attention on the case, Timberlake and his stylist, Jason Bolden, surely put consideration into his court attire. He wore a black crewneck T-shirt underneath a black V-neck cardigan with brown trousers, and leather shoes. But most surprising was his choice of accessory: a double strand of pearls. Timberlake has been wearing traditionally feminine jewelry lately, as have the likes of Harry Styles, Usher, Shawn Mendes, A$AP Rocky, and Pharrell Williams—a growing trend among male actors and musicians. The pearl necklace in particular has become a softboy-coded accessory. It’s also a relatively new symbol of Timberlake’s onstage persona. But is court really the place for an emblem of his popstar style?