Ranking aespa’s Black Mamba Stage Outfits

As a few of my friends here could tell you, I’m a big fan of aespa, SM’s new girl group. I’d consider myself a predebut fan, and my love for these girls has only grown throughout their debut era. Black Mamba SLAPS, the choreo is killer, and the content they’ve been releasing on YouTube is really entertaining.

One aspect of Black Mamba era that I have... opinions on is the styling. I’ve been watching all their live stages, and I’ve created a ranking of all their stage outfits. The main ranking is of the outfit sets, but for each live stage I’ll also be ranking the individual outfits.

Technically this is all my opinion, but I’m sure we’ll agree that for some of these stages, the styling decisions were questionable at best.

Also they might still have a few promotions left but they’ve started to reuse outfits so I feel okay about posting this now. There will be a few live stages missing to avoid repeats, but I’m fairly certain none of you have been following their promotions as much as I have, so you probably don’t care, so let’s just get started

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#12

11/24 The Show

These outfits are so ugly, they’re what inspired me to make this ranking in the first place. They hurt my eyes. I like Karina’s pants and that’s about it. Her top looks like a cheap swimsuit. Giselle’s top situation looks insane, and her shorts aren’t much better. I could maybe live with Ningning’s top is she wasn’t wearing tropical patterned shorts with it. Winter’s outfit might’ve been okay if they hadn’t put that weird vest thing on top of it. All together, this outfit set is loud, harsh, and gets worse the more I look at it.

Individual Ranking

1. Karina

2. Ningning

3. Giselle

4. Winter

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#11

SMTOWN Live Culture Humanity

This set is just as ugly as the last one, and the only thing that puts this one above is that it’s less chaotic. I think they were trying for snakeskin, but to me it comes off as cow print on everyone except Winter. The cut of these dresses is not flattering, and what’s up with the overall-looking pockets on Ningning? Points for efforts, I guess.

Individual Ranking

1. Winter

2. Giselle

3. Ningning

4. Karina

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#10

SBS Gayo Daejeon

Ningning looks great. The other three outfits are just unsettling. The colors look off, maybe because they look almost matte. Overall this outfit set just confuses me.

Individual Ranking

1. Ningning

2. Karina

3. Giselle

4. Winter

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#9

KBS Song Festival

There is so much going on here. Bows, sparkle, and floof galore. And none of them match. Nothing here matches at all, actually. Not the worst outfits ever, but they’re at least borderline ugly.

Individual Ranking

1. Karina

2. Winter

3. Giselle

4. Ningning

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#8

12/08 The Show

I would like to applaud this outfit set for at least being cohesive with its color scheme. The blue and silver pulls everything together. However, I hate Winter’s skirt, and Giselle’s outfit is pretty plain, especially compared to the others. Ningning’s outfit is cute but something about the top doesn’t look quite right, so that leaves Karina as the only one with a truly great outfit.

Individual Ranking

1. Karina

2. Giselle

3. Ningning

4. Winter

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#7

11/28 MBC

This outfit set is in the uncanny valley for me, bridging the gap between the bad and good, residing soundly in the alright. Nothing about it stands out as awful, but there is zero cohesion. Karina looks like a futuristic Barbie, Giselle looks like Hannah Montana, Ningning looks like she’s either going to a club or an 80s gym, and Winter is wearing... sweatpants? I don’t even know.

Individual Ranking

1. Karina

2. Ningning

3. Giselle

4. Winter

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#6

Debut Stage

Karina and Ningning’s outfits are top tier, Giselle’s outfit is fine, but what sort of monstrosity did they put poor Winter in? I hate everything about it. The color, the cut, the fit, EVERYTHING. It doesn’t go with the other outfits at all, so it’s not even like she just got stuck with the bad one of the group. I’m so confused. But the others are great so I’m still ranking it high.

Individual Ranking

1. Karina

2. Ningning

3. Giselle

4. Winter

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#5

11/29 Inkigayo

This outfit set is 4 for 4. All of them look amazing. The issue is that they’re not exactly cohesive. The only thing they have in common is that they’re all very sparkly. I’m not saying that they look bad together, because if that was true this would be ranked way lower. I really do like all the outfits, it just doesn’t seem like there was a lot of logic behind the set.

Individual Ranking

1. Ningning

2. Karina

3. Winter

4. Giselle

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#4

11/20 Music Bank

All of these outfits are super pretty, and the girls look beautiful in them. I just feel like they might be a little too dainty for the aggressive song. They look like ballerinas, which doesn’t exactly scream poisonous snake to me. But they’re SO pretty, I can’t really complain.

Individual Ranking

1. Karina

2. Ningning

3. Winter

4. Giselle

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#3

11/22 Inkigayo

This outfit set is almost perfect. ALMOST. All of the outfits individually are gorgeous, but all together, Giselle looks so out of place. The other three have black, nude, and silver outfits, and for some reason hers is navy? It’s still cute so I didn’t let it take down the set’s ranking too far, but it prevents it from being better than the first two.

Individual Ranking

1. Karina

2. Winter

3. Ningning

4. Giselle

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#2

11/27 Music Bank

This set really stood out to me when the live stage dropped. The neon green is stunning, and I love the harnesses. My only complaints are that the curl in Winter’s top looks a little strange, and that Giselle’s top looks a tiny tiny bit cheap.

Individual Ranking

1. Karina

2. Ningning

3. Winter

4. Giselle

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#1

12/31 MBC

I love that these outfits are very glam without being gaudy, something that a lot of the lower ranking sets failed at. All four of their outfits have a black base, which balances out the sparkle and pops of red. Whether individual or together, all four are beautiful.

Individual Ranking

1. Ningning

2. Karina

3. Giselle

4. Winter

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I know there probably aren’t many aespa fans here, but I needed to do something a little fun and silly to take my mind off recent events, so I hope you enjoyed this blog regardless!

Let me know if you had the same reactions to Black Mamba’s styling as I did. Let’s hope their first comeback is even better!