Apparently every star at Sunday night's Video Music Awards got the memo: skin is definitely in. The Miami heat may have made for a warm night, but that was nothing compared to the hot fashions we saw inside MTV's biggest event.

Christina Aguilera donned beads and a barely-there back, telling us, "I'm just flirting with the whole glamorous Hollywood."

Lace was more for Alicia Keys, who wore Dolce and Gabbana and Jennifer Lopez was in the hot zone. The heat forced Hilary Duff to literally cut her Helmut Lang pants into shorts, Paris Hilton flew in feathers and Beyoncé was styling as always in hot pants, explaining, "I didn't want to wear a dress, I wanted to be a little different."

And the red carpet was definitely on cleavage alert. Lil' Kim not only dared to bare, she was busing out. "When I saw this one, I said, 'It's perfect,'" Kim insisted.

And it was men in white for Jay-Z, Usher, Shaq and P. Diddy, who kept cool with a Mohawk and $8.3 million worth of diamonds. Nelly sported 5 karats of diamonds, just in his ears, and "Newlywed" Jessica Simpson, who went from a silky white Valentino to a black lace party dress, wore a 22 karat diamond ring.

"I had to sell the house, but I upgraded," Lachey joked about his wife's ring.

Forget the music awards -- the toughest competition was on the red carpet!