For our last bit of Emmys coverage, Brian and Nina are here to dish on who looked great, who looked awful, and Taraji P. Henson’s flawlessness.
BEST DRESSED
BRIAN’S PICKS
Priyanka Chopra
Designer: Jason Wu
Red never goes out of style at award shows. It’s the color of the carpet, the color of passion, and the color of blood… bad blood, that is. Ms. Chopra (ABC’s Quantico) turned a lot of heads in this uber flowy scarlet stunner, most notably co-presenter and most recent ex Mr. Taylor Swift, Tom Hiddleston. The pair was reportedly seen canoodling at some Emmy after parties. My only worry is that she’s still dizzy from all the twirling she did on the carpet and on the Emmy stage itself.
Laverne Cox
Designer: Naeem Khan
Ever wonder what an Emmy statuette would look like if it came to life? Well, stop wondering and behold the majesty of golden goddess Laverne Cox. She broke our hearts this summer on OITNB, but this A+ look really has me shivering with antici……pation for the high glam she’ll be serving in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather go home with her than a giant, winged paperweight.
Honorable Mentions: Sarah Paulson, Felicity Huffman, Rami Malek, Jill Solloway
NINA’S PICKS
Tracee Ellis Ross
Designer: Ralph Lauren (Custom)
Tracee Ellis Ross, daughter of legend Diana, is always a class act, but this particular dress is a crowning achievement. For her first Emmy nomination, Ross went with a custom gown courtesy of Ralph Lauren, choosing a style with cutouts that might challenge a lesser woman. This dress was hard to pull off, to say the least, but Ross stuck the landing, completing the look with a sleek topknot and a pair of absolutely incredible doorknocker earrings.
Kristen Bell
Designer: Zuhair Murad
Kristen Bell’s return to television is happening as I type this, and she couldn’t have gone with a better gown to show the world that Veronica Mars is back, and she means business. Looking like the Disney princess she, in fact, voiced, Bell’s Zuhair Murad was at once daring and demure, with a tricky deep V and a full, elegant skirt paired with a seriously outstanding print, and her simple makeup and free-flowing long bob kept the whole situation from getting too fussy.
Honorable Mentions: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Viola Davis, Judith Light, both Key & Peele
WORST DRESSED
BRIAN’S PICKS
Sarah Hyland
Designer: Monique Lhuillier
Business on top, The Flying Nun on bottom. Sarah, I wish I could tell you that you were the only star on the carpet who looked as if she woke up, got tangled in her sheets, and then came to the Emmys wearing them, but I can’t (more on that in a sec). You’re a beautiful woman and you’re rocking those pants, but the rest of the outfit makes it look you’re being swallowed by Audrey Two from Little Shop of Horrors.
Anna Chlumsky
Designer: Christian Siriano
I’m calling it — this is one of the worst red carpet looks in HERSTORY! If it was Ms. Chlumsky’s goal to find a dress that she could keep all the Emmys Veep took home last night in, she nailed it. Otherwise, she needs to step away from the wretched popcorn ceiling fitted sheet she’s wearing and immediately revoke Christian Siriano’s Project Runway title. No bueno, indeed.
Dishonorable Mentions: Ariel Winter, Michelle Dockery, Giuliana Rancic aka Captain Cotton Ball
NINA’S PICKS
Keri Russell
Designer: Stephane Rolland
Keri Russell, my friends, has achieved an incredible feat — her dress is, somehow, two completely different but equally horrible dresses. Russell, who was finally nominated for her tour-de-force turn in The Americans, should have shown up in something dramatic and fabulous, but instead wore something that was a smock on the top and a weird half-skirt on the bottom. There was no saving this. This Rolland was DOA.
Mandy Moore
Designer: Prabal Gurung
Speaking of returns to television, Mandy Moore has been absent from her normal place in the pop-culture pantheon after a divorce from Ryan Adams and some time to find herself or whatever. Mandy, you were supposed to be making a triumphant return! Everybody loves you! You’re adorable, Candy is still a solidly bubblegummy pop song, and most millennials will still cry if A Walk To Remember is airing on ABC Family or Freeform or #YOLO or whatever that channel is called now. Yet you showed up at the Emmys to promote your brand new, highly anticipated show dressed like a fucking orange piñata. Somebody give me a High Sparrow nun bell, stat. Shame! Shame! Shame!
Dishonorable Mentions: Gaby Hoffman, Clare Danes’s bronzer, Sofia Vergara
Special Taraji P. Henson Award
Best Mid-Show Wig/Dress Transformation
Designer: Vera Wang (Both)
Taraji P. Henson showed up on the red carpet looking fooooine in yellow Vera Wang with loose waves, and then reappeared during the telecast in a bronze and black sequined Vera Wang with an Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction-style bob. The lesson to be learned here is that Taraji P. Henson can do whatever the fuck she wants, and don’t you forget it.
(Pop) Culturally Informed 