59th Annual Emmys: red carpet commentary

There is an old fashion/etiquette adage about not wearing white after Labor Day: clearly Hollywood didn’t get the memo this year though because the palest shade was most popular at the 59th Annual Emmy Awards Ceremony last night.

Christina Aguilera and former Will and Grace star Debra Messing both wore white gowns with black trimming - Christina’s bow and structured shape covering up her much rumoured baby bump.

Cat Deeley looked very sleek (and not quite as orange as normal) in her strapless number, while Grey’s Anatomy’s Katherine Heigl and Ugly Betty’s Judith Light trod that very fine line between glamorous gown and wedding dress.

On the other hand, The Sopranos‘ Jamie-Lynn Sigler deftly avoided the wedding dress issue by going for a Victorian night-gown.

Her on-screen mum Edie Falco went for a dress with a great - flattering - shape, which would have been awesome in a different colour: the black-with-white-spots just looked bizarre. And speaking of bizarre, their co-star Aida Turturro went for a dress that was neither flattering or fun, looking like a mourning gown for the bride of Frankenstein.

Medium’s Patricia Arquette landed the best black gown for the evening, with an interesting, flattering neckline and enough fabric in the skirt to make it look glam without it getting silly (see Hayden Panettiere below for the latter).

The Ghost Whisperer’s Jennifer Love Hewitt and Grey’s Anatomy’s Sandra Oh went for standard strapless/long-skirt black dresses: pleasant enough but quite dull.

But despite all the white and black dresses on the red carpet, the evening wasn’t all about the monochrome. Heidi Klum might have had a strange hairstyle and her too-thin physique made her look older than her years but her dress was a beautiful plum colour and aside from the napkin neckline, it was a great cut.

Sally Field looked happy in her cerise gown - but I’m not keen on the night gown trim at the bottom of the skirt - and Felicity Huffman glowed in her slightly more muted purply-pink dress - it’s just a shame the plunging neckline wasn’t more flattering on her chest or the halter neck on her square shoulders.

Out of Felicity’s Desperate Housewives co-stars, Teri Hatcher got the best gown: a sleek, subtly pink number with a slight train - glam but not too dressed up for day.

Marcia Cross looked radiant from the neck up but the structure of her dress was distracting and not as flattering as it could have been on her post-baby figure.

Finally, Eva Longoria went for one of the short cocktail length dresses of the evening - but made sure it was still as glam and sparkly as can be.

Coming back to the colour of the evening, Minnie Driver went for a yellow number that was great at the neckline and the hemline but decidedly meh in the middle.

Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera went for a very brave shade of royal blue and would have pulled it off if the creases hadn’t made it look like she was in the horrible nylon sleeping bag I had when I was ten.

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi went for subtler shades of blue - close enough to look coordinated but not identical. I loved the petrol colour and shape of Portia’s dress - just a shame the fabric made it look like lingerie.

At the opposite end of the colour spectrum, Weeds Mary-Louise Parker went for a shade of red that was so gorgeous that it was a shame it was wasted on such an awful dress - despite being structured through panelling, the stretched satin gives her a belly and huge hips and don’t get me started on the skirt.

Still though, at least she had some curves unlike the straight up and down Ali Larter from Heroes - perhaps it was to balance out her co-star Hayden Panettiere. Hayden usually goes for very cute cocktail dresses showing off her petite physique - maybe she wanted a change but it doesn’t work: she looks all out of proportion and not in a good or interesting way.

More Red Carpet Commentaries

• Last week’s MTV Video Music Awards
• The Costume Institute Gala at the MMA in New York
• The Oscars Red Carpet Arrivals
• The Oscars after-parties
• The Brit Awards
• The Grammys
• The BAFTAs
• The Golden Globes
• More Fashiontastic posts