The 15 Best Looks From The 2026 Creative Arts Emmy Awards
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The Creative Arts Emmys took over the Peacock Theater for two nights, handing out the awards that don’t make the main broadcast: costume design, hair, makeup, casting, cinematography, choreography, editing, and more. Palm Royale won for costume design, with Alix Friedberg using her speech to shout out the LA textile artists and builders behind the looks.
Basically, this is the Emmys before the Emmys. The Primetime ceremony - airing September 14 on NBC and Peacock - gets the major acting and series categories, while Creative Arts handles much of the craft work plus guest acting and, this year, limited-series supporting performances.
It’s also a smaller, slightly less polished red carpet - which makes it more interesting.
Here are the 15 best-dressed stars, ranked.
1. Mariska Hargitay in Elie Saab
Embed from Getty ImagesTwenty years after winning for Olivia Benson, Mariska Hargitay picked up two more Emmys for My Mom Jayne on night one - and she’ll be back September 14 to host the main ceremony. She wore a scarlet Elie Saab Resort 2026 silk gown with a strapless neckline, gathered pleating, a gold brooch at the waist and a high side slit, finished with diamonds and a soft center-parted updo.
2. Emily Bader in Oscar de la Renta
Embed from Getty ImagesPeople We Meet on Vacation star Emily Bader was a presenter on night two and showed up in an olive-green Oscar de la Renta Pre-Fall 2026 gown covered in sequins before breaking into open-knit detailing and floor-length fringe. She kept the green going with matching gemstone earrings, necklace and ring. No contrast color, no attempt to tone it down. Correct decision.
3. Alison Brie in Rachel Gilbert
Embed from Getty ImagesAlison Brie attended in support of GLOW co-star Betty Gilpin, who won Guest Actress in a Comedy for Widow’s Bay. Brie handled her side of the evening in Rachel Gilbert’s Oryx gown: black crepe-back satin, a raised square neckline and a narrow column cut straight to the floor. Then come the shoulders - sculptural, leaf-like straps covered in silver embellishment, while the rest of the dress stays completely clean.
4. Shailene Woodley in Brandon Maxwell
Embed from Getty ImagesShailene Woodley won her first Emmy, Guest Actress in a Drama for Paradise, in a white Brandon Maxwell Resort 2027 mini with a low scoop neck and sharply fitted waist. No embellishment, no floor-length gown, nowhere for bad tailoring to hide. Brandon Maxwell builds a waist better than almost anyone in American ready-to-wear, and this dress is Exhibit A.
5. Linda Cardellini in Monique Lhuillier
Embed from Getty ImagesLinda Cardellini collected her first Emmy - Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for DTF St. Louis - in marigold Monique Lhuillier Spring 2026. The strapless gown is draped through the hip and cut with a high front slit, with barely any jewelry and loose waves with bangs. Marigold can go wrong very fast. This did not. One of the best colors on either night, full stop.
6. Leslie Bibb in Celine
Embed from Getty ImagesLeslie Bibb arrived for her first Emmy nomination, Guest Actress in a Comedy for Hacks, in a floor-length gold Celine slip with hair-thin straps and a dropped cowl neckline. This kind of dress has no backup plan. If the drape is wrong, there’s nothing else to look at. Here it falls clean from bust to hem, while Bibb’s blunt bob, tucked behind her ears, keeps the whole thing almost aggressively simple. It works.
7. Charles Melton in Louis Vuitton
Embed from Getty ImagesCharles Melton wore a black velvet Louis Vuitton tuxedo with Cartier jewelry and wisely left it there. The shoulder hits exactly where it should, the jacket is cut close without looking tight, and the velvet keeps all that black from dying under flash. He was nominated for Supporting Actor for Beef and had the sharpest tux in the building.
8. Kaitlin Olson in Alberta Ferretti
Embed from Getty ImagesKaitlin Olson wore a strapless white Alberta Ferretti column with a subtle raised texture running through the fabric. That texture is doing a lot: white gowns were everywhere, and hers held up under flash instead of turning into one block of white. It was Olson’s fourth Emmy nomination, and her third for Hacks, in the show’s final season.
9. Karolina Wydra in Gaurav Gupta
Embed from Getty ImagesKarolina Wydra had two jobs on night two: presenting and showing up as a first-time Emmy nominee for Supporting Actress in a Drama for Pluribus. She wore Gaurav Gupta, which usually means fabric behaving in ways fabric was never supposed to behave. This was restraint by Gupta standards: a strapless black column with one glossy, asymmetrically folded neckline doing all the work. Drop earrings, soft waves, done.
10. Kingston Rumi Southwick in Valentino
Embed from Getty ImagesWidow’s Bay star Kingston Rumi Southwick was there as a night-two presenter and wore Valentino Fall 2026: a gray military-cut jacket with embroidered frog closures, patterned shirt, wide trousers and a gold sash at the waist. The frogging makes the look - braided loops and toggles pulled from military dress uniforms, ornate enough that the sash almost disappears into the jacket.
11. June Diane Raphael in Balykina
Embed from Getty ImagesJune Diane Raphael wasn’t just there to present - she introduced the Emmys’ first-ever Legacy Award, given to I Love Lucy for its 75th anniversary. She did it in custom Balykina, and this is the label to write down. The Kyiv brand specializes in sculptural corsetry and Old Hollywood eveningwear, and Raphael wore a black halter column with a train falling from the back, statement earrings and deep side-parted waves.
12. Constance Zimmer in Akris
Embed from Getty ImagesZimmer was there for her Supporting Actress Emmy nomination for Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, and skipped the gown entirely for a plain black Wolford top with a black-and-gold Akris Fall 2026 skirt. Akris comes from St. Gallen, Switzerland, a city with serious embroidery history, and you can see it here: all the detail sits below the waist, while everything else stays clean.
13. Connor Storrie in Saint Laurent
Embed from Getty ImagesConnor Storrie was there for his first Emmy nomination, Guest Actor in a Comedy for hosting Saturday Night Live, and wore Saint Laurent Spring 2027 by Anthony Vaccarello. The charcoal suit came broad through the shoulders and wide through the trousers, with a steel-blue silk shirt underneath. And yes, the curls are gone - just months after Saint Laurent put them in its Fall 2026 campaign. The internet barely survived.
14. Julianne Hough in Stella McCartney
Embed from Getty ImagesJulianne Hough was a presenter on night one, representing Dancing with the Stars, and went white in Stella McCartney. The top is basically all structure and skin; the skirt wisely shuts up and goes straight to the floor. White cutout gowns have become their own red-carpet industrial complex, but the shoulders save this one from disappearing into the pile.
15. Colman Domingo in Valentino
Embed from Getty ImagesColman Domingo was there for his Euphoria guest actor nomination and arrived in Valentino by Alessandro Michele, styled by Wayman + Micah. A painterly shirt, pleated trousers, Boucheron jewelry, an Omega watch, heeled Santoni boots and a bolo tie worn low like a necklace. The bolo is the move - Western dress code turned into evening jewelry. I’d lose the satin sash, though. There is already plenty going on.
And that’s the warm-up.
The 2026 Primetime Emmy Awards take over the Peacock Theater on September 14, with Mariska Hargitay hosting and the biggest acting and series categories still to come. More nominees, bigger names, higher stakes - and one last red carpet before Emmy week is officially over.
