On Monday night (Tuesday morning for us Down Under), a constellation of stars descended upon the red carpet for the 78th Emmy Awards.
Amid the attendant sartorial fanfare was actor Shailene Woodley, who arrived in a plunging, azure-blue top which she paired with gold, flora-embellished trousers from Balenciaga’s Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2026 collection.
On the runway, the ensemble was styled with a dramatic hooded cloak. Woodley, however, opted for burgundy opera gloves and a gemstone Howl Jewellery necklace, its varying tones of Venetian glass punctuated by diamond accents.
It was, undoubtedly, a less prescriptive approach to red-carpet dressing, eschewing expected conventions in favour of something more individual and, dare I say, instinctive.
The ensemble immediately horrified the masses, with one commenter on Instagram delivering a succinct summation of the prevailing sentiment: “The hair the dress the gloves the necklace the skirt, I hate it all.”
Others declared that “her stylist must hate her,” while another commenter quipped, “Stylist hired by Aaron Rodgers omg,” referencing the recent fallout between the former couple, which was ignited when Rodgers claimed that Shailene had said she would need to “f-ck this guy” before they could marry.
While many of the comments were humorous, others veered into cruelty, lamenting whoever had subjected her to this particular piece of couture—God forbid!
So, who was responsible for the divisive look? Kara Welch, a Los Angeles-based fashion stylist and creative consultant whose clientele includes Olivia Wilde, Sarah Paulson and Kristen Wiig. On Instagram today, Welch posted the look herself, getting in on the gag by first sharing a black tile bearing the words “trigger warning”.
Following the awards show, Welch had confronted the criticism head-on, writing on Threads: “Love or hate something fine but it’s an opinion and it can even be a conversation but being super rude and mean and taking glee from it, well that says a lot more about the mouths it’s coming from.”
Call me crazy, but I’d take Shailene’s experimental look any day over the glut of minimalist, celebrity-stylist-engineered predictability that has come to engulf so many recent red carpets.
The 2026 Emmys weren’t exactly the most thrilling (fashion-wise), and perhaps that’s why Woodley’s look felt so conspicuous.
The allure of the carpet has always rested, at least in part, on fantasy—the spectacle and transformation and the possibility of seeing someone dressed in a way they would never be dressed in ordinary life. Any interesting awards show needs a smattering of the unexpected. Fashion, after all, is not merely a vehicle for looking beautiful; it is also a language of provocation, absurdity, fantasy and, occasionally, outright bafflement.
If every celebrity arrived looking impeccably calibrated to the collective taste of the internet, what would there be left to discuss?
You may not love Woodley’s look (which is entirely your prerogative), but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all. Sometimes the most interesting thing a celebrity can do on a red carpet is make us feel something other than mildly gratified. Go forth and give us the strange looks, Shailene!
